Most people think youth sports is about talent.
It’s increasingly about timing.

A WSJ report shows families paying $20,000 to hold straight-A kids back a year, not for academics, but to get bigger, stronger, and more recruitable. 

“The interest in doing it for athletic reasons has gone vertical over the last decade.” 

Entire programs are now built around it:

“Now, so many kids are holding back that if you don’t do a holdback it’s a disadvantage.” 

And the driver is explicit. NIL money has turned youth sports into a pipeline:

With millions flowing through endorsement deals, families increasingly treat high school as a proving ground for future earnings. 

Only ~2% of athletes make D1.

But the system doesn’t price probability. It prices upside.

This isn’t just development anymore.

It’s an age optimization market.