Show notes
What do you do when travel teams hollow out your rec league? A dad in Buffalo wrote to me because the strong players left, his son is frustrated that practices aren't competitive, and his family doesn't want the travel lifestyle. In this episode I name the structure: travel skims the top layer year after year, rec thins, more kids leave, and it's a doom loop no single family caused.
Then the part the industry doesn't advertise: the gap between rec and travel isn't a canyon, it's a menu. Skills clinics and academies with no travel, school-adjacent teams, town select layers, the stronger league one town over, summer camps, and organized weekend pickup, the forgotten gem that somebody's group text has to start. The pattern is a la carte: travel sells competition bundled with hotels and your entire autumn, and you're allowed to buy the competition and skip the bundle.
I also cover pushing the rec league itself toward skill-grouped or competitive tiers, because boards move when parents speak up, and the conversation with your kid: a no attached to a plan lands beautifully. It's the no attached to nothing that wears kids down.
Got a question for the show? Email me at hey@heysammi.com.
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