Playing sports costs money. Playing recreationally is possible with less money because its demand isn’t the same as playing competitively, but both cost money. When a student athlete decides to try-out to join a sports team, they have to take into account the financial obligations. Depending on the team a person joins determines the amount of money the person needs to contribute. When joining a school team, many schools assist the team with fundraising for funds in order to help reduce the players costs. However, for travel teams, this is different. Most travel teams are a combination of players from various schools that don’t have much free time to organize fundraisers, therefore, in travel teams, the cost for joining is completely out of pocket.

The team price is dependent on the number of team uniforms, tournaments attending, field rentals for practice if no field/court is available, etc. If a player is looking to get additional coaching, private lessons are also costly. Not every student athlete has the means of paying for these expenses. Some are lucky to have parents that are able to afford it, but not others. Many require scholarship money to help and or a job to help pay. Having a job places even more demands on a student athlete because they have to balance their time to meet all the school, work and team obligations. Sometimes they also have to deal with not wanting others to know they have to work to help their parents pay for their expenses. They feel ashamed and choose to keep it private. Although most team members wouldn’t care if their teammate is able to pay or not, the player still feels the need to keep it quiet.