Scholarships the end game for travel athletes. Jason Minto/The News Journal/USA TODAY
Madison Steele plays softball for Smyrna High School as well as the Empire State Huskies travel team(Photo: Doug Curran, Special to The News Journal)Buy Photo
Madison Steele is willing to practice seven days a week, hit the weight room between games, and miss out on family dinners and social events with her friends.
As long as it means her mom won't have to pay for her college.
Like hundreds of high school athletes in Delaware and thousands across the nation, Steele's goal is to land an athletic scholarship to a NCAA Division I or II school. Only Div. I and II schools give athletic scholarships.
At one time, colleges recruited athletes by scouting high school games. The thinking was that the top talent was going to be noticed: "If you are good enough, they will find you."
But over the past 15 to 20 years, the college athletic recruiting model has moved away from high school games – where a select few athletes might possess college-level talent – toward the multibillion-dollar industry known as travel sports, in which the majority of participants are seeking college scholarships.
Parents invest hundreds to thousands of dollars a season in travel programs so their children can play in "showcase" tournaments that draw college coaches to scout hundreds of prospective players in one place. From softball and baseball to lacrosse, field hockey, soccer and volleyball, travel programs crowd the landscape of youth sports.
The competition for scholarships is fierce. While NCAA Division I and II schools provide more than $2.9 billion in athletic scholarships a year to more than 150,000 students, that equates to only 2 percent of high school athletes, according to the NCAA.
Despite those odds, or maybe because of them, youth sports has grown into a $7 billion industry, according to Forbes magazine. Experts believe that number will reach $9 billion by 2019.
The path for those coveted athletic scholarships is long for athletes and parents. Steele, a rising junior at Smyrna High School, began her quest about the time she entered elementary school.
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At age 6, she started playing Smyrna-Clayton Little Lass softball. She joined the Delaware Force 12U travel team at age 11, then played for the Delaware Hurricanes before joining the Empire State Huskies last year.
"I've known for a very long time that this is the direction I wanted to go," Steele said.
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CABA World Series travel baseball tournament at Sports at the Beach in Georgetown. (Photo: Jason Minto, The News Journal)
She is being raised by a single mom, Stephanie Shaw, and has a younger sister and brother who both play travel sports. Shaw said she spends between $5,000 and $7,000 a year on Madison's teams.
It's a price she is willing to pay if it means a full ride for Madison. The average annual cost of an in-state public college is $24,610. The average cost of a private college is $49,320 a year.
"I definitely don't want my mom paying for my college," Steele said. "It will take a lot of work and sacrifice, but in the end, it will be worth it."
A different recruiting model
"The mission of the Empire State Huskies is to get as many girls into college-level programs," said coach Joe Porcelli. "We travel the country to different showcase tournaments trying to get the girls exposure to different colleges and universities."
For the Huskies, which are based near Poughkeepsie, New York, that means playing a minimum of 10 tournaments in the fall and 15 in the summer in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri and Florida.
That alone is not enough to land scholarships.
Porcelli said it is incumbent on the players to proactively communicate with college coaches.
"If there are 20 different schools going [to a showcase tournament], our players will email the coaches, and if there are particular schools they are interested in, we'll reach out to those coaches on their behalf," he said.
"[Coaches] don't usually come to you without you first reaching out to them," Steele said.
While students cannot sign letters of intent – which officially locks them into a college – until their senior year, many make verbal commitments as early as their freshman years, although the vast majority of these "verbals" occur around junior year.
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"I'm open at this point. I just want to go to school and play," Madison Steele said. (Photo: Doug Curran, Special to The News Journal)
Smyrna High softball coach Nicki Shirley played at Saint Joseph's University on a full scholarship. Her experience has helped Steele and Eagles teammate Kaelyn Press. The two also play together on the Empire State Huskies.
"When you have athletes that are proactive like [Steele], local coaches will show up," said Shirley, who has coached Smyrna for 11 years. "I get a few calls from coaches, but I tell [the players] they need to be the ones communicating."
Though more college coaches prefer to attend showcases, Shirley believes they would get a better feel for players if they saw them in school games.
"The level of play rises," said Shirley, whose Eagles went 15-4 and lost in the first round of the state tournament this season. "If you want to see how a player will be in a team setting, watching high school games gives you that best shot."
Steele has a verbal offer to play at Misericordia University, a Division III school in Pennsylvania, and has heard from some Division II programs. She's hoping this summer will bring more interest.
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Campbell Garrison plays lacrosse for Appoquinimink High School and the Team 302 travel program. (Photo: Jason Minto, The News Journal)
"I'm open at this point," the rising junior said. "I just want to go to school and play. ... I would like for it to be a school in the South because that has been my dream since I was a kid. I know I'll have to keep working hard to get there."
