When the Cheering Stops

By Kirk McCarley

At every level, the notion of amateur athletics has changed over the past several decades.

Back in the “day,” as elementary age kids, weekends and free time were taken up with loosely structured and organized ballgames either in sandlots or lightly trafficked streets.  Now, there are carefully planned and orchestrated activities requiring substantial investment in many cases.  My daughter, for instance, has registered her two oldest kids for soccer.  After investing in shin guards, socks, and jerseys the family budget has already been set back a few hundred dollars.

Soon, depending upon natural talents and personal development, opportunity may present itself for more advanced competition.  With that the intensity of practices will escalate in preparation for perhaps travel to play “the best.”  The financial investment will only increase, maybe exponentially.

The stakes can further step to the next level once a kid lands in high school.  Active recruiting has become part of the “game,” offering those gifted scholarship opportunities.  It is not that uncommon for the most talented to be lured to sports-focused institutions such as an IMG Academy, where annual tuition can range between $75-$100 thousand, not to mention the kid dispatched to “board” in a location that may be far from home.

The investment might pay dividends in an era of NIL:  Name, Image, Likeness.  An athlete becomes a commodity for colleges, advertisers, and corporations.  The average price for an elite quarterback at a prominent college football program can range between $1-3 million according to ESPN.  Former Duke quarterback Darian Mensah, now at Miami (FL) landed an unprecedented (deal) estimated to be in the range of $8 million.

These examples, such as Mensah, have obviously many times over paid for the investment in their athletic upbringings.

The reality of these seemingly exorbitant price tags is much different for the more “ordinary” individual athlete, less than 2% of whom will eventually play professionally.  In fact, the mathematical average of NIL deals runs between $2600 and $5500 as massive, multi-million-dollar agreements skew the numbers.  Further the true median value per NIL opportunity actually runs between $60 and $62, meaning many individual deals are worth the price of a nice meal out.

The majority who will not play professionally will hopefully become the benefactors of a scholarship-funded quality education, but then settle in to the pursuit of “life” like the rest of us.  More difficult, compared again to most of us is the adjustment to be made when the endorsements cease to exist and the glamour, gleaming lights, and raucous crowds diminish.  The labels of “former,” “has been,” or “the past” can be disheartening to someone quite young only still in their early 20’s.

Some who never leave their playing fields will struggle with life in search of those glory days.  Others, who are successful in transition, will apply the dedication, discipline, and competitive spirit to other endeavors.  A team captain applies similar philosophies to the way they lead others in business realizing that there are numerous ways to motivate.  A former baseball relief pitcher who toed the rubber with the bases loaded in the ninth inning is up to the pressure of making a good presentation when vast sums of money may rest on closing the deal.  Likewise, a skilled surgeon has a steady hand of confidence when in the past they held the basketball with a second left on the clock and their team two points behind.

Those of us who played competitive sports embrace the lessons we learned from our sports coaches.  The fact is there is not a one of us who still cannot benefit from a coach to challenge and encourage us to become a better version of ourselves.  Regardless of your transition, be it from competitive to recreational athlete, from the glitz of NIL riches to needing to determine a career path or merely feeling stuck and facing roadblocks and wanting to find new direction, contracting with a life, career, or executive coach can free you from frustration and obstacles.