My experience as well.

League ball is a complete waste of time and effort for any athlete that has talent these days. No challenge at all and most those kids don’t want to be there. It’s sad bc I enjoyed league ball growing up.

mine is still exited about hunting, We are in the blind now. Hope she never changes, but if she does, she does. I try not to pressure her. I let her bring her electronics if she wants.

She has been working on me recently about going on a bear hunt. If her grades continue I think ill take her.

I feel fortunate she loves it, I dont think it’s some thing you can force or foster. Just have to be supportive and consistent.

100% true. Little league there is no talent or competition and not much better at the Freshman and JV high school level we played at. To get good games against skilled players you have to go to a select league.

My issue with it having teams drive from all over the country to play on some privately owned sports complex where there is 40 other teams playing….every single week from Friday to Sunday. Some of his games this summer started on Wednesday. It was ridiculous.

I'm sure this won't be popular, but these select leagues, travel ball, showcases, Perfect Game, etc are really good at separating parents from their hard earned money. The vast majority of these kids won't play beyond high school, or if they do it will be at a very low level. Most of them are wasting their time. My buddy who I played minor league ball with, and scouted for the Giants for 30 years will tell you the same thing.

I'm betting your son will come back around like Grizz's example. My son did the same thing and he loves it now more than ever. Good luck.

No it’s not popular, but it’s 100% the truth

its one of the most brilliant business models out there. parents ego’s for cash

Last year I assisted with a guided hunt with the TYHP (Texas Youth Hunting Program) and loved it. This year I became a certified Huntmaster for the program. Most of the kids that were involved on the hunt I assisted with were from areas such as Houston, Dallas, Beaumont, or other large cities. Surprisingly the parents of these kids had never hunted or only when they were young. For the most part, they had nowhere to take them or didn't know how to find a place to hunt. I would set in the stand with the child and parent to make sure all safety precautions were taken and to ensure the right deer was killed. This was probably the best hunt, aside from taking my son, I had ever been on. The kids were excited and some of the parents apprehensive but open minded. After the kids make a kill, they bring the deer back to camp and with the help of the parent, process the deer. If the parents don't know how to do that then I will assist them with it. When I see kids who enjoy the hunting/camping experience and the camaraderie that comes with it, it gives me hope that our sport we love so much won't be lost.
There are other factors at play that affect our sport. One aspect is having access to hunting areas whether it's a lease, family land, or public land. I've seen where kids have shot the "wrong" buck such as one that is too young and get chastised for having done so, even though it's there first deer. This is enough to turn young people away from hunting, sometimes for good. Shake their hand, pat'em on the back and say dang good deer for a first. Access to public land, especially out west is getting more difficult by the year. Where once, you could get OTC tags now requires multiple years in most cases of putting in for draws. We all know times have changed and we have to change with them to ensure our sport doesn't fade away.

Im in Colleyville.

With that said to answer your question No but the percentage of those that grew up hunting and dont hunt any more is exponentially higher around my ranch then colleyville, and I would suspect its that way for most rural communities. Ones here in Colleyville that that grew up hunting still hunt alot, including a bunch that got into it later in life. Its also a very different means

Just because you live in the panhandle or any where rural doesn’t mean you actually have hunting access either. I image very few rural counties in Texas have more resident hunters then non resident hunters.

I'm sure this won't be popular, but these select leagues, travel ball, showcases, Perfect Game, etc are really good at separating parents from their hard earned money. The vast majority of these kids won't play beyond high school, or if they do it will be at a very low level. Most of them are wasting their time. My buddy who I played minor league ball with, and scouted for the Giants for 30 years will tell you the same thing.

I'm betting your son will come back around like Grizz's example. My son did the same thing and he loves it now more than ever. Good luck.

I was obsessed with it, that is, until the hormones started to kick in.

So many factors have come into play on these kids since then I can't even begin to count. Hell, I've got grown-azz men in my family that don't realize the opportunity they have, for free, I don't even have to be involved, that I would have killed for.

My guess is most folks under 35-40 or so (I am 53) are a lot less likely to spend quality time outside of the city limits.

I'm hosting an Adult Learn to Hunt hunt, through the TWA this coming weekend. 5 adults + guides, cook, etcetera. I think 3 of them are ladies. My first time and I believe it's a relatively new program at TWA. The young man running it seems impressive, Phd, etc. We'll see. I'm looking forward to learning about what motivated these folks to look into it.

I grew up in Throckmorton County and graduated with 21 other students, including 13 boys. Of the boys, six of us hunted/trapped and the other seven didn't. At that time getting access to hunt was very easy but some of those guys just didn't have any interest in it.

There is only so many hours in a day and days in the week, if sports are taking up the majority of their time, it certainly affects their ability to participate in other hobbies they enjoy. My oldest son decided to play travel ball last summer, so while me and his younger brother were at the lake fishing, he was living out of hotels playing 3 games a day in the blazing hot sun. His choice, but he burned out and now he doesn’t want to play ball in college. To me, it seems like a lot of wasted years where he could have been doing something else that would have made him more well rounded. I doubt he will look back and fondly remember any particular game. Still, we let him decide to do what he wanted to do (within reason) and the choices and consequences were his to own.

Sports have very good aspects, I just think that a lot of it is overdone volume wise…it’s a money maker and coaches and teams have been able to con parents into thinking their kid is gonna be the next Mike Trout or Derek Jeter. My neighbor told me last week he thinks his son has the talent to play at the D1 level….the kid is 6 years old.

Good discussion to have and I do think they just have different hobbies and interests than I did. My senior year of high school all I cared about was hunting, fishing, partying and trucks. These kids are more into sports, video games and light socializing. They do party but nothing like we did. They care nothing at all about trucks and don’t know the difference between a V-8 and a V-6. They are good kids and get great grades in school, which I was neither at that age.


Growing up in a rural area has no bearing at all on whether or not a kid is gonna be into hunting. A lot of my buddies grew up on property and very few still hunt. Both my cousins grew up on a ranch and neither of them hunt, one will if it’s easily available but years would pass between him coming down to the ranch to hunt. Most of the guys who grew up on property ended up moving to town and got a 9-5 job. They didn’t want to be on the ranch anymore.

If a person lives in a very urban environment I can see there being a barrier to entry but not to middle and upper class suburban folks. Remember, they are the ones who lease the rural guys land and own hunting ranches for their own use.