Temas de Capa

Sports Agents and their methods….

Every parent believes that he or she have a superstar child that will go on and play professional sports, that being hockey, baseball, soccer or one of many competitive sports these days. What has become a new reality for aspiring young athletes and their families?

Across the nation, kids of all skill levels, in virtually every team sport, are getting swept up by a youth-sports economy that increasingly resembles the pros at increasingly early ages. Neighbourhood little leagues, town soccer associations and churches basketball squads that bonded kids in a community- and didn’t cost as much as a rent check-have largely lost their luster.

Little league participation, for example, is down 20% from its turn-of-the-century peak.
These local leagues have been nudged aside by private club teams, a loosely governed constellation that includes everything from development academies affiliated with professional sports franchises to regional squads run by moonlighting coaches with little experience.

The most competitive teams vie for talent and travel to national tournaments. Others are elite in name only, siphoning expensive participation fees from parents of kids with little hope of making the high school varsity, let alone the pros.

The cost for parents is steep. At the high end, families can spend more than 10% of their income on registration fees, travel, camps and equipment. The youth-sports economy is totally out of control which includes everything from travel to private coaching to apps that organize leagues and livestream games – is now a $15.3 billion market.

Mr. Donny Meehan the super sport agent from Toronto who runs Newport Sports Management Inc. is one of the most successful sport agents in the world representing athletes from various sporting fields told me “l have met with many parents who believe they have the next Wayne Gretzky and l have to say that under 1% even see a pro try out”. Staying in school and making sure that you have a proper education should be paramount in your development. This is the best advise that Mr. Meaghan would give to any aspiring athlete.
Donny Meehan feels “like millions of sports parents that hope is what everyone hangs their hat on. And in many cases, this hope goes up in flames.”

There may be no single factor driving professionalization of youth sports more than the dream of free college. With the cost of higher education skyrocketing and athletic department budgets swelling, schools now hand out $3 billion in scholarships a year.

The odds are not in anyone’s favor. Only 2% of high school athletes go on to play at the top level of college sports. Mario Forgione the former owner of the Mississauga Ice Dogs of the OHL league told me “I’ve seen parents spend couple hundred thousand dollars pursuing a college scholarship with no results. If most parents could have set that money aside for a real education, they would have been way ahead of the game”.

Even well-meaning parents can find themselves swept up with the imagery of their children making the big leagues. Mr. Forgione also told me that “many families can’t keep up with the Jones in spending all kinds of money, where some parents need to get part-time jobs just to pay for these sports fees to keep the dream alive”.
This youth sports boom has given rise to countless entrepreneurial efforts, from new facilities to recruiting sites to private-coaching outfits. The amount of money spent on going after the youth market is out of this world. All this marketing and promotions has also been taxing on the youth and their phycological well-being. Intense specialization and constant peer pressure can be taxing on the minds of our youth. This intensity has caused burnout, anxiety, depression and in some cases drug abuse, whether it was steroids or other related athletic induced performance drugs.

Parents are not sports agents, yet far too many make a full-time job of ensuring that their son or daughter’s free time is spent with private lessons, club practices, and training camps.

Many parents and athletes are simply not in touch with reality. The vast majority of athletes will be done with their competitive athletic careers by age 18. Even if they play in college, after four years they’ll have to get a job. What have we done to prepare these kids for that transition? Will they look back at their athletic careers as a time of amazing friendships, life lessons, and a foundation for a future of joy in physical activity?
Or was its eternal drudgery and battling with injury?

Honestly, their perception and preparation for life is mostly up to you.

Vince Nigro

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