Nowadays, young athletes have seen more value in playing in the top club team rather than making their way up the ranks and improving their school. Of course, any time spent improving yourself helps you progress, but are club teams being too focused on?
Coaches like Michael Esqueda of the boys’ basketball team aren’t too hot about athletes relying on clubs for success. Club interferes with many common coaching beliefs that can create a wedge in building a program.
“One obstacle clubs bring is the time commitment being part of a club team requires. Club teams take up loads of time, not allowing you to easily pick up separate sports at times, and at this level, we’re trying to develop athletes, not singular specialty players.”
Playing two sports is vital to many coaches’ beliefs, especially in making it to the next level. This belief isn’t solely opinion but even a fact when roughly 88-96% of professional US athletes played more than one sport in high school.
Although club is still a fairly new concept in the world of athletics, and some say it’s an opportunity to connect more easily with colleges, being able to freely try out for the team you deserve to be on, rather than hoping a scout comes to your school.
If you play for a top team in your school, you may not care about that, but for some who don’t want to move or are unable to, but are stuck at a small and less talented school, their skills aren’t easily seen.
The argument of a club being better or worse for the success of an athlete is ongoing, but from a player’s perspective, it highlights some qualities you may not think of unless you’ve been in those shoes.
Senior, Kylie Wiesegerber, who plays both varsity and club softball here at Wilsonville, defends the aspects of club that aren’t mentioned in the argument. For many, it can be a way for an athlete to enjoy their youth and spend more time doing what they love.
What may seem like glamorous lures to high school coaches, those trips and select teams are memories to the players. It’s a way for players to meet others with the same interests, doing what they love in places they’ve never seen.
Weisegerber explains, “Playing club softball, I met so many people I would have never met and have built friendships with people around me more strongly with all our shared experiences getting to play softball together.”
The argument of the value of a club team can go on and on, whether you want to play at the next level or do what makes you happy, but at least in club, you’ll never have to hear the classic, “student’s first in student athlete.”