I say it's stupid even if you are elite. If you are that good, they will find you, especially today.
But you can’t be “that good”, unless you’ve been a club player.
Let’s put this way-with very few exceptions, usually for extremely talented multi-sport all-around athletes, if your kid isn’t a club aka travel player in his/her sport, the reality is at any high school with good sports programs-basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, swimming, track, softball, hockey, wrestling, etc-the kid has virtually no chance to play or receive meaningful PT at the varsity level. It may not be right but that’s the way it is now.
Football is a unicorn because there is no club or travel version. But the amount of outside training and work that’s necessary to be a successful HS football player at a good sized program now is enormous.
