Quote Originally Posted by TedBaxter View Post
It's not going to slow down unless you get rid or the parent and AAU influence. I'm not saying all parents and AAU coaches are bad. It's just that they see more ability in their players than what they show on the floor.

How about this high school situation that I just became aware of? A girl from my hometown open enrolled as a freshman at a neighboring school that has better athletic programs and she played on youth basketball teams with some players at that school. As a freshman she was a varsity member of the golf and basketball teams that went to the state tournament. As a sophomore she was a member of a state tournament golf team and a sectional basketball team, but apparently didn't like the environment of the school. The rumor is that she will now transfer to a third school to be with some girls who play for an AAU team that is coached by this girls dad and the dad of one of her AAU teammates from this new school. This new school is a Division 5 school instead of the Division 3 school she was attending and they don't have a girls golf team and get this, she has to drive through 3 school districts to get to this school, which is 40 miles one way from home. Her dad then approached the golf coach of the school district they live in to see if she could play with that schools golf team, so he's asking for her to play golf at a school district that has had to fork out around $15,000 so far so she can attend other public schools. The only way she could play golf is if her new high school could petition her to be on a co-op team with a neighboring school and who knows how the WIAA would rule on that.

Parents are fucked up in a lot of instances and do they think that maybe her open enrolling into districts and taking playing time away from others might be a reason she didn't feel comfortable there and what about this new school? They've been in the last 2 Division 5 state tournaments and how do some of the girls coming up feel about a new girl coming in?
I feel like I should respond to this. I know you have taken shots at AAU in the past and you are lessening that by saying not all AAU coaches are bad. However, I am questioning why you are singling out AAU. I know of many cases where HS coaches are responsible for transfers as well. I know of a coach of a state championship team that described the success of their program due to the recruiting kids from other districts. Of course this was after a few beers while sitting in a hot tub. I know of a girl who is transferring into another school district because that coach recruited her to the school. This girl is in 6th grade!

The transfer issue is not just due to parents and AAU coaches. I think you have to look at the much larger picture. The first is the sharp rise of organized sports. Kids are no longer learning their game in parks and driveways. Not only do they play on club teams, they go to trainers. The amount of money that parents put into organized sports is insane. With the dollars, time, and hard work that goes into a kid's interest in a sport, they don't want to watch their kid sit on the bench.

Second, we live in a world of instant gratification. This is probably the biggest reason for transfers. We are all guilty of this. When your web page does not load within five seconds, how angry do you get? How many times do you look at your phone per hour? In addition, kids do not need adults for information. They have their phones for that. So, kids don't want to wait their turn on the bench. They are condition for instant gratification. Add in all the participation awards and attitudes for always trying to be fair, this generation is all about what's in it for me.