As youth sports evolve, more families turn to private coaching – at a cost 

In the escalating arms race of youth sports, parents are pulling out all the stops

even hiring personal coaches for kids as young as six. What was once reserved for elite athletes is now a booming business

with families spending thousands to give their kids a competitive edge. Gene Williams is a former college basketball player at Johns Hopkins University

His wife, Elaine, played college soccer at Temple. Together, they created the private coaching platform Athletes Untapped in 2021

building on their own experience as youth coaches. We started out with just basketball and soccer

Then as the years went on, we realized that a lot of youth athletes now play

what we would call the non-primary sports. So golf, tennis, pickleball. It used to be mainly for adults, but there's a lot of youth training with that

So now we have 16 sports in the platform. The platform helps families navigate different sports, their family schedules

and costs by offering on-demand services, which provide more flexibility as spending in youth

sports skyrockets. A study by the Aspen Institute estimates U.S. families spend between 30 and 40

billion dollars a year on their children's sports. The cost of specialized coaching is second only

to travel, with parents spending over 180 per year per sport on private lessons, according to the

survey. And it's really regional too. So on the West Coast, I think probably LA, San Diego

average price point for a lesson is like $80, $90. East Coast is probably $65, $75. Midwest

maybe $40, $50, depending on if you're around Chicago or not. But I'd say when I first started

doing this and giving my own lessons, it's probably increased about 20, 25% since then

a decade ago. Prices for lessons have leveled out because more coaches are getting into the game

And Williams says the advent of name image and likeness money in college is opening even more doors where college athletes can earn money coaching The marketing is simple They are elite athletes performing in an arena

where kids eventually want to go. So when NIL came out, we made it a huge part of our platform

to have current college athletes doing it. We have 3,000 coaches now. I'd say at least half

if not close to the two-thirds, are current college athletes. And it's awesome to see. I mean

they can set their own rates. They set their own schedule. It's a flexible way to make extra income

Williams has an ambitious goal of adding 7,000 more coaches to the athletes untapped platform by the end of 2026

Parents are pouring in more money than ever to support their kids in sports

The average family spends more than $1,000 on a kid's primary sport per year, according to the Aspen Institute

That's a 46% increase since 2019. Another study says 83% of parents believe their kids have the skills to play at a college level

Despite that belief, less than 7% of high school athletes go on to compete in the NCAA

But for those destined for greatness, intervention comes early. Like swimmer Kathleen Baker, who won gold and silver medals at the Rio Olympics

She said the biggest turning point in her career was when she was 12. She was a good swimmer, not great

Met a coach who had trained a couple Olympians and he decided to work with her one-on-one

So by the time she was 14, she was training with Olympians and beating them

because she had spent two years with this guy. But like if you can find that kind of mentor, that kind of coach in your corner at the late elementary, early middle school age, it makes such a difference

Baker is now a coach in Wilmington, North Carolina, available for hire on Williams platform

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis. If you have some thoughts on this story, and we know parents do, or maybe another suggestion on a youth sports topic you're passionate about, you can reach me at cfrancis at san.com