Is it the money or is it really about the talent?

As parents we would do anything for our kids, right?  Even drive 40 minutes across town through hectic downtown metropolis traffic to get to a facility for training. Get up at 4:30 am to drive them to 6am soccer practice and live off the pot of coffee that has now become a luke warm syrup. Yes, that is what we would do. Just to achieve their goals.

Things around the house have become topsy turvy lately and we decided to throw the Giant into basketball training on top of his fall high school soccer. At the time, to be honest, I did not take into consideration my sanity or lack of sleep. I thought of him and what he wanted to do, because I have tried to put the boys first and foremost.

Will these things help him to go to the next step, who knows. Am I paying out a lot more in gas and training, heck yes. I surely don't remember it being this way when I was a kid. Definitely not from what you would believe when you watch movies or TV shows. You would think your kid is a great player and boom coaches are banging down your door right? No.

Plain and simple, the recruiting process is complex. Each sport is so different as well. Our oldest would attend Combines for Football and submit tapes to coaches. Easy peasy, right? Soccer on the other hand can be recruited from travel teams and from the way parents make it sound, your kid better be on an elite team that costs lots of money. No thank you. Why should we put out enough to buy a used car on a travel team only to have the Giant not recruited. That just seems crazy to my frugal self. Now lets throw Basketball in the mix. I am so lost at how this goes, so I am learning.

Now the Giant is 6'8" and you would think coaches would be banging down our door for him to be their next super goalkeeper. So far, not really. Mostly we get invites to camps. Costly camps. Which is great and all for the kids that have lots of money to toss that way. But what about the kids who are talented and cant afford these ID camps. Is soccer only for the kids with money? It honestly shouldn't be. I am pretty sure there are a lot of talented kids that are in low income areas. I know I have seen a few play. Should the standards be changed? It just seems odd to me to pay a school to ID your child.

Maybe basketball will be different. Im honestly scared to see how this will go. I can only hope that he learns enough skills in the next few months to be ready to play for the high school season. Either way, if he is recruited for a sport or not, I know he will go to college and go on to be a History Teacher. I can't ask for more than that. He is a great kid that has goals. It is just my job to live off a few hours of sleep, lukewarm coffee and road rage to get him what he needs to achieve those goals.