Julie Fetty ripped through a laundry basket filled with baseball and softball uniforms at the same time her husband, Brad, donned a coach's shirt and scanned his smoldering cell phone.
The late-afternoon clock was bearing down on the parents, pressing them to get their four kids to four Hilliard locations to play four games - all starting between 6 and 7:45 p.m.
This was the grand finale of nine youth soccer, baseball and softball games for the family in a 20-hour period over two days.
"We are constantly on the run," Brad said. "Half of us at one place, half at another place."
The Fetty children are four faces in the swelling sea of youth sports, which has nearly six times more athletes than high schools and 100 times more than NCAA colleges.
The youth-sports world today is one where a 10-year-old boy travels from state to state to pitch as a hired gun against the best baseball teams across the country.
Where one family will spend $30,000 in six months to help chase their son's soccer dreams.
Where a basketball team of teenagers traveled to China to play.
Where a 16-year-old soccer player has endured so many concussions that she can never again play the sport she loves.
Where a call at home plate turned into a community brawl involving criminal charges.
Where a central Ohio mother arranged to send her 11-year-old son to live with a trainer in Alabama to refine his football skills.
Where Little Leaguers can generate a $30 million national TV contract.
"We're in the business of preparing kids for the next level of life, but parents are in the business of preparing their kids for the next level of sport," said Dan Ross, executive director of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. "This is about kids. This isn't a meat grinder, but sometimes we get caught in a meat grinder."
The many physical, social and psychological benefits of athletics are evident in the popularity of youth sports - with an estimated 40 million children participating. It has provided millions with fond childhood memories, creates friendships that can last a lifetime, and shows kids there is more to life than a video game.
But the current landscape of youth sports - year-round play, specialization and travel - is pocked with physical, emotional and financial minefields for children and families who sometimes pursue sports glory at any cost.
It has mushroomed into an industry of at least $5 billion annually, based on income figures reported by nonprofit sports groups to the IRS.
It is a largely unregulated world in which children are more susceptible than ever to injury, families spend thousands seeking elusive scholarships and adults sometimes mar the experience with volatile or even criminal behavior.
Many families feel pressured by today's youth-sports culture to travel from field to field, town to town and even coast to coast. They are
driven by fear that their children - some still in kindergarten - won't be good enough for a high-school or college team.
At a minimum, some kids are robbed of their childhood. Some are pushed too hard too fast to achieve unreasonable heights, and the cost is their health. Some suffer life-altering injuries. Some see serious strain on their families when mom and dad disagree over how much is too much.
The Dispatch surveyed more than 1,000 central Ohio high-school students and 218 coaches, and Ohio State athletes and coaches, about their experiences with sports teams not affiliated with high schools.
Half of the athletes said they started playing sports as young as 6 and quickly felt the need to press on if they wanted to someday earn a spot on the high-school varsity team or win a college scholarship.
More than 40 percent said their parents pressured them to play, and 10 percent said their parents' behavior during games embarrassed them.
"Too many parents today want to be agents instead of parents," said Dave Klontz, head baseball coach at Heath High School.
Yet it's wrong to lay blame solely on parents who are constantly told by coaches, other athletic officials and even their own children that kids have to play in expensive advanced leagues if they want a chance to play for their varsity team or beyond.
The message many are hearing is this: Without complete, year-round dedication to the sport, their children could fail.
Nearly 80 percent of Ohio State coaches surveyed by The Dispatch last fall said youth-sports venues provide the most fertile recruiting ground. And they coach the predominant youth sports: basketball, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball and volleyball.
"Many sports clubs or sport academies take advantage of this scenario," said an OSU tennis coach. "And they have turned the dream into a business."
Nearly 90 percent of the high-school coaches in the survey said they fear that youth sports cause burnout, injuries and bad athletic habits.
Their concern is so great that two-thirds of the coaches said that youth sports needs a governing body similar to the Ohio High School Athletic Association or the NCAA.
Some coaches say that even with reforms, youth sports have created a culture of selfishness.
"Club is all about me," said Bloom-Carroll High School soccer coach Robb Ingram. "And high school is all about team."
In Hilliard, the Fetty family has to work as a team to survive the daily grind of their youth-sports schedule.
Nine-year-old Hayden is playing his first year of travel baseball, and the others participate at the recreation level, which carries less physical, emotional and financial stress than more-competitive club sports.
Yet their days are blurs of practices and games, typical of many U.S. families, all stretched by the increasing demands of children playing sports.
