I posted this last year, and thanks to Dee Todd for reposting...some modifications but you will get the message...
Dear parents living the saturated AAU basketball dream!!!!!!...There are over 850,000 kids in America that play organized basketball. 44,000 seniors a year in high school basketball in America competing for approximately 686 division 1 spots a year with kids also coming out of prep school, junior college, and from overseas...My son Ty has a 6'11 freshman center with him at Boston College that is from Bosnia/Serbia, Steph Curry played with many foreigners at Davidson and Lauren Markkanen just played at Arizona and got drafted straight out of Finland...these players never saw you in high school...Sports is a great way to teach kids competition, but there are also people out here competing in the sciences, coaching, educational administration, engineering, contracting, military, government jobs and municipal employment. Some of you should recognize early that your kid is good at basketball and not great and instead of fighting to play low level club sports, USSSA, YBOA, NEABA, Division III AAU and the likes til the end...Check out some JROTC camps, Eagle Scouts, All Arts and Sciences Camps at UNCG, Advanced nursing and technology programs for high schoolers, Music Camps, Engineering Camps at A&T, Debate and Public Speaking programs at the Cultural Arts Center etc, etc. etc. etc.....don't live on the hamster wheel....FACE REALITY... something parents have to teach, the kids don't know yet.
Random Thoughts from Kevin Graves