How do kids have time for sports in high school?

[Anonymous]

I also grew up in California. Took hardly any APs because my school didn’t offer many. Had plenty of time for a sport, though I didn’t do any. I did one spring musical but spent most afternoons watching tv. Got into every UC I applied to, including Berkeley. I think you did it wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also grew up in California. Took hardly any APs because my school didn’t offer many. Had plenty of time for a sport, though I didn’t do any. I did one spring musical but spent most afternoons watching tv. Got into every UC I applied to, including Berkeley. I think you did it wrong.

You wouldn’t get into Berkeley now though boo

[Anonymous]

It’s a hard choice for sure. Especially playing a spring sport is challenging as the APs are during the season/playoffs.

[Anonymous]

They aren't having a big social life.

[Anonymous]

You can look it up athletic performance and academics are highly correlated. And not just the coaches trying to keep there would jocks legit.

I played basketball all through high school, worked 15hrs a week at a restaurant, graduated 3rd in my class, excellent ACT scores. Passed the AP exams to get college credit. I was able to pass the college calculus finals by the time I was a sophomore.

Of course, I was also tested and in the gifted program. I think there are quite a few underwhelming intellects that have to work much harder to get their grades. It's a shame though, because that basically means people that are only so so academically don't get to do any exercise.

[Anonymous]

It’s okay in 9th and 10th grade but things get very hard in 11th, with studying for the SAT plus most APs and then senior year working on the college apps takes a ton of time. Not to mention that your student needs more than just a sport for ECs. Unless they are a recruited athlete with an offer in hand.

[Anonymous]

My kid is doing it.

Junior year, 8 APs and an internship (2 extra classes beyond the regualr schedulr). Fall sport that occupies about 15 hours per week. It is incredibly intense. They do socialize with friends but not all weekend and they seem to be suited for this kind of lifestyle.

They're doing well in school and are not a star athlete, just hanging out on the varsity team. They have several very demanding extracurriculars, some seasonal or based around competitions.

My observation as to how and why this works for my kid is simple: they're just built different. Different than me, DH, and a lot of other kids. Why? No idea. But they have high aspirations, high capacity, and high drive. We watch for burnout and talk about bandwidth and goals but so far so good. It's not typical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in California, and it just wasn’t possible to balance sports where I grew up. You either focused on sports or academics in high school, not both. To get into the UCs, you need to take 15+ AP classes throughout your high school years and get straight As. You need to study 5+ hours per day. The top performing students played no sports. You don’t have time for sports, and the kids who played sports got mediocre grades. There is nothing wrong with that, but sports isn’t something you can balance where I grew up. No one did

5 hours on homework per day is indicative of a processing speed issue. Plenty of kids manage heavy academic loads alongside sports participation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also grew up in California. Took hardly any APs because my school didn’t offer many. Had plenty of time for a sport, though I didn’t do any. I did one spring musical but spent most afternoons watching tv. Got into every UC I applied to, including Berkeley. I think you did it wrong.

You wouldn’t get into Berkeley now though boo

Yes, I'm well aware of that. Thanks for your adorable response. My point was that no one should have needed to be studying 5 hours per day to get into UCs when we were in HS. The larger point is that it's actually ok to let kids be kids and participate in sports and take some APs but maybe not all of them. They'll get into a college. Maybe not a UC, but they'll be fine. There are a lot of schools out there. How about we just enjoy our lives. They're short.

[Anonymous]

Every kid is different. Both of ours had straight As and one did a varsity sport and the other did theater. One barely spent any time on homework, they did it during class, the other spent hours. Both took 12 APs, both attending their top choice university

[Anonymous]

5 hours a day? I've never studied that much even one day. I was top 10% in a public high school in early 2000s and was a mediocre athlete. I had a job and did other clubs. In college i cant even remember needing 5 hours to study. That is not normal and I wouldn't not allow my child to do that.

[Anonymous]

We are cutting back on sports in 8th. My kid can’t keep up with a travel sport plus a few other sports plus As in school. If they could, I’d let them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s okay in 9th and 10th grade but things get very hard in 11th, with studying for the SAT plus most APs and then senior year working on the college apps takes a ton of time. Not to mention that your student needs more than just a sport for ECs. Unless they are a recruited athlete with an offer in hand.

We had a recruited athlete. They never had to study for the SAT. They filled out one application. They knew what university they would attend in the spring of their junior year.

[Anonymous]

My kid would have done a sport in high school if it wasn’t such an intense time commitment. But they did not want to have to dedicate so many hours, including hours of traveling for away games and so forth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5 hours a day? I've never studied that much even one day. I was top 10% in a public high school in early 2000s and was a mediocre athlete. I had a job and did other clubs. In college i cant even remember needing 5 hours to study. That is not normal and I wouldn't not allow my child to do that.

Then you went to a high school with grade inflation. In the Bay Area, even students who can easily get a 1600 on the SAT need to spend several hours studying per day for class