Our kids decided at young age they didn’t want to do soccer headers and possibly lose brain cells. The travel coach said he wouldn’t choose then to join his team, which they were fine with, though both were otherwise quite good for their age level.
Chronic illness severely restricted any stamina they had for sports by the time they were teens anyway. We never spent much besides reasonable double digit registration fees plus some snacks for them to play, and all the driving to and from events.