Campbell Garrison has a different goal in mind.
Garrison plays lacrosse at Appoquinimink High School and for the Team 302 travel program.
The rising senior realized early on that while he loved playing the sport, his skills weren't going to land him a Division I scholarship.
"I play lacrosse because I love playing," Campbell said. "I'm interested in playing in college, but I'm looking to get an academic scholarship to a smaller Division III school. I'm looking at that size of school because it fits my talent level and I love a lot of the schools I've visited."
Worth the investment?
A study conducted by TD Ameritrade in 2016 looked at the commitment of parents to their children's athletic dreams and the financial costs and potential long-term financial implications.
The findings from the study showed that 63 percent of the more than 1,000 parents surveyed typically spend between $100 and $499 a month per child on elite youth sports, with the bulk of the money going toward travel and team fees. One in five parents said they spend at least $1,000 a month.
Two-thirds of parents surveyed hope scholarships will cover more than half of college costs, and 40 percent are at least pretty sure their kids will snag one.
While 74 percent of parents said they made significant sacrifices to pay for travel sports, only a quarter of the players actually earned scholarships.
Parents do everything from taking fewer vacations to dipping into retirement savings to delaying retirement and even taking second jobs. Some 10 percent of those surveyed even cut back on money set aside for college funds.
Alison Benjamin and her husband spent "tens of thousands" of dollars on teams, travel and equipment for their son Cole, who played for the Akadema Warriors travel baseball organization.
Cole, a pitcher, is now on scholarship at the University of Delaware.
"We joke that we could have gotten a good start on college with the amount we paid for travel," she said. "[But ] it's absolutely worth it. My husband and I agree it is one of the best investments we've made in his future. Cole is reaping the benefits."
Rising Sun, Maryland, native Cole Benjamin earned an athletic scholarship to play baseball at the University of Delaware. (Photo: Mark Campbell, University of Delaware Athletics)
Depending on the sport, scholarship does not necessarily mean full ride. In baseball, for instance, a fully funded program only has 11.7 scholarships at any one time. Most baseball programs carry 30 to 35 players, meaning there are very few – if any – on a full scholarship.
That can add risk to the investment in travel sports, especially for a family with lesser means.
That's something elite players face every day, said Paul Niggebrugge, owner and founder of Be Your Best Academy in Middletown and a coach for the Akadema Warriors.
"We're very sensitive to this," he said. "We try to make it work in every way."
Akadema and other travel programs offer payment options or allow parents to volunteer to offset costs. Parents can also fundraise.
"We'll never say 'you can't afford it,' " Niggebrugge said. "We'll try to figure out creative ways to make that happen. We're baseball purists and money should never be a reason why you shouldn't participate or have an opportunity to excel."
Coaching perspective
University of Delaware softball coach John Seneca says finding the right student-athlete can be a crapshoot.
With only 50 evaluation days allowed by the NCAA, Seneca said showcase tournaments are critical.
"The big push for us is showcases," said Seneca, who just completed his second season as Blue Hens head coach. "I can watch 30 games a weekend and see 50 kids I think will fit our program and I use maybe two of the evaluation days we're given. We try to get out to as many of these tournaments as we can."
Seneca said that while he and his assistants try to hit the big showcases, they also will go to lesser-known tournaments because they received an email from a player or a player's coach that piques their interest.
He said he receives thousands of emails a year from prospective players highlighting their skills, interests, grades and a link to a highlights video.
"That's huge," he said. "It's nice to click on a link and see someone who could potentially be a player here. We may invite them to one of our camps or set out to watch them play."
Seneca said he wishes he could scout more high school games.
"I love watching high school ball," he said. "You get a chance to see them lead and see them playing for something. You can see things you don't see in a couple of innings at showcases."
But Seneca can't see many high school games because the college and high school seasons run concurrently. Plus, he said, high school games only allow college coaches to see a couple prospects at a time.
UD head baseball coach Jim Sherman said he could easily find 10 games a day if he wanted to during the summer showcase season. That, he said, has been the biggest change since he started coaching in college 31 years ago.
"There are many more teams today," said Sherman, who led the Blue Hens to the NCAA Tournament this season. "It used to be American Legion and local teams we would watch. Probably about 15 years ago, travel ball started taking off and 10 years ago it exploded."
"Probably about 15 years ago, travel ball started taking off and 10 years ago it exploded," UD baseball coach Jim Sherman said. (Photo: John Weast, University of Delaware athletics)
Sherman said because of that, he doesn't see as many quality teams. But he is able to see more individuals at showcase tournaments. He said he relies on communication with academies and high school coaches to tell him about standout players.
