This is unfortunately very true. In the club driven sports (basketball, volleyball, soccer) it's amazing to see the money spent by parents on their children in hopes of that huge scholarship. Of course, they're also one sport athletes who never do any other sports. Its sad when all that sacrifice and thousands of dollars ends up with a community college scholarship, which is so small. What parents and athletes don't understand is that college coaches come to these tournaments/events, with a few recruits already in mind, spend their time only at their matches/games, ignore the rest of the venue, and if your kid, who is not being actively scouted, has a huge game against the scouted recruit, they MIGHT gain some interest, but often times not. In other words, the majority of parents are subsidizing the recruiting of the few real elites.
Our school travels out of state each fall, usually to California for Woodbridge. The kids fundraise for the event, as we get no assistance from the school. Most of our runners will never win a race their, and as a team, even in our most competitive years, we aren't in the elite races. So why go? Because it's a fun experience, and it casts vision for just how amazing the sport is. The opportunity to go to a huge meet, see thousands of spectators, be at a meet with national coverage. Watch elite boys and girls run times that blow the mind? To say you ran the same course on the same day. I've watched kids come back from that meet, whether having done well, or gotten embarrassed by how good the competition was, with a greater hunger for success in the sport. When they're at Arcadia and they see 16 boys break 9 in the 3200, where they usually get excited if 16 boys break 10 in the 3200 back home.
When I was in high school, our parents took us out to run Footlocker (Michigan to Wisconsin trek). I ran the seeded race. When I got to the top of the first hill, I looked back in less than a dozen were behind me. But for my teammates and I, it was a great experience. We had fun, we met other runners from other schools. We knew we weren't going to earn a scholarship off that race, but to compete against the best on one day, it was worth it.