ABOUT THE SERIES
Beginning Dec. 16, the
Rocky Mountain News will run a five-part series on how youth sports have changed from fun and games to a multibillion-dollar industry.
DAY 1
An overview.Private instruction, travel teams, psychologists, nutritionists, academies, marketing firms for college scholarships. Raising a young athlete might be America's most competitive sport.
DAY 2
Getting an edge.Want to find out which sport best suits your young athlete? Go high-tech.
DAY 3
Majoring in sports.Imagine a school in which the day begins and ends with sports, with studies tucked in between. It's a reality across the country.
DAY 4
Recruiting colleges.Young athletes no longer have to wait and hope colleges find them. There are plenty of ways to find schools and scholarships.
DAY 5
What's next?The world of youth sports is changing dramatically, and some wonder if high school sports will be eclipsed by club or academy sports in the near future.
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DAY 5
It's Friday morning, midway through the 2015-16 school year, and a 14-year-old high school freshman rolls out of bed, takes a quick shower and gathers his books and soccer gear.
Full story
DAY 4
Not long ago, college and high school coaches controlled the recruiting game, promoting and demoting players according to their own private calculations. But today's recruits aren't willing to stand aside or fall in line. Instead, they're marketing themselves to college coaches, with the help of a mini-industry of camps, clinics and recruiting services that are designed to uncover hidden talent.
Full story
DAY 3
The gym is quiet when Zach Zimmerman arrives at 8:30 on a Monday morning, unpacks his gear near courtside and pauses for a moment before the start of another long week. But the silence is only temporary.
Full story
DAY 2
Jamie Carey is ready. Sitting in a conference room in a Silicon Valley health club, the 24-year-old professional basketball player is staring at a computer screen, awaiting the results of a new, unusual test designed to calculate her athletic potential.
Full story
DAY 1
Welcome to the high-tech, hypercompetitive world of children's sports, a bustling subculture where time-starved parents chauffeur their booked-up children from one activity to another, spend thousands of dollars a year chasing often elusive dreams and sacrifice their own social lives for child's play.
Full story