Tell me about playing a HS sport while playing almost year-round travel in a different sport
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Anonymous
| DD is in 8th grade. She plays a "spring" sport but her club team is really in season spring, summer, and fall, and then trains in the winter. Next year, in HS, she would like to play a fall sport (minimal cuts as I understand it) as well as her primary sport in the spring. Travel team will be on hold during the spring HS season but not during the fall. I am confident she could handle a winter sport, but the only one she plays/is interested in is not a team she is likely to make at our high school (even with a freshman, JV, and V team). Is this doable? I am thinking probably not if she wants to get good grades with all honors courses. |
Anonymous
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Everyone I know who plays more than one sport year-round or tries to do two sports in one season gets injured, or their grades suffer.
I would pick and choose. Guard your kid’s mental and academic health the most. Do less club stuff. |
Anonymous
| As long as she’s reasonably organized with decent grades, it’s totally fine. |
Anonymous
| We're at a school where varsity sports start in 8th, but for my kid's primary sport travel doesn't take spring (school season) off until 9th for most girls. So on DD's school team there was an 8th grader playing fairly competitive travel and school in the same season. That meant like 6-7 (ha ha) practices a week and at least 4 games most weeks. Her grades were fine because she was the kind of kid literally studying and doing homework in the car before and after practices/games, but she got injured. |
Anonymous
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High school sports have practices or games at least five days a week. Travel team will have practices several times a week.
Most optimistic schedule is high school practice 3-5:30ish. Travel team 7-9ish. Which would be possible, but are you going to get those unicorn times? Can your kid handle that amount of physical activity without burnout or!injury? Can your kid and family handle the commute to practice and dinner window? Can they get enough sleep if they are just starting homework after a second practice? |
Anonymous
| My daughter played field hockey and softball this fall. It was doable, but it was a tough schedule for sure with some really long days. She decided not to play a school sport this winter and just to train with her softball team. She said she will play both again next fall though. |
Anonymous
NP here. To add, there are often mandatory weight rooms on Saturdays...which could definitely conflict with travel team games. |
Anonymous
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This will vary greatly from athlete to athlete, school to school. All honors classes could mean a lot of things. My DCs were all honors classes kids, but it was totally fine because that was the appropriate level for them; the kids whose parents pushed them to punch above their weight class academically struggled, and adding an additional sports team commitment would be a very bad idea. DCs' school had a block schedule that really made the HS and club team double up in the fall doable. If you are at a school where your DD has all of their classes every day, this will be more challenging. Lastly, you will want to make sure your DD talks with her coaches. HS in-season sport MUST take priority, and she will likely have to miss some of the fall club off-season workouts. Good communication (and a little understanding from the coaches) is absolutely crucial.
The short answer: it's not easy, but it's doable. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the high school and sports but my dd was able to manage a fall/winter/spring travel sport and a high school sport (one of which was her travel sport) each of 3 seasons all 4 years. Hs practices are normally right after school and games are early an almost always on weekdays. Travel sport practices were after dinner hours and games on weekends. It can be be done. |
Anonymous
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DD played soccer and basketball so the seasons never crossed. After sophomore year it still was too much. She is at a private school and wanted time for other activities plus wanted to ensure her grades were top notch.
Honestly, I’m glad it needed after 2 years. |
Anonymous
| my DD has played travel soccer and done three HS sports in both 9th and 10th grade. I think next year she will have to choose one path because of the AP course load. |
Anonymous
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What is the HS sport? When DD started playing for the school, I was surprised how her practiced times changed and were sometimes right after school but sometimes late at night. It would have been impossible to balance with a club sport in the same season because of the rotating practices. Check on that and see if they will be consistent.
The other thing that changed is how she still loved her sport but did get sad when she had to miss the occasional social event. This was a big change from middle school to when she was 15. In middle school she could have played 24/7. In HS she still wanted to train hard with intensity but doing the schedule you described wouldn’t have worked. She occasionally wanted to do some social stuff. |
Anonymous
| DD does a fall and winter sport, and then lacrosse in the spring. She's also a club lacrosse player, so there is something going on all year, and often overlapping. She's able to keep her grades up and take a rigorous course load. It comes does to time management and she does not have a lot of time during the week to play on her phone, which is good. |
Anonymous
| ^and yes, she had to study more but she could have handled that. It was really the social life that would have affected her. |
Anonymous
For my DD, the club sport travel impacts the social life more than the high school sports. |