"You have to have networks more now than ever before because the dynamic has changed," he said. "You have to find those individuals who know the levels of play and who can critique talent and character."
Person vs. performance
When asked what it takes for a high school athlete to get noticed and earn a college scholarship, Niggebrugge said talent is right up there.
But the head coach of the 2017 state champion Caravel Academy baseball team thinks being the right person and being the right fit for a certain program can outweigh talent.
"I think it is about the person first, then the performer. They must be aligned," said Niggebrugge, who has five state championships in his tenure at Caravel. "I've seen too many kids who are skilled and talented but never reach their potential because there are too many distractions and interferences."
Niggebrugge recognizes that players sign up for elite travel baseball teams with a scholarship in mind. He said kids and parents become enamored with Division I baseball.
"They are looking for scholarships and oftentimes they are misled," Niggebrugge said. "Families get caught up in getting that athletic scholarship all the time and they get demoralized and they are in despair when they don't get the offer."
Niggebrugge said it has gotten so bad that colleges, like the airlines, will overbook or over-recruit.
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Head coach Paul Niggebrugge is doused following Caravel Academy's state baseball championship win on June 3. (Photo: William Bretzger, The News Journal)
"You think you are going to this school on a scholarship, and all of a sudden, they've got somebody else, or they've brought in 19 or 20 pitchers and you thought you had a chance to be a starter and all of the sudden, you aren't even on the staff," he said.
Recruiting college soccer players is a different animal, says UD men's coach Ian Hennessey. While players continually reach out to coaches and send videos, the structure within the sport has changed how recruiting is done.
Hennessey, a former Major League Soccer player and All-American at Seton Hall, is entering his ninth season at UD.
"More and more, kids don't play in school," he said. "We often find players in development academies. There are often 150 clubs in an academy. They are the crown jewel. That's where you will see most coaches attend."
But that has its downside, too. Hennessey said the trend he is seeing in professional development is a lot of the kids going pro and not going to college. He said that makes it tough on college programs.
But when he does attend showcase tournaments, Hennessey has a good idea of who he is looking for.
"The kid should be able to jump off the page at you to play Division I," he said. "Besides excelling in academics, he also needs to have a high soccer IQ."
Paying dividends
The boom in travel sports has started to see results at the professional level.
Several current Phillies spent their summers playing on travel teams.
"I played year-round from 10 years old and on," said first baseman Tommy Joseph. "I played for all sorts of different teams. Any time I could get on the field I did.
"I was doing it because I wanted to do it. Nobody was forcing me to do any of that stuff. I was the one who wanted to. I led the charge."
When asked if travel ball helped him get drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the second round in 2009, Joseph was blunt.
"I don't think there's really any other way," he said.
Nate Esposito isn't in the big leagues yet. But he believes travel ball helped him land the college scholarship that led to him being drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2015. Today, Esposito is a catcher for the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Royals Class-A minor-league affiliate.
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Wilmington Blue Rocks catcher Nate Esposito takes batting practice before a recent game at Frawley Stadium. (Photo: Jerry Smith, The News Journal)
"The great thing about the [travel] showcases is you are able to show your skills and talents to teams that have never seen you before," Esposito said. "The main thing is you have to play as much as you can. When you play three games a day, you give yourself a lot of chances to be seen by somebody."
Esposito, a 23-year-old Granite Bay, California, native, had verbally committed to play at Cal-Poly before he was invited to play in the Area Code games, one of the top baseball showcases in the country. He withdrew his commitment, hoping that exposure would land him an offer at a bigger school.
"Eventually, Oregon State offered me a scholarship, so I decided to go there," said Esposito, who was given a scholarship that covered 70 percent of his school costs. Esposito ended up transferring to then-NAIA power Concordia University his senior year and was an All-NAIA West pick.
Phillies catcher Andrew Knapp was two years ahead of Esposito at Granite Bay High School.
Four Phillies reflect on how travel baseball helped them in their careers. Wochit
Knapp didn't play travel baseball until he was 14. He worries that it can burn kids out.
"I was a Little League kid and I really enjoyed Little League," Knapp said. "I think now kids are so worried about playing travel ball, they don't enjoy it. Until you're in high school, it's supposed to be like you go out and play."
While Esposito said playing year-round baseball helped him, he knows it isn't for everybody.
"I know guys who played just as much as me or more and actually got burned out," he said. "You really, really, really have to love the game in order to play that long. Playing for a full year is tough and will grind on you a little bit, but if you love the game, it's really helpful."
Meghan Montemurro contributed to this article.
Contact Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.
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