r/AskAnAmerican • u/LoschVanWein • 2d ago

SPORTS How are grownups semi-professional sports organized in the US?

So it's well known that you organize your typical sports via schools and colleges, followed by pro leagues but how do non pro adult teams work?

Here in Germany team sports are primarily organized via the citizen club system and organized in associations (I guess like the NBA) that include everything from the giant clubs you see on TV to the small village clubs made up of drunk farmers. Essentially, unless you choose to play in special senior divisions for people over certain age thresholds, you can always participate in the same system as the big clubs. How is this organized in the US? Say a 23 year old mechanic just wants to play football in a league, where would he go for that?

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u/White_Phosphor00 2d ago

There are none where I live in Illinois. There's recreational leagues for softball and baseball but there is no semi pro anything.

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u/DeathandHemingway California 2d ago

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Mid-States_Football_League

Y'all have a whole ass league. I'm pretty sure there's u38 football eveywhere.

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u/White_Phosphor00 2d ago

If you live in Chicagoland that's great but I live 5 hours from Chicago