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You can take the testimony of the kids themselves. "It's my life," says Aidan Wolfe, 10, of Portland, Ore., who plays in a recreational league. "I love soccer. If my parents told me I couldn't play anymore, I'd be devastated." During the school year, hockey player Jason George wedges homework into recess and lunch breaks to make the grueling Little Caps schedule, but, he says, "if that's what it takes for me to be good at hockey, I'll do whatever I have to do." His sister Sara, 9, also loves travel hockey because, on the road trips, "I get to spend a lot of time with my mom."
But other youngsters buckle under the load: whether it's that of a single, demanding club sport or a whole basketful of scheduled activities. Stephanie Mazzamaro, 10, of Ridgefield, Conn., complained that in addition to homework, piano lessons, Girl Scouts and religion classes, she had Monday soccer practices and Saturday games. "Mom, I don't want to do all of this anymore," she sobbed. "I don't have time to be a kid." Her mother Janice, 40, could only agree. "When you live in an area like this, you get caught up in it," Janice says. "If you don't do each step, you feel like you're doing an injustice to your child."
The intensity of today's kids' sports seems to be contributing to an increase in injuries. The Consumer Products Safety Commission reports that roughly 4 million children between the ages of 6 and 16 end up in hospital emergency rooms for sports-related injuries each year. Eight million more are treated for some form of medical problem traceable to athletics: for example, shin splints and stress fractures. Some sports physicians point to specialization--a child playing a single sport year round, which many club teams encourage--as one culprit in sports injuries. Kids who alternate different activities at different seasons are less likely to overuse the same set of muscles and joints.
"It's a very rare thing to see someone playing three sports in high school anymore because of the pressure these clubs put on kids to play in the off season," says Gary Thran, director of athletics at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif. Gregg Heinzmann, associate director of the Youth Sports Research Council at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., observes that these players often have become "specialists who face all the stress of a pro." Why the pressure? According to Thran, college coaches are telling ever younger kids to limit themselves to one sport year round, so they can make the elite traveling clubs.
The Darwinian struggle has gripped girls' sports with a special intensity. Some college recruiters are bypassing high schools and selecting players directly from the club teams. And some high school recruiters are moving even earlier. Charles Morris, 42, of Berkeley, Calif., a technician for Bay Area Rapid Transit, shakes his head as he recalls the coach who, after watching his daughter play basketball, asked what high school she plans to attend. To be sure, the girl, Casey, is a standout player. But she's eight years old.