The Fettys enjoy youth sports and see value in their children participating year-round in baseball, softball, football, basketball, soccer, gymnastics and cheerleading. They agree with researchers who say that sports generally help children mature physically, grow psychologically and develop social skills.
Still, the pressure from youth sports could be seen as Brad Fetty headed off to one field with his son Ashton, 6, in a GMC Yukon bulging with sports equipment while his wife dropped Hayden at another park, and then took their daughter, Kylie, 7, and son Owen, 10, in her Jeep to two other Hilliard sites.
At Beacon Elementary School, Julie Fetty sat in one of those nylon folding chairs that sprout like weeds on American athletic fields.
She reached into a sack for a chicken sandwich she bought at a drive-through an hour earlier.
"I have been too busy rushing everyone to the games. Moms are used to cold food."
The travel itinerary of Andy Brim's three hockey-and-lacrosse-loving sons mirrors that of a professional baseball team. Road trips to Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto and a host of smaller cities consume nearly half of their weekends each year. Trips from their Dublin home to Cleveland or Cincinnati aren't even considered out of town.
And the boys don't all go to the same city. Beginning early on most Fridays and ending late on Sunday evenings, Andy travels somewhere with one; his wife, Julie, is with another; and Grandpa takes the third somewhere else.
Recently, one of the Brim boys asked why their family wasn't wave-running or snorkeling off the beaches of St. Thomas like one of his buddies' families.
"I just smiled and told him we could afford to take a trip like that if we wanted to, but we spend much of our vacation money on lacrosse and hockey tournaments," said Andy Brim, a Dublin resident. "We make them understand where our money is going."
Hockey and lacrosse are among the most expensive youth sports to play, but the Brim family's sports tab for Ian, Jack and Andrew - 14, 11 and 9 - is more the norm than the extreme.
The Brim family spends more than $12,000 a year for the three boys to play lacrosse, hockey and football. That tab includes entry fees, equipment, hotel rooms, gas, food and some training from professional coaches. And it would be even higher if the Brims didn't share travel costs with other families.
Some families, like the Fettys, choose the local rec leagues or travel teams that play relatively close to their home. But hundreds of thousands of children like the Brims play games across the state and country, and their parents easily can sink $25,000 to $50,000 a year into youth sports.
With that cost, some families sacrifice far more than a beach vacation to keep their kids on the field, court or ice. Some move into smaller homes or learn to live with one car. Others take second or third jobs to keep up.
In youth sports, it's pay to play - at big-league costs.
"We do this because our family loves sports; it's who we are, and it's where our friends are as well," Brim said. "I grew up in Buffalo loving hockey, and I could play my games at a rink 15 miles away. Now, you have to go to Buffalo from here to find the games or ice to play against similar competition."
In almost any sport, the chances of getting a full-ride athletic scholarship to college are slim.
Nearly 60 percent of Ohio State athletes who responded to the Dispatch survey about their experiences with youth sports said that they received no athletic scholarships or received amounts that covered less than 25 percent of their college expenses.
Yet central Ohio families continue to spend and spend to chase the full-ride. Nearly a third of all students who responded to the survey said they spent more than $1,500 a year on youth sports.
Among those who play soccer exclusively, some of their families shelled out more than $10,000 a year.
Sandy Baum, an economics professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga, N.Y., and an expert on financial aid, said that parents are making the wrong investment.
"Your kid is much better off studying and doing well academically than spending all the time on the soccer field."
In the Wild West, townsfolk brought in hired guns to deal with the bad guys in black hats.
In 2010, baseball teams across the country sign them up to take on tournament foes - at age 10.
"For us, they come in as hired-gun pitchers," said Travis Beck, manager of the Cincy Flames, a Cincinnati-based 10-and-under team.
Kyler Fedko is one such pre-pubescent gunslinger.
Fedko, 10, pitched for the Flames in June when they played in a tournament at Lou Berliner Park on the South Side.
A week later, the Pittsburgh resident was in North Carolina pitching for another team.
Then he was off to Cooperstown, N.Y., to pitch for another team.
In late July, Fedko pitched in Chicago for another team, the Ohio Glaciers of Canfield.
This month, he rejoined the Flames for a tournament in Puerto Rico. Today, he's in Baltimore with the Glaciers.
Have arm, will travel.
"I just want to put him where the competition is best," said his father, John Fedko. "That's why I invest so much time and money into it. I believe in osmosis; if you play with good players, you get better."
