Why This Site Exists

My name is Paul Stonehouse.

I spent 18 years coaching youth soccer, four of those years in California, one of the most competitive and cutthroat youth soccer markets in the country, followed by 14 years in the western suburbs of Chicago coaching boys and girls from U8 through U18 at a club with 35 to 40 teams.

I logged thousands of miles on the road, vans and cars packed with families, parents bending my ear the entire way. I sat in hotel lobbies at midnight after long tournament days listening to the same conversations. I stood on sidelines at some of the biggest tournaments in the country, from coast to coast, and heard the same frustrations, the same confusion, the same regrets, from parents in completely different sports, completely different states, completely different income brackets.

I also lived it as a parent myself. My daughter played U12 through U18 (I coached her for two of those years), and my son played at a highly competitive level from U8 through U18. I wrote the checks. I made the drives. I sat in those hotel rooms too.

About 12 years ago, something clicked.

I was watching a tryout session, parents lined up, kids on the field, checks being written. What struck me wasn't the soccer. It was how little information those parents were given, and how quickly they paid anyway. Months later, the complaints started: unexpected fees, vague promises, pressure they hadn't anticipated, questions nobody had answered before they committed.

I started paying closer attention, and not just in soccer. My friends, neighbors, and coworkers were raising kids in lacrosse, ice hockey, basketball, competitive cheer, and more. When I started comparing notes, something became impossible to ignore: the stories were identical across every sport. Different uniforms, different fields, different governing bodies, same pressure tactics, same hidden costs, same unanswered questions, same regrets.

This wasn't a soccer problem. It was a travel sports problem.

That's when I knew someone needed to build this. A resource covering every sport, with no club affiliations, no rankings, no paid placements, just the real numbers, the real odds, and the questions every parent should ask before writing a single check.

It took 12 years to build it properly. Here it is.