Navigating youth sports: So your child has potential as an athlete?

Since Daylan Jones started tackle football six years ago at age 6, his father recognized his son’s skill. Daylan has developed into a quarterback who is dangerous running or throwing.

But at 12, Daylan isn’t sure if he’ll play football this fall because he wants to focus solely on basketball.

“It comes down to how he feels and then it comes down to how good he is in both sports, and it also comes down to possible injuries,” his father, Robert Jones, said. “He’s a phenomenal basketball player and a phenomenal football player. We want to weigh out the differences and keep him healthy.

“His heart is with basketball, though.”

At 6-foot, Daylan Jones towers over most of his teammates and opponents. He can dominate as a center, shooting guard or point guard — he prefers playing guard — but he can also shut down opponents defensively with his long arms and quickness.

This summer he traveled with his basketball team — Robert is one of the coaches — to Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin for tournaments. He is currently in Texas for a tournament and goes to Virginia on Wednesday.

All those trips are paid for by the parents. For the Joneses, it’s worth it.

“We’re putting education first, but our goal for basketball is (for Daylan) to be ranked No. 1 in the nation. I think it’s doable,” Robert Jones said.

Daylan Jones agreed.

“It’s something I can accomplish,” he said.

Daylan Jones’ focus on a scholarship, as well as his quandary over playing one or more sports, is one of many questions facing young athletes and their parents.

Focus on scholarships

Getting a college scholarship has increasingly become a point of emphasis, even before high school.

The NCAA says $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships that Division I and II schools give out go to more than 150,000 students each year — 2 percent of high school athletes.

“I see a lot of kids get burned out on sports because by 10, 11, they’re told the reason they’re playing is to get to the next level. You can get better without taking the fun out of it,” said Joe Auer, boys basketball and golf coach at Heights High.

Coaches say it’s necessary to be realistic, for both parents and athletes, and be wary of those telling you what you want to hear.

Playing one sport year-round, going to camps or hiring personal trainers don’t guarantee a college scholarship, coaches say.

“Many think a college scholarship in athletics is a given,” Newman University women’s basketball coach Darin Spence said. “Just because you pay some club coach money, that doesn’t mean your child will earn a scholarship.”

Scholarships are rare, especially full-rides. NCAA Division I baseball programs, for example, give out 11.7 scholarships, so most players receive partial scholarships.

“The mistake many make is turning away lower-level coaches — Division II, Division III, NAIA, junior college — in the early stages of recruiting, thinking only about D-I,” Spence said.

“There is a right level and a right fit for everyone…. Not every kid is a D-I student-athlete, regardless what their club coaches or friends tell them.”

Auer noted that oftentimes parents worry that they’re going to make a mistake in the process. Auer said not to worry.

“What matters most is talent, and that is what all coaches are looking for,” he said.

The first step to a college scholarship is the classroom.

“Before you can get an athletic scholarship, you’ve got to get your grades,” East High boys basketball coach Joe Jackson said. “… One of the biggest issues a lot of youth all across America face today is that they’ve been told that they are going D-I for so long, that everybody thinks they are going to D-I and going to the NBA. We talk to our kids all the time about how no one can go D-I unless you have D-I grades — As and Bs.”

Coaches responding to a survey from The Eagle noted that other keys to getting a scholarship include being skilled in the fundamentals, being a good teammate and having a strong work ethic.

One sport or more

Is focusing on only one sport necessary to get a college scholarship?

“It’s funny, but usually one of the first things a college recruiter asks is, ‘What else does he do?’ Andover High football coach Mike Lee said.

Oftentimes playing multiple sports reveals a competitive nature in addition to a willingness to work, said Northwest football coach Steve Martin.

Destiny Clark, Newman’s volleyball coach, suggests that if an athlete is leaning toward playing only one sport, not to do it until at least the junior or senior year of high school.

“I truly believe it is great for athletes to play multiple sports,” Clark said. “We’re seeing more and more injuries to young athletes who specialize in only one sport due to the repetitive nature of the movements they are performing.”

But neither Clark nor Friends men’s basketball coach Dale Faber said they would offer a scholarship to one athlete over another simply due to how many sports they played.

Kansas senior Perry Ellis played one sport while at Heights, as did North High graduate Conner Frankamp, now a sophomore guard at Wichita State. NFL players Arthur and Bryce Brown were one-sport athletes at East, as well.

East soccer coach Dylan Gruntzel said the decision to specialize or play multiple sports should depend on the athlete.

“Some of my best goalkeepers have been good basketball players because they’re used to quick changes of direction,” Gruntzel said.