The lust for competition is shared by families who trek to as many as 100 games a year with traveling youth teams, which have proliferated in the past decade in baseball, softball and soccer.
"It's just a booming industry," Beck said.
The scents of commerce and competition hung in the June air at Berliner Park as road-warrior parents paced and young athletes in immaculate uniforms toted equipment bags bearing their names, numbers and positions.
The three-day tournament attracted 72 teams (each paying a $525 fee) because it offered qualifying spots in the USSA Elite World Series in Orlando, Fla., a month later.
The Florida Pokers used part of its $50,000 budget to travel 1,100 miles to Columbus for the event.
One player came via Dayton - by cab.
Eric Hernandez and his son, a member of the Pokers, missed a connecting flight in Atlanta the previous night because of bad weather in Fort Lauderdale. They were rerouted, landed after midnight in Dayton and took a $170 taxi ride from there to Columbus.
"When you play competitive sports like this," said Hernandez, "the commitment needed to be a successful team is more than just having stud players. You have to have committed parents."
John Fedko embodies that commitment. For three winter months this year, he drove his son each week from Pittsburgh to Florida to pitch for another team. They'd drive home through the night to make it to school on time on Monday.
Fedko stressed that he is overprotective of his son's arm to prevent injury. Fedko adheres to pitch counts (no more than 70 in a game) and doesn't allow Kyler to throw at all during a three-month period each year, as experts advise for young pitchers.
Critics of travel-team sports say in general that year-round play leads to more injuries for players and more bad behavior by parents. Surveys by the National Association of Sports Officials show that an increasing number of youth-sports referees and umpires are quitting because of spectator misbehavior.
"In the last 10 to 12 years, the parents have become ruder," said Gary Patton, an Orient resident who has umpired and refereed youth sports since 1979. "They're more aggressive. They don't care about sportsmanship and don't care if they're hurting a kid. They just argue."
Even those in the travel-team scene - and who believe in its value - see some problems caused by increased competition at the highest level of youth sports.
"The thing that's changed," said Mike Roberts, 70, who played baseball for Ohio State and founded the Florida Pokers in 1990, "is parents now feel kind of entitled to do this or have that because they've put up money."
The explosion of events and summer camps that showcase elite youth-sports athletes provide college coaches one-stop shopping for point guards, shortstops or soccer goalkeepers.
Some athletes find themselves amid a tug of war between high-school and youth-sports coaches.
Two-thirds of the high-school students surveyed said that they had been recruited to play on a youth-sports team. A quarter of them felt pressed to play at a higher level of competition.
As a consequence, nearly half of the high-school coaches said some athletes have quit their team to focus on youth sports. A quarter lost more than six kids.
"I am amazed at how many things many youth sports do for their players," said Berne Union softball coach Jon Parker. "Elaborate banquets, highlight videos, expensive uniforms, etc. Many times, athletes and their parents have nothing to look forward to by the time they reach high school."
To understand the business growth of youth sports, consider that Cathy Horton spent $30,000 this year on her teenage son's dream of becoming a professional soccer player.
And for Horton, paying that six-month fee to the IMG Soccer Academy in Bradenton, Fla., is a bargain compared with previous years' training expenses.
"It's cheaper to send him to the academy," said the single mother from South Russell, east of Cleveland in Geauga County.
IMG Academies, which has programs for seven sports on the 400-acre Florida campus, provided Horton with one-stop shopping.
The $30,000 covered room and board, coaching, equipment and attendance for her son, Charlie, at the academy's on-site high school, the Pendleton School.
In previous years, the Hortons drove two hours a day, seven days a week to practices and games in northeastern Ohio. Weekends were spent driving - and sometimes flying - to soccer events throughout the Midwest.
The Hortons put 75,000 miles on their car in two years because of soccer.
"That was crazy," Cathy said. "IMG has totally de-stressed our family. What we were doing was extreme. Now, we have balance."
Charlie lived with other young athletes in a two-bedroom apartment on an IMG campus supervised by adults. He walked to school, trained, practiced and played soccer six days a week.
"Some people would say I'm nuts and way too serious about youth sports," he said. "Some kids say, 'Why are you wasting your time with soccer? Why are you not going to parties?' Once you get to an age, you have to commit - and really commit, which I've done."
Charlie left home in January to become one of five Ohio kids among the nearly 800 full-time students at IMG. The world's largest multisport, training and education business serves 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes.
IMG alumni include Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Andre Agassi and Landon Donovan.
