I think the US is the only country where so much emphasis is put on high school sports.
In most countries, they have Athletic Clubs for youngsters to play. Look at English soccer, the pro teams actually represent Athletic Clubs, which field teams in different sports, they have their own youth teams to develop young players, generally if you want to play sports, you go through the local Athletic Club....perhaps decoupling athletics from education would be the way to go.
Very true.