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High School Sports

Is sports specialization hurting the next generation of athletes?

Focusing on one sport may not be the best way to earn an athletic scholarship.

SAN ANTONIO — With the youth sports industry now worth $19 billion as travel and club sports continue to boom, specialization has become an apparent problem for high school coaches and administrators across the state.

At its annual coaching school this weekend, the Texas High School Coaches Association highlighted the problem, as Smithson Valley head football coach Larry Hill and head baseball coach Chad Koehl broke down how it came to be.

“We’ve long discouraged [specialization] at Smithson Valley, and we have a pretty proven track record,” said Hill, who has led his team to the playoffs 25 of the last 26 years, including three state title game appearances. “We’re like a lot of schools where for us to be our best, we need our kids to double up or triple up.”

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Hill said the specialization problem boils down to five key issues: peer pressure, outside pressure, parental money invested, social life through club sports and chasing scholarships. Outside pressure from coaches and scholarship chasing are the two most common reasons, he said.

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While there are some high school coaches who discourage their athletes from playing multiple sports, the majority of the pressure comes from personal and club sports coaches whose careers rely on the growing industry. The youth sports industry increased by 55% from 2010 to 2017 and is projected to climb to $77.6 billion by 2026, according to a study by WinterGreen Research. Some non-school based coaches convince athletes that they need to train year-round to reach the next level, whether true or not, in turn keeping their business flourishing.

A survey of SportsDay’s Top 100 area recruits for the Class of 2017 found that 54 of 80 respondents (67.5%) worked with a position-specific trainer. Athletes often believe doing so is their best shot at obtaining a scholarship, but Hill said it rarely works out that way.

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“The intentions are usually good, but they’re not all that well-thought-through,” he said.

Overuse injuries, burnout, financial burdens, a decrease in athletic development and the possibility of missing out are all reasons to discourage specialization. Hill also believes social development, exposure to different environments and types of competition and an increase in athletic development are additional benefits of playing multiple sports.

Above all, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, Hill said specialization can actually hurt recruiting.

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For athletes who train year-round in football, coaches have seen what it’s like for them to be pushed to their limits. However, if they play an additional sport in the offseason, they haven’t yet reached that full potential in either sport, so once they begin training for football in the offseason as well, they will continue to grow.

“I hear from time to time ‘If this is not something he or she’s done all year long, we’ve got a chance to develop,’” Hill said. “‘How much more juice is in his lemon when we squeeze him?’”

With all the outside influences athletes receive, it’s impossible to eliminate the specialization problem altogether. However, Hill and the THSCA implored the coaches to take the initiative and try to become the solution.

“Kids are only 14-to-18 one time,” he said. “It’s all they get. And if they miss out on opportunities because of our selfishness, then that’s on us.”

On Twitter: @Lassimak

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Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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