"If you want to play at the highest level, and that's what you really want, then you need to surround yourself with people who want the same thing," said Cathy Horton, CEO of Nutek, a company providing green alternatives to hazardous and harmful chemicals.
Mother and son each cried when they parted in January, but both are happy where youth sports has taken them.
Charlie is now training in Europe. He will return to Ohio this week to attend high school. In December, he will train in Chile.
"That investment in IMG paid off hugely," his mother said.
While Charlie Horton thrives in a high-priced, specialized environment, the uncounted ribbons, trophies and jerseys that Marcella Chavez earned from years of playing soccer are now packed away in her Worthington bedroom.
The almost year-round cycle of games and practices were at times too much for the fifth-grader, but that didn't drive Chavez from the sport she loved at age 11.
No matter how fast Marcella ran or how many goals she scored, her club soccer coach would scream and scream and scream some more. She would deflect the verbal abuse and booming voice just long enough to get in the car or back to her bedroom, where the tears would sometimes flow.
Her parents talked with the coach several times, but he believed his coaching style was appropriate and Marcella was the one with the problem. She wasn't the only girl to hear the screams, but her family believes she was targeted most.
"I tried to ignore it; I wouldn't look at him, but it made me not want to play any more," Chavez said. "It went on for a long time, and I just got burned out."
Marcella said she has no plans to return to soccer and will instead focus on running. She recently placed eighth in the 3,000-meter run at the Junior National Olympics.
"It's sad when kids this young give up something they love," said Marcella's mom, Becky Chavez. "It's our responsibility as adults, parents and coaches to realize that we are pushing our kids too hard for one reason or another. And that can break their spirit."
When children quit playing youth sports, they often blame it on too many games, too many practices, too many screaming coaches and too little time for themselves.
Burnout is the leading reason kids quit playing youth sports, according to the Dispatch survey.
More than half of the athletes surveyed said they had quit playing at least one sport.
"Parents oftentimes think that if kids are good at something, then they must love it," said sports counselor Chris Stankovich, a Columbus psychologist. "What was fun at 8 may not be fun at 10 or 12. It's become a lot more serious earlier."
High-school coaches, however, are most concerned about what youth sports are doing to the bodies of young athletes, especially those encouraged to focus on a single sport.
Doctors see the consequences of specialization: It leads to overuse of muscles, which often is followed by injury.
"Young kids don't admit or recognize that there is an injury, and they constantly want to please their coach," said Dr. Thomas Pommering, chief of sports medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "They will play at all costs and especially play at all costs if that is the message being sent to them."
More than two-thirds of OSU athletes responding to the Dispatch survey said that they didn't specialize in one sport until they reached high school. And of those, nearly half didn't stop playing multiple sports until they reached the OSU campus.
The moon was out and the lights on at the St. Brendan field when the baseball game between 10-year-olds ended, sending families home in the final moments of daylight.
Julie Fetty yawned after pulling into her Hilliard driveway at 9:30 p.m. with three of her four children, each wearing a baseball or softball uniform.
"Sometimes I think: Are we forcing our kids to do this? Do they really like this? Do they want to do this?" said mom, an ICU technician at Riverside Methodist Hospital and fulltime nursing student. "Sometimes, I think, 'Man, we should do a year without sports and have dinners.'"
Her husband, Brad, and son Hayden, tired and dusty, arrived home 10 minutes later toting their post-game meal in fast-food bags.
Owen, still hungry despite eating a burger at his sister's softball game, took a bite of cereal from his bowl and then chomped into his brother's dinner.
"Cereal and fries don't go together," he said.
Dad was already savoring the next night, a rare reprieve from youth sports that had him planning for a steak.
"There are zero games scheduled," he said.
"He's got one," Julie replied, pointing at Owen.
"A make-up game?" Brad asked.
"Yep."
So much for steak.
As the clock approached 10p.m., a sullen Brad Fetty took a bite of cheeseburger.
The Fettys mirror the typical family rather than the extreme in today's youth-sports vortex.
Youth sports have grown organically and without oversight.
Colleges and schools have standardized rules to help avoid injury. Youth sports organizations don't share the same playbook.
Colleges and schools are required to examine the backgrounds of coaches. Many youth-sports leagues aren't.
Colleges and schools require coaches to have training and experience. Almost anyone can coach youth sports, regardless of ability or training.
For too many families, the little leagues come with big costs.
tjones@dispatch.com
mwagner@dispatch.com
jriepenhoff@dispatch.com
