The Cost of Playing Sports

Jason decided this year to play football, then basketball, and finally soccer since it is his last year at Sacred Heart. Previously he had not joined any of the team sports because he was enrolled in taekwondo for the past 5 1/2 years and he was dedicated to showing up twice a week for that. He finally gave it up after getting his second degree black belt.

For football, we had to get him cleats, for basketball, he needed high tops. For soccer, we just came from the Nike store and had to get him the following:

We were not done yet, we had to go get him some shin guards.

I did not realize until we had gotten home how much all of the above purchases had totaled! I recently had a conversation with a mother who asked if her son could car pool with us during soccer practices since her other son had to be at some other sport practice. I am not even counting the time spent driving to and from practices and games, or waiting the entire time for them to finish.

However, he loves playing. These are the times he learns the meaning of teamwork and camaraderie. He learns how to win graciously and how to try harder after a big loss. I guess all in all, the benefits evens out the costs and he comes out the winner.