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4B I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, July 17,2019
The rise of year-round sports in the United States
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Over the last twenty
years several factors have
combined to change the
landscape of youth sports
across the United States.
An increase in the num
ber of young people par
ticipating in sports has
led to the rise of an
almost European style of
club and travel teams that
operate independently of
the high school sports
network.
According to a summa
ry study entitled Sports
Specialization in Young
Athletes published in
May 2013 by the
American Orthopaedic
Society of Sports
Medicine there was a
33% increase in the num
ber of children 6 years
and younger participating
in organized sports in the
United States. The same
study cited “the growing
number of travel leagues
in 7 or 8 years of age” as
further evidence of
growth in youth sports.
Those statements line
up with what Programs
and Facilities Coordinator
Buffie Hamil is seeing at
Rock Creek Park. During
a season that ran from
Aug 1, 2018 to July 31,
2019 Hamil arranged for
tournament and practice
fields for 14 travel or club
teams with softball seeing
the largest increase
climbing from one team
in 2018 to four teams this
year, although she
couldn’t put her finger on
any particular reason for
the increase.
“This is the highest
number we have ever
been at,” Hamil said.
“Maybe some parents or
coaches want to go a dif
ferent direction, maybe
they wanted to find a
higher level of competi
tion. I honestly don’t
know.”
Hamil does go on to
say that one of the attrac
tions of Rock Creek Park
is that teams an arrange to
use the facilities based on
their needs. Travel teams
can arrange for a place to
both play games and hold
practice, while tourna
ment teams are usually
looking only for practice
space.
The flexibility comes
with a cost with a practice
only package pricing at
$350 a season and full-
use costing $800. In addi
tion to the base cost, each
team is charged an addi
tional 20 dollars per non-
Dawson County Resident.
One such team, the
Bombshells, recently won
the 10U Global Sports
Authority World Series
June 29-30 in Carnesville
after sweeping their
bracket in tournament
play. Head Coach Isaac
Barnes acknowledged the
expenses associated with
travel ball but was quick
to point out that he and
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BOB CHRISTIAN
Sports writer
his wife, Patty, ran their
team differently than
most.
“Travel ball is not
cheap, but we pay as we
go,” Barnes said. “A lot
of places will charge you
$1,700 or more up front,
and that doesn’t include
travel, but we don’t work
that way. We pay as we
go”
The team plays all over
the southeast with games
in Chattanooga,
Cartersville and
Ackworth in tournaments
arranged by a wide net
work of sports associa
tions such as the GSA or
the United States
Specialty Sports
Association. Each tourna
ment comes with a
50-dollar entry fee per
player, and parents are
responsible for travel
costs, although the team
will usually stay in the
same hotel to qualify for
the group rate.
In a season that can last
for upwards of six
months over the spring
and summer, the twelve
girls that make up the
Bombshells will conduct
roughly 60 2-hour plus
long practice ,half of
those practices will be
held in Tennessee to bal
ance out the travel time
for the five members of
the team from the state,
and will play in 12 tour
naments.
“You kind of make up
your season as you go,”
Barnes said. “A lot of col
lege recruitment is done
through travel ball now,
so we play all over the
place.’
Barnes went on to talk
about the impact of travel
teams on high school
sports and he agreed that
the girls would most like
ly have to commit to
playing only softball in
school to remain on his,
or any other, travel team,
but he felt that in the long
run the rise of travel ball
would be benefit the high
school teams.
“A lot of these girls are
playing middle-school
ball right now and they
will probably have to
choose if they want to
keep playing travel ball or
not,” Barnes said. “I think
it will feed the schools,
once all of these girls get
to high school ball, they
will be tough to beat.”
As the Dawson County
Lady Tigers softball team
enters a rebuilding season
assistant coach Logan
Allen attributes the rise in
quality players he has
seen in tryouts this sum
mer to the increase in the
number of players with
travel experience.
“I definitely think it is
helpful to have kids with
travel time,” Allen said.
“We are seeing a huge
increase in talent levels
this summer.”
Although the summer
sessions are voluntary, the
team comes close to
fielding its full roster at
every practice session.
Usually the only girls
missing are those with
travel ball commitments,
but coach Allen under
stands the reasons why
and is quick to grant
leaves of absence when
requested by the girls.
“That’s how you get
noticed, on a travel team,”
Allen said. “College coach
es get to see 10-15 girls at a
time, from all over the
country, playing at a high
level at the same time.”
The impact of the
NCAA can best be seen
in the changes made to
the recruitment period
this summer. In coordina
tion with the Georgia
High School Association,
the organization responsi
ble for coordinating all
high school sports in
Georgia, the NCAA made
changes in the summer
recruitment schedule that
“are a huge step in the
right
direc
tion,”
according
to
Dawson
County
Athletic
Director Gjbs()n
Jason
Gibson.
“The original recruitment
windows, two weeks in
April and two weeks in
July, corresponded with
absolutely nothing in high
school ball,” Gibson said.
“NCAA exposure almost
forced kids into a travel ball
environment.”
This summer the NCAA
reduced the recruitment
windows in April and July
to one week each and
opened a two-week window
in June that coincides with
high school summer basket
ball in regulation with the
GHSA.
“Now there is not so
much pressure on kids to
join travel teams,” Gibson
said. “Put the high school
player back in the high
school environment.”
Gibson went on to
emphasize the importance
of the multi-sport athlete to
a small school environment
such as Dawson County. He
recognized that the club and
travel teams have become a
fixed part of high school
sports but believed it would
be a positive development in
the long run.
“Over the last 10-15 years
the rise of travel sports and
playing travel sports has
become expected of the
high school athlete,” Gibson
said. “The more time you
put in, the more skills you
develop, the more success
you experience, and the
high school reaps the bene
fits.”
“At the same time, the
multi-sport athlete is a
huge piece at the high
school level, especially at
a smaller school like
Dawson County. It takes
a lot of communication
between coaches to share
athletes and to build an
environment at school
that encourages students
to play multiple sports.”
As the head coach of one
of the few programs in
Dawson County not to have
a year-round option, foot
ball head coach Sid
Maxwell put the idea more
succinctly as he talked
about a coaching philoso
phy that emphasized athleti
cism and a whole team con
cept.
“You lose the opportuni
ty to build your best pro
gram all around,” Maxwell
said. “For us, football is a
summer activity and a fall
season. Come winter, go
play the next sport, not the
next club or U basketball
where they’re making
money off of you, the next
GHSA regulated sport.
That’s what we preach.”
No one denies that travel
teams are here to stay, in
fact, the Sports
Specialization in Young
Athletes study found that
77.7 percent of high school
athletic directors reported
increasing trends in sports
specialization, and a study
of 519 US Tennis
Association junior teams
found 70 percent of the ath
letes had been playing only
tennis since the age of ten.
“For the most part the
three-sport athlete is gone,
our culture has changed and
shifted directions,” Gibson
said. “At the end of the day
it has to be the kid wanting
to be involved, the kid has
to be motivated, and my
hat’s off to the kids that can
doit.”
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