Year round sports and specialization is not helping this sport either. Our numbers in my wrestling club are up significantly since I took over 5 years ago, which is great... but I lose kids around MS (and even earlier) because they are going to "focus on baseball", etc. Private club teams pressure parents in to believing their kids will fall behind if they aren't on their club teams playing year round ball and spending ridiculous amounts of money to be on those teams. Baseball practices start in January now and move outdoor in March or sooner. Then they play games from March/April to July. Have a short time off and then fall ball starts. That runs till November and then hitting/pitching sessions start up. Baseball is just one example of the specialization I am talking about and I see it from other sports as well. Kids specializing at such young ages frustrates me. Both of my boys play 3 different sports each. I know it will be tough to keep up with the demands of all 3 sports as they approach HS but not impossible. If they decide they don't want to continue with all 3, that is up to them but I am not going to pull them out of all other sports at such a young age because of pressure from those private club teams to "play fall baseball" for example. I encourage all kids I know to get involved in as many activities as they can when they are young. It develops a much more well rounded athlete anyways.