Why are high school and college sports SUCH a big deal in the States?

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I know that the answer is ‘scholarships’ for college, but like, why? I’m in the UK and even schools that have a big reputation for sport are nowhere near as intense as the states. Reading parenting subs atm talking about signing up 5 year olds for specific sports so that they’ll have a shot of making the team in high school. That just feels insane to me.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Tradition is a part of it. College sports go back to at least the turn of the 20th Century. A lot of the places that are most into college sports also don’t have a pro sports team – if you’re from, say, Alabama and love football, college might be much more attractive than rooting for Atlanta or New Orleans or something.

Said place also tend to have a lot of local/ regional pride, and with fewer pro teams or other outlets to express that pride, college sports make a good proxy.

Incidentally, high school baseball is pretty big in Japan, though I couldn’t say why specifically.

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