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Financing dreams

Thousands of parents in the Tampa Bay area pay as much as $2,000 a year to finance a child's dream of playing on an elite traveling sports team. Many are hoping the cost is worth the reward.

[Times photo: Olie Stonerook] Martha Rivera and her five sons, from left, Thaddeus Klenovich, 9 Jordan Rivera, 5, Nate Booker, 15, Matt Booker, 16, and Jason Booker, 13.

By BRANT JAMES

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 2000

Martha Rivera has plenty of ways to spend her salary. Five of them are waiting for her back home after she finishes her shift as an emergency room nurse at Spring Hill Regional Hospital.

Five young boys can be expensive, especially for a single parent. Five boys playing sports, like all of her's do, is even more so. It really becomes a financial burden when some of them, such as her oldest, Matt Booker, compete year-round at a high level.

"It seems like there's always another $50 check going to wrestling," she said. "Sometimes it's kind of hard to keep track."

Rivera is one of thousands of parents in the Tampa Bay area that pay as much as $2,000 a year to finance a child's dream of playing on an elite traveling sports team. With national organizations supporting traveling clubs in dozens of team and individual sports -- from baseball to volleyball -- there is an avenue, for scores of kids who are good enough to make the cut.

Parents say it's expensive, but worth it. In a society where athletics can lead to free education and financial reward on or off the playing field, $2,000 a year is a sound investment, they say.

"The more tournaments they go to, the more exposure they can get to coaches and scouts," Rivera said. "We're really looking forward to college. If he can get a scholarship, this will all be money well-spent."

Rivera spent nearly $2,000 last year keeping Matt, 16, in gear and sending him to tournaments in Florida, North Carolina and North Dakota.

Her costs aren't likely to subside. Matt finished third at 119 pounds in Class 2A last year, and has won every off-season tourney he's entered except one. Brother Jason, 12, has already won an AAU national championship in wrestling and hopes to compete more nationally. Nathaniel, 14, plays three sports; Thaddeus, 9, plays football; and Jordan, 5, has some time to decide.

Whoever makes it saves Mom money.

"Mom says it's worth it," Booker said. "She says she'd rather pay now than pay later."

Rivera is already exploring the possibility of sending Matt and Jason to tournaments in Europe next June.

"Any trip they can go to, I want them to be able to go," she said. "They aren't just athletes on trips like that, they're sports ambassadors.

"I'm going to have to start saving early on that one. That's $4,000 right there."

Not all of these athletes will achieve the level of success they wish. With travel teams available in many sports for youths aged 8 to 19, parents must decide if the investment outweighs the potential benefit.

That's long since a dead issue with Louie DiPietro, whose daughter, Beth, plays for the Tampa Mustangs softball club, even though his family has spent nearly $12,000 since she was 10 years old.

At 15, she can play in the system for three more years.

"I would hope it does turn into something," he said. "But if it doesn't, we're not going to be upset at all.

"At first we were sort of concerned about the money, but after a while it's worth it to know where your kids are."

Rivera helped offset her costs by soliciting donations from civic organizations. USA Wrestling, the sport's national governing body and organizer of the USA Junior Nationals each summer, encourages participants to seek sponsors.

With the help of his grandmother, Jeanette Soto, Booker was able to raise almost half of his $800 for room, board and airfare for the annual showcase of the nation's best youth wrestlers in Fargo, N.D.

"USA Wrestling provides you with a form letter," Rivera said. "I Xeroxed a copy and included a picture of (Matt) and sent it to companies saying he would be representing Hernando County at nationals and any contributions would be welcome.

"They send the money directly to USA Wrestling and they apply it to his account."

Rivera said she is thankful civic groups have been willing to sponsor her children. She has worked extra shifts to help pay for trips, but said not all families have that option, and denying a child access because of money would be a shame.

"(Donations) make it more accessible for less-fortunate kids," she said. "That means that anyone can do this, not just someone whose folks make a lot of money. The last discriminator is always money."

Ray Seymour, coach of the under-16 Tampa Mustangs softball team, said exceptions can be made.

"It usually works out," he said. "I know every family is different, but we're in our 21st year and we've not had too many where someone couldn't pay."

Getting a traveling team where it needs to be can be a difficult task.

"We went through $18,000 as a team last year in expenses on the road," Seymour said. "In eight days at the NSA national championships in Columbus, Ohio, last year we spent $8,000 to keep 12 players in a hotel."

Teams have to make sure everyone makes the trip. Winning is important in elite programs and there's no point in transporting the squad across the country and leaving a star pitcher at home. Players with potential financial problems sometimes bunk with teammates on the road, saving on one of the largest expenses, Seymour said.

The 10-team Mustang organization conducts car washes and runs concessions at Buccaneers and Tampa Yankees games, which allows its registration fee to be about $300 per player, Seymour said. The group's tax-exempt status makes it more attractive for corporations to make donations.

With many clubs competing for the same sponsorships, they have to "beg, borrow, and steal," said Jon East, who coaches the Clearwater Green Wave AAU girls basketball team. "If you can get sponsorships, you can ask less from the kids."

Nagging costs can intrude in many areas, even in the seemingly simple aspect of getting to practice. Travel teams draw from a wide area, meaning some players could have trouble in reaching practices.

East had identified Hernando High standout Bernice Mosby as a talented player and potential Green Wave member after coaching her at Oak Grove Middle in Clearwater. A move to Brooksville before her freshman year seemingly ended her career until East, an editorial writer at the Times, intervened.

"We helped out Bernice because she had no access to a car," he said. "Clearly distance is a problem with some kids, but it was important for her and important for us, so we worked it out."

East occasionally drove to Brooksville to pick up Mosby, and she often bunks with players during weekends to participate in multiple practices and tournaments.

"If the kids are committed, we'll find a way," East said.

Those are words to live by for Rivera, who equates a dream with every dollar spent on her boys.

"Some day, I'd like to see one of them in the Olympics," she said. "This is how it starts. I'm always pumping them up with ideas, do what you can do, so I have to do what I can.

"I'm not a millionaire, but we'll make it work out."

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