Special Section: 2009 Beaufort Water Festival
  • Adults narrowing focus, too
    When he was starting out his coach career two decades ago at May River Academy, Dave Adams didn't have the luxury of an offseason. He jumped from sport to sport along with his players, with hardly any downtime between seasons.
  • Specialize or branch out?
    On one hand, college recruiters scour offseason club and travel tournaments for potential recruits.
  • Families bear expense of sports specialization
    When Judy Chin is serving martinis at Bonefish Grill and her husband, Stuart, is collecting tolls on the Cross Island Parkway, it's hard not to think about all the money they've spent on tennis.
  • In a world of hurt
    Sure, his business is booming, but Dr. James Andrews wouldn't mind a downturn.
  • Better late than never
    When he left Hilton Head Island for the IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., last summer, Ian Anderson had every intention of chasing the dream of playing professional baseball.
  • Specializing brings risk of burnout
    Two years ago, Coley Davis had just wrapped up the best summer of his promising junior golf career, so by all means he should have been more excited than ever about playing golf.
  • Some high schoolers still change with the seasons
    It was the summer before William Cubbage's freshman year of high school, and he was presented with a dilemma many young athletes eventually face: Did he want to continue playing a different sport in every season, or was it time to shift his focus to playing baseball year-round, in hopes of eventually landing a collegiate scholarship?
  • High school ADs bemoan decline of multi-sport athletes
    Dave Adams sat in a crowded lecture hall last December in Nashville, Tenn., eagerly awaiting a discussion on a hot topic in high school sports: Single-sport specialization and the dwindling number of multi-sport athletes.