As the school year begins to wind down and high school sports come to an end, a new opportunity arises for athletes around the nation; club sports. Many athletes have the option to continue playing their sport over the summer for independent clubs or leagues. For example, Nebraska offers club teams for volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball, baseball, lacrosse, and more. Some of the more notable teams include Nebraska Stealth or Shockwave for softball, Sporting Nebraska FC or Omaha United for soccer, OSA or ETG for basketball, and Nebraska Elite or Premier Volleyball.
Although the exact number of club participants is unknown, nearly 80,000 high school students participated in Nebraska athletics during the 2022-23 school year, so it’s assumed that a good portion of those athletes competed for separate clubs teams. Volleyball and soccer remain some of the more populated club sports in the Metro Area.
“I play for two teams, Gretna Elite Academy and ECNL (Elite Club National League),” senior soccer player Eden Connelly said. “I’ve played for these two teams throughout high school and had to practice three days a week along with games on weekends.”
“I also travel a lot,” Connolly said. “I’ve been all around the midwest like Kansas City, Des Moines, Chicago, Minneapolis. We’ve also had tournaments in Arizona, Las Vegas, Tennessee, Denver, Colorado, San Diego, or Texas.”
Highly competitive soccer, like the one Connelly plays, requires a lot of time and dedication to be successful, even off the field.
“Since I wanted to play in college, I sent out thousands of emails since eighth grade. I started out sending around 200 emails a month to any college I saw,” Connolly said. It worked out in the end as I committed to College of Saint Mary for soccer and golf.”
Not only are these activities heavy burdens on the athletes, but also family. Per ProjectPlay, for every practice or game a child has, their parent or guardian spends nearly three and a half hours of their time for that sport. Whether it be driving their child to practice or cleaning their dirty uniform, parents stay busy even outside of gametime.
“Soccer is absolutely a year round sport,” teacher and mother of Eden, Tomi Connelly said. “It’s almost like every minute of every day was spent at my daughter’s soccer games. Because we had a few games in Chicago, we had to make a trip out of it. They were basically our vacations.”
Nearly any sport can be considered time consuming and intricate as many require a large majority of free time taken to compete in a very competitive environment. Sports like baseball come to mind when considering the variety of talent and skill it takes to play the game at a high level.
“For baseball, you have the option to either play legion baseball or club baseball when the spring season ends,” senior baseball player Ethan Athmus said. “The most competitive club options in Nebraska would be Area Code or Prospects. They’re really expensive but it’s worth the price for the exposure you get to colleges.”
Athmus recently committed to Morningside University to play baseball thanks to the opportunity legion baseball gave him.
“I prefer playing legion baseball. We have around 60 games including area and state games,” Athmus said. “We get to go to out of town tournaments, play on teams with all our friends, and play a lot.”
These club sports also prove to be a major time commitment for these athletes. Players like Connolly are required to practice multiple days a week for months on end during the school year. Hundreds of hours poured out over a season practicing to try to get better.
“This summer we’re basically practicing every day we don’t have a game,” freshman Ethan Dixon said. “I think we have about 35 games, and over this summer season we have a lifting program during the week. It’s a lot but totally worth it for how much fun the summer is.”
Despite the enormous time commitment these activities take, many look back on their experiences and find it was worth it.
“We were so busy all the time but that also gave us time together as a family,” Mrs. Connelly said. “Eden was able to meet so many new people which I felt helped her avoid getting burned out from playing. It was worth seeing her dreams of playing happen and commit to the next level and inevitably coach something she’s so passionate about.”
