Once seen as fun games played as a kid to develop social skills, as athletes age, the sport world morphs into more of a business. The world of club sports has become increasingly confusing as high school athletes try to weigh the benefits and downsides of playing a school sport, as well as a club one.
But what are the pros and cons of club sports? And why have they become so fundamental in the lives of so many athletes when high school sports are right there?
Junior swimmer Tessa Lenderman and junior softball player Paloma Heshmati both agreed that a club sport could be crucial to building endurance and basic fundamentals outside of highschool. For swimming, a club is a perfect place to build stamina for longer distances; and for softball, a club strengthens a player’s agility.
“I think that the time off is really good to work on skill, and just working kind of more on the mechanics of stuff,” Heshmati said.
Another reason people move toward club sports is the length of seasons. Generally, a club team will have fewer practices per week, but they occur throughout the entire year. Because there is such a long gap between high school seasons, working out throughout the year is crucial. This is where club sports can provide athletes with an upper hand. Shorter high school seasons; however, also mean less skill-specific practices for some athletes.
For example, high school softball practices include all aspects of the game.
“We typically like to fit defense and offense, which is just like hitting and fielding in the same practice,” said Heshmati.
However, Lenderman has a different experience, saying that her club practices are more general, and high school practices are where specifics come into play. One main difference between high school and club swimming highlighted by Lenderman was the type of practices. Because the swim season is so short and races are crucial to winning meets, practices are usually sprint-based.
“There’s only a select number of practices out of the year that club we’ll do full sprinting,” Lenderman said. “High school is pretty strictly sprinting and only a couple distance.”
But if club sports are more fundamental in developing an athlete’s skills and are more specialized in general, why would anyone play high school sports?
Although club sports are important, athletes strive to connect with the team aspect of their sports. Creating deeper bonds with each other only creates a stronger base to improve skills as a team. Heshmati said that one of her favorite parts of a high school sport are the relationships you make.
“I think going to school with people you play with is definitely really cool,” Heshmati said.
Lenderman agreed with Heshmati, saying that high schools foster teams with more unity. Because athletes practice almost every day and go to school together, it’s easier to make deeper connections.
“I think high school is more fun because it’s a long season with all your teammates you see at school,” junior Addy Beck said.
Athletes also mentioned how joining a high school sport could potentially impact an athlete’s club experience.
Shortly after joining the Creek swim and dive team, Lenderman changed clubs. She switched from Aqua Wolves, where she had been swimming for seven years, to Denver Swim Academy, where she has been for the past two. “Sometimes, you’ll see what you don’t like on a club team after your high school season, and you’ll switch club teams, to try and find that,” she said.
Beck also had a similar experience playing soccer. After playing club for around 10 years, she recently quit.
“I think the reason I just stopped was the pressure it gave. I think the hard part about club is the coaching. I think there’s a lot of bad coaches that can kill the sport for you. And for soccer [it] was, I loved my team, but my coaching staff didn’t support me, and I think that killed my love,” Beck said.
Beck also illustrated the pressure of college coaches when it comes to club sports versus the team feel of a highschool sport.
“I feel like high school is more fun. I mean, your end goal is to win state. And I think for club, it’s more based around trying to get to college. And I think that that’s what’s hard, is all the college coaches watching, and you’re also with so many different new girls from all over the place,” Beck said.
The added pressures from club may not seem necessarily beneficial for everyone, but the general consensus is that even though club is hard, it is worth it if you want to be playing at a higher level.
“I think it’s hard, but it’s also worth it, because it’s so fun in so many different ways,” Beck said.
