Parents spend thousands, make sacrifices for youth hockey – Grand Forks Herald

To make it all work, Murphy goes to the bank and takes out a loan each year and uses it to cover the expenses it takes to allow her son to play the game he loves.

“Financially, you plan everything around hockey,” Murphy said. “Outside of that, we don’t do a whole lot.”

Murphy is one of hundreds of parents in Grand Forks and the surrounding area who face the same challenge of balancing their finances with the game of hockey.

Hockey is often cited by studies as the most expensive sport for young athletes to play, with some families telling the Herald they spend up to $10,000 a year for fees, equipment, travel and hotel.

That money can put a strain on a family’s finances or prevent some from playing the sport altogether.

Many who can afford—or find a way to afford—to have their child play have to find a way to cut back on other things. Murphy, for instance, said she and her family don’t do much outside her son’s athletic events. The family tries to take a trip together once every other year, but even that can be difficult sometimes when they’re gone most weekends for hockey tournaments all over the Upper Midwest.

When signing up a child for the Grand Forks Youth Hockey Association, each child pays a team registration fee that costs several hundred dollars, according to Steve Johnson, hockey director for the association. For instance, a child playing for a mite or termite team would pay about $150, whereas a 13- or 14-year-old playing for a bantam team would cost $700 or $800.

“We feel our fees are priced very well in comparison to other places,” he said. “There are other places that are able to play at a lesser dollar amount, but I think it’s affordable. If a parent wants to travel every weekend with their kid, that sometimes gets spendy. But we have parents who travel every other time or every third time and carpool, and that can significantly cut the costs.”

Those fees cover things such as ice time, payment for officials and registration fees to enter tournaments, Johnson said. The entry fees for those tournaments can run from $1,100 to $1,500.

Johnson said his organization tries to get each team in three tournaments per season, not counting the state tournament.

“Obviously, we’ve got really big numbers and interest in hockey in our community, and that starts with seeing UND hockey down the road at the Ralph Engelstad Arena,” Johnson said. “Every kid wants to be T.J. Oshie or Jonathan Toews. Therefore, there’s a lot of excitement with kid’s playing hockey. And with that comes more numbers and some families having three or four kids playing. So that can be hectic sometimes for parents.”

On top of that, players are responsible for paying for their own equipment, which could fall anywhere from about $500 to $1,800 for a junior player, said Eric Knudson, store manager at Gerrells Sports Center/Hockey World in Grand Forks, with goalie equipment costing more than that.

Some of that, however, can be used for several years at a time, Knudson said, which can limit the cost from year to year.

A helmet, for instance, can cost between $55 and $280 but can be used for two to three years, Knudson said. A stick, on the other hand, would need to be replaced yearly and can cost more than $100.

“A lot of it depends on a kid’s growth,” Knudson said. “And that is impossible to predict.”

Knudson said his store offers a leasing program for skates so families can cut back on costs, he said. Instead of having a family buy a new pair of skates every time a child outgrows them, which cost anywhere from $100 to $600, the store will charge a discounted price and lease out the skates. Those can be switched out at any point during the season if a player’s feet outgrows the skates.

Some equipment, such as skates, pads and gloves, can be handed down to a younger sibling or family member after an older one can’t use them anymore, saving the family considerable money in the long run.

Though the fees and equipment are not cheap, many begin feeling the burden of hockey when they’re constantly on the road and traveling.

Making sacrifices

Stephanie Kaiser has two children ages 10 and 9 who play travel hockey. She said the amount of traveling adds up and makes things difficult for families, including her own.

When traveling, parents and their athletes have to pay for the travel to the city, nights in a hotel and food while on the go. Those costs are not covered in registration fees to play on the teams.

And then there are the hidden costs, such as taking time off work for weekend tournaments that sometimes start on Thursday or Friday, Kaiser said. Because of that, Kaiser said she’s heard of parents taking extra work shifts so they can make more money with overtime pay and saving up on paid time off so they can go to their child’s games.

Kaiser said she and her husband split up on the weekends, with each taking one of their sons to their respective games, sometimes in different cities or states.

With the strain it can put on families, Kaiser said she and her family rarely take vacations or splurge on their children. When one asks for something special, they tell them of how expensive hockey is.

“There are plenty of other opportunities or things that we think would be fun, but it’s kind of a choice, and hockey takes precedence,” she said.

In order to afford her sons playing hockey, Kaiser said she uses her flex payment each year in order to pay for a year of hockey.

Those who choose not to travel can play in an in-house league run by the Grand Forks Park District, and the organization offers recreational hockey leagues for players ranging from ages 9 to 12.

But for those who do play for travel teams, the constant travel also has an impact on athletes, Kaiser said. The constant cost can sometimes prevent children from playing other sports, forcing them to specialize in just hockey.

To prepare young athletes to play at the high school level, Kaiser said she feels it’s important for children to play on the travel teams. With hundreds of children in youth hockey in the region, and a limited number of high schools to play at, many parents could spend thousands of dollars in youth hockey, only to see their children’s sports careers end with their time in high school.

The Grand Forks Youth Hockey League has youth teams up until players are 14 years old. After that, athletes can play for the Grand Forks Stallions—a junior gold team designed to be in addition to or as an alternative to high school junior varsity.

The more advanced players can play on elite teams that travel all across the Upper Midwest and are often composed of some of the best youth players in the state.

Worth it

After high school, even fewer will play the sport in college. According to the NCAA, just 11.2 percent of high school hockey players skate for a college team.

“How many of those will even play on a high school team? Very few,” she said. “There’s only two high schools in town, so you have all of these kids spending eight months of the year and throwing all of their money into it, and it’s voiding out their opportunity to participate in a lot of other things. And at some point, this is all going to abruptly end for many of them.”

Johnson said the area’s strong hockey culture comes from the success of UND’s hockey program and young athletes wanting to emulate those players.

Murphy said her son’s goal is to eventually play hockey in college and that a lot of sacrifices go into supporting her son playing the sport. The sacrifices, however, are worth it, she said.

“We enjoy it, and we know he enjoys it,” she said. “We’ve never forced him to do any of it. If he were to ever say he didn’t want to go, we wouldn’t go.”

Kaiser said she has never forced either of her two hockey-playing sons to play hockey, and if they wanted to quit, they could at any point. Her sons love the sport, and she said she wants to support them as much as she can.

“I know some people think we’re crazy and ask us why would we would do that,” Kaiser said. “But we love it. if we didn’t truly love it, we wouldn’t do it.”