Whether its recreational or competitive, students have found ways to experience sports in one way or another. One of the main differences has proven to be the cost between the two.
“I think the cost is ridiculous, but I don’t see any way around it,” high school coach and teacher Rich Troxel said.
Aside from the cost, Troxel believes the level of dedication is what separates the two.
“That’s the difference between recreational — it costs a whole lot less, there’s a lot less commitment,” Troxel said.
Troxel has coached both levels of teams and has had rewarding experiences with each. While he prefers competitive, he believes we need both types of teams.
“Everyone wants to win and wants to push in both rec and competitive,” he said, “but there’s more intensity and more of a push to win [in competitive]. The rec players can be seasonal and have a lot of fun.”
Troxel believes that the higher-level players in their sport will spend the time in the off-season to prepare and improve their skills for next season.
“They will be more successful with it because they’ll be more prepared,” he said. “The more successful you are at a sport is directly correlated to how much work you put in to becoming successful, and that’s the competitive aspect.”
Junior Bernie Verhaeghe has played rec basketball for the past couple of years and has an understanding of what the cost is to step foot on the court with his friends.
“It can be pretty expensive, it really depends on how many players you have,” he said.
Verhaeghe plays at Blue Valley Recreational Center and says that there is a total cost for the team and it’s divided among the number of players you have. Therefore, the number of players on a team greatly impacts the cost per individual.
“It has been around $100 for me to play the past couple of years and the total team fee is around $1000,” Verhaeghe said.
Senior Grant LaTerza has been playing competitive baseball for 11 years. He plays for a well-known, elite Mac-N-Seitz (MNS) team.
“Playing for Mac-N-Seitz has prepared me to play at the Division 1 level,” he said. “I think that I have not only learned the skills necessary to play at the next level, but I have also seen the best competition in the nation, so I know what it is like to compete with players that are above my abilities.”
LaTerza will be playing at the United States Naval Academy, and everyone who attends there receives a full-ride scholarship.
In the off-season, MNS has optional practices in the fall and winter once a week.
“During the winter, the practices become more important, but not mandatory,” LaTerza said.
LaTerza has to pay a $400 annual fee to play on the team, and additional charges for uniforms and tournament costs around $900. He also has traveling expenses that range between $8,000 and $10,000 a year.
“The cost to play on a competitive team is very expensive; however, the overall money I am going to save by playing on Mac-N-Seitz is well worth the money spent,” he said. “In the 11 years I have played on Mac-N-Seitz, we have paid between $90,000 and $100,000 altogether. My scholarship to the Naval Academy is $250,000, so we are being paid over double then what we have spent on baseball over the years. So I would say the cost is reasonable.”
LaTerza has previously played rec basketball for Nativity in the Catholic Youth Organization, as well as rec soccer when he was younger, at much lower costs.
“The cost to play on a competitive baseball team is drastically more expensive than playing on a rec team. The fees I have experienced with rec teams are between $20 and $100,” he said.
Being successful and winning is stressed a lot more at the advanced level of play, but Troxel does not feel that it should measure the character of the player.
“It shouldn’t be a yardstick to whether or not you’re a successful person,” he said.