As a high school athlete, I am beginning to notice that club teams are starting to take over and dominate over high school sports. I am a lacrosse player who plays club in addition to high school. However, I find it fascinating that some club players are not taking high school season as seriously.

Sophomore Ben Deming is a hockey player who plays for a club team in addition to his high school, which is at Desert Vista since Horizon Honors does not have a hockey team. His reason for playing both club as well as high school hockey is that club sports are more organized and school sports are more for fun. Deming thinks that club is more competitive since people invest more money in it. He thinks that he will have a better chance at getting recruited if he plays both teams. According to him, he attends about four more tournaments with his club team than his high school team.

“Kids are getting outside instruction, such as a hitting coach, a pitching coach. Kids aren’t ready to take instruction from high school coaches after spending big money on the outside. Parents are out for what is best for their kids. Coaches can run into problems with parents,” Jim Liggett – who has been a coach for the Carlmont-Belmont softball team since 1976 – said, describing how less high-school-aged athletes are playing for their high school.

One unidentified high school athletic director said, “I think we might see a time when high school sports don’t exist and club sports completely replace it.” According to Athletic Business, that statement symbolizes the pressure athletic directors are facing as an increasing number of high school athletes focus on one sport year-round with the hope that they will be more marketable to college coaches and/or professional scouts.

Club teams are beginning to take over the high school sports world rapidly and could have pretty catastrophic effects. The effects can be seen with this year’s homecoming as the JV boys’ basketball team does not have a team to play. Schools could start to have fewer students trying out for sports since they are on a club team, and if that happens then the fun and exciting sports events that every student should experience would go away.