“Then I have one of my better players who does amazing things with his feet and he does it better than the kid who is playing basketball six months and soccer six months because it’s what he always does. He’s probably the kid who is out in his yard juggling the soccer ball right now because he’s bored sitting inside.”

High levels of success can be found while playing multiple sports. Wichita State men’s basketball players Ron Baker and Evan Wessel were standout football players in high school.

And Jaylyn Agnew, a recent Andover High graduate who will play basketball at Creighton, was an All-Metro volleyball selection in 2014 and an unbeaten, four-time Class 5A high jump champion.

Specialization is also a concern because athletes are often using the same exact muscles non-stop.

“The repetitive nature of any sport puts pressure on the ligaments, joints, muscles and athletes need to rest and repair,” said Travis Francis, currently the operations manager for Via Christi specialty clinics, who spent 20 years as an athletic trainer.

Mark Stovak, team physician at Wichita State the past 15 years, agreed.

“Within sports medicine, the needle has swung from being a sport-specific athlete to being an athlete, no matter what the sports are,” said Stovak, the medical director at Via Christi for Sports Medicine. “So you’re playing multiple sports and using your body in multiple ways.”

But Marilyn Price-Mitchell, a psychologist who is a positive youth development expert based in Seattle, urges athletes to pick one sport by middle school or high school.

“It helps to really focus on actually one sport because the more a kid focuses on one sport, the more they really have to struggle to overcome challenges with teammates,” Price-Mitchell said. “They’ll get how to strategically think with that sport.

“If kids are doing a lot of different sports, they’re sort of on the surface of those other sports. The more we can give kids challenges and obstacles to overcome — I know, it sounds crazy — that’s what really develops their resilience.”

Money

Playing sports competitively can take oodles of cash. So where should the money best be spent?

▪ Competitive team. These teams primarily play locally but can travel out of state, as well.

Don Sloss, who has coached Wichita-area youth soccer for 20 years, has been with programs that charge anywhere from $400 to $2,600. Costs in other sports vary by team but are usually in the same range.

Some teams have corporate sponsorship, which cuts player costs drastically.

▪ Traveling teams. While competitive teams play in the Wichita area, traveling teams spend their season traveling across the country.

In soccer, for instance, the Midwest Regional League is an upper-level youth league whose regular season for the region includes travel to every game. The closest games in the eight-game season are in Kansas City.

Team fees hover around $1,800, plus travel expenses, and then there are fees — and travel — to non-league tournaments.

Maize South baseball coach Chad Christensen said families can easily spend $3,000 in the summer by traveling most summer weekends for baseball tournaments.

The majority of high school coaches contacted by The Eagle said such travel isn’t necessary until high school or late middle school.

“We believe that super-competitive traveling teams before middle school are a waste of time and money,” said Teri Larson, who spent two decades coaching softball and volleyball in the Maize school district. “We have seen many good athletes burn out before high school because they had been playing a sport nonstop since they were 8 years old.”

▪ Recruiting services. These services will get an athlete’s information to college coaches, but the price varies based on what the athlete needs.

BeRecruited.com has a free option or a $19.95 monthly option.

Faber, Friends’ men’s basketball coach, said an e-mail from the player, the player’s high school coach or even a counselor catches his eye more than a recruiting service.

“I am bombarded with recruiting services,” Faber said. “I am not bombarded by high school coaches and I’m not bombarded by a counselor…. We’re a small college, and I probably receive between 35 to 50 e-mails a day from recruiting services, year round.”

There’s no one route, but Derby boys basketball coach Brett Flory said, “If you are good enough, they will find you 99 percent of the time.”

▪ Personal trainers. High school and college coaches surveyed by the Eagle had mixed feelings on personal trainers.

Athletes can benefit from trainers who teach them correct drills and skills. But there’s two primary concerns about personal trainers: cost and education.

Tim Simoneau, who is with Pure-Formance in Bel Aire, charges $40 for a one-on-one session or $25 for a group of 4-8.

“There are some highly trained, highly skilled individuals out there that can provide tremendous expertise for a kid,” Derby’s Flory said. “If you have the money to do it, and the kid wants to do it, great.”

Parents

Overwhelmingly, coaches responding to The Eagle’s survey said youth sports need to be about learning and loving the game.

Most hearkened back to a time when there wasn’t so much focus on which team a child was playing on or where the last tournament was played.

“Parents must be patient,” Heights’ Auer said. “Today, most (parents) feel like one misstep regarding what team (kids) are on or what tournament they are playing on will ruin their chances for a high school or college opportunity.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Navigating youth sports: So your child has potential as an athlete?."