The sports pipe dream: Parents hope children will become proathletes
Despite difficult odds, many parents still hope their child will become a professional athlete.
According to a “Sports and Health in America” study done last year by National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 26 per cent of parents surveyed whose child played sports hoped their kid would one day play alongside stars like LeBron James and Cam Newton. Those views varied by socioeconomic status.
Parents with household incomes less than $50,000 annually were much likely to say they hoped their child would became a professional athlete than those making more than $50,000 (39 per cent to 20 per cent of parents surveyed).
Parents with a high school education or less also were more likely to say they hoped their child became a pro, versus parents who were college educated (44 per cent to nine).
The numbers, of course, bear out that the chances of a high school kid playing in college are slim, at best.
And the chances of a high school kid playing professionally are minuscule. The NCAA reports there are more than eight million U.S. high school athletes. Of those, only 480,000 will compete at NCAA schools in any sport.
According to the NCAA, of its 34,198 NCAA baseball players, 738 were drafted last year. In men’s basketball, there were 18,697 players, and 46 were drafted. Football? There were 72,788 players and 256 drafted. Other facts from the sports survey: Kids today play soccer much more than adults 30 or older did when they were younger, 14 per cent now to six per cent in the past. Fewer kids today play baseball or softball (11 per cent) than in the past (17 per cent).
Among boys, basketball and soccer were the most popular sports (17 per cent of sports participants), followed by football (16 per cent), baseball/softball (11 per cent), swimming (six per cent) and running/track (six per cent). Among girls, basketball was most popular (15 per cent), followed by baseball/softball and volleyball (13 per cent each), soccer (11 per cent) and running /track (eight per cent).
About nine in 10 parents whose kids are playing middle or high school sports said their child benefited greatly by playing. Only one per cent said their child did not benefit.
Less affluent parents are much more concerned with costs associated with playing sports. One in three with household incomes of less than $50,000 said sports cost too much. Just one in six parents with household incomes of more than $50,000 said the same.