$5,000 for a fifth grader?
Every August, I start to feel this way. I’m out of my element. It is the only month throughout the year that I don’t officiate basketball games. Why do I boycott August? Everyone else does. As a general rule, there are no basketball games to officiate in August. Summer camps generally end in July. I’m halfway through the month and have more free time than I usually do. Technically, I have more time to update this blog, but not as much to write about in the offseason.
The other night, however, one of my Facebook “friends” who I met earlier this year and absolutely loved BasketCases, “chatted” me through the Facebook function. Our “chat” is worth some commentary. He asked me about some basketball-related items involving his daughter, who is going into sixth grade in a couple of weeks. I asked him how much money he spent in the last year on basketball for his daughter, who is a very good player. He said $5,000! Wow, that is a lot of money for a fifth grader. Now, I know $20 was well-spent for a copy of BasketCases, but $4,980 is a ton of dough to invest in an 11-year-old. Half of that money went to send his daughter to play in a national tournament across the country, in which his daughter was named to an all-tournament team. I asked him if the goal was for his daughter to play in college. He said absolutely. I didn’t specifically frame the question to “earn a college scholarship,” but I assume that is what he meant by his answer.
I have no problem with that. He said his daughter loves basketball, and they have identified that she has a great deal of talent. If his family can afford to give his daughter these opportunities, good for them (althought the investment in basketball to secure a scholarship may cost more than the scholarship itself at this rate!). It’s just that the $5,000 price tag really caught my attention. I talk about how parents can spend thousands of dollars on basketball over the years, but it’s amazing to see that figure spent in less than one year. If you have a young son or daughter who shows basketball promise, you may need to open a Home Equity Line of Credit before Junior gets to junior high.