A PARENT’S JOURNEY THROUGH YOUTH SPORTS:
Age 5: “He’s got a cannon.”
Age 6: “He’s the fastest kid out there. Coach said so.”
Age 7: “Rec ball isn’t challenging him anymore.”
Age 8: “We tried out for select. Obviously made it.”
Age 9: “$2,800 for the season. Plus uniforms. Plus tournaments. Plus hotels.”
Age 10: “Cooperstown is basically a family vacation, right?”
Age 11: “He needs a hitting guy. And a pitching guy. And probably a mental performance coach.”
Age 12: “I’m not a crazy sports parent. The OTHER parents are crazy.”
Age 13: “We changed schools. For academics. (And also baseball.)”
Age 14: “Showcases are a requirement at this age.”
Age 15: “Ya his ranking just ticked up. We’re cooking.”
Age 16: “He just needs to get seen by the right school.”
Age 17: “The D1 schools want him to walk on. He’ll earn a spot by sophomore year.”
Age 18: “Okay, D2 is actually really competitive.”
Age 19: “He’s redshirting. Strategic.”
Age 20: “He’s focusing on school now.”
Age 21: “You know what? He’s so much happier.”
Roughly 7% of high schoolers play in college.
About 1.5% of those get drafted.
Less than half of draftees ever play one day in the big leagues.
The odds of our kids going pro are somewhere between “struck by lightning” and “find a $100 in old shorts.”
I love youth sports (all my kids play a bunch of them) just keep a good perspective my friends. ✌️
I was raised in a baseball culture where you earned EVERYTHING.
Playing time.
Trust.
Respect.
Opportunities.
Leadership.
Blue collar meant earning respect through work, not demanding it through words.
Nothing was handed to you.
Nothing was explained 14 different ways to protect your feelings.
If coaches got after you, you got tougher.
You worked harder.
You proved them wrong.
Now too many athletes want accountability-free environments where every hard conversation is called “toxic” and every uncomfortable moment becomes someone else’s fault.
Soft cultures create fragile players.
The real world doesn’t care about your excuses, your feelings, or who you blame.
It rewards toughness.
Consistency.
Discipline.
Accountability.
Competitiveness.
Always has. Always will.
2029 @BBeafore29 from Fairmont WV off to a good start. He will be a follow soon two way player with good arm action from the mound and a swing that plays.
You don’t rise up in the spring - you reveal who you became in the dark months nobody saw.
The off-season is where confidence is built, toughness is earned, and roles are won.
Most talk about wanting it… few are working for it right now.
We will never see anything like this again in our lifetimes.
If you have a few minutes, watch it. Probably the greatest music video ever made.
Michael Jackson - Thriller (1983)