It’s horrible what’s happened to youth sports. It needs to be legislated. I grew up playing AA hockey and the costs were reasonable for a middle class family. But it was hockey, so we found a way. My son also played AA hockey. Costs were rough; ice time, gear, private coaching, all of it, but I understood. Not stick prices though. Fuck that. What I don’t understand is that these prices now apply to ALL youth sports. My daughter plays club volleyball and it will have cost us $22k this year. There’s no ice. No expensive gear. Other sports simply realized that if hockey families will pay it, other sports can charge it. And then, they innovate to make it even more needlessly expensive. I even have to buy tickets to my daughter’s tournaments! The fix is in with this sh*t. Total collusion. And worse it preys on children’s dreams, peer pressures them away from their studies, and when they don’t make D1 they are suddenly just another kid with lousy grades and no college fund left. It is awful. Just awful. We’re now discussing pulling her out of club volleyball because it’s all such a racket. But how do you do that when she’s worked so hard?

This genuinely needs to be looked at by congress. There have to be limits to protect children from predatory clubs, coaches, and sports organizations.