league practice for 8-year olds on their own. You really need some dads who can help out. Second, in coaching youth sports and forming youth teams, you quickly realize which parents you like and which ones you don’t want anywhere near your team. You end up choosing parents as much as you choose kids.

That all starts very early, like at age 7-8. That forms the basis for travel teams and by the time high school rolls around, those networks are pretty hardened. If a kid isn’t an elite talent or part of that network, it’s gonna be near impossible to get into a team at a big high school.