Is playing a sport in college "worth it"?

[Anonymous]

Don't buy into all of the sports hype, get you into an elite college nonsense that these over-the-hill has-been coaches are spewing. They are all thirtysomethings who did nothing with their lives and now they are trying sell you private lessons and camps for your children for ten years from 7 to 17.

First of all what they are selling is a lie. They are dishonest people.

Secondly, these guys are thirty-something Lax Bros. Respectable families don't want their children mentored for ten years by failed-jock Lax Bros.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academy soccer is elite. All players are excellent, even the reserves, and have played for years. Not at all the point the poster was trying to make and which you are straining to support.

this part is true - i don't deny it. What i'm saying that it is a trainable level achievable with focus and determination.

This isn't nescac, but look at this roster - I'm familiar with a kid on this roster and vassar is a school where the level required can be achieved by an average athlete if they dedicate themselves to training to be the best player they can be.

https://www.vassarathletics.com/roster.aspx?path=msoc

Different poster, and I understand what you are saying. It's probably true that your siblings had more native athleticism than you are giving them credit for, but your posts point to something that I think people don't talk about enough in travel sports discussions; namely, that you have a massive leg up if you have someone close to you who knows the system in your corner to push you and advise you. The kid whose parents know little about soccer start at a huge disadvantage compared to kids from soccer families. And among soccer families, you may have parents who are great at helping with training and development, but don't understand the bigger picture about how to help their kid get into the right system for college or professional recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academy soccer is elite. All players are excellent, even the reserves, and have played for years. Not at all the point the poster was trying to make and which you are straining to support.

this part is true - i don't deny it. What i'm saying that it is a trainable level achievable with focus and determination.

This isn't nescac, but look at this roster - I'm familiar with a kid on this roster and vassar is a school where the level required can be achieved by an average athlete if they dedicate themselves to training to be the best player they can be.

https://www.vassarathletics.com/roster.aspx?path=msoc

Different poster, and I understand what you are saying. It's probably true that your siblings had more native athleticism than you are giving them credit for, but your posts point to something that I think people don't talk about enough in travel sports discussions; namely, that you have a massive leg up if you have someone close to you who knows the system in your corner to push you and advise you. The kid whose parents know little about soccer start at a huge disadvantage compared to kids from soccer families. And among soccer families, you may have parents who are great at helping with training and development, but don't understand the bigger picture about how to help their kid get into the right system for college or professional recruiting.

Nonsense, the whole idea of a personal sports coach getting you into college is ridiculous. You'll get into college on your own merit not because some coach knows how to game the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academy soccer is elite. All players are excellent, even the reserves, and have played for years. Not at all the point the poster was trying to make and which you are straining to support.

this part is true - i don't deny it. What i'm saying that it is a trainable level achievable with focus and determination.

This isn't nescac, but look at this roster - I'm familiar with a kid on this roster and vassar is a school where the level required can be achieved by an average athlete if they dedicate themselves to training to be the best player they can be.

https://www.vassarathletics.com/roster.aspx?path=msoc

Different poster, and I understand what you are saying. It's probably true that your siblings had more native athleticism than you are giving them credit for, but your posts point to something that I think people don't talk about enough in travel sports discussions; namely, that you have a massive leg up if you have someone close to you who knows the system in your corner to push you and advise you. The kid whose parents know little about soccer start at a huge disadvantage compared to kids from soccer families. And among soccer families, you may have parents who are great at helping with training and development, but don't understand the bigger picture about how to help their kid get into the right system for college or professional recruiting.

Yes I will concede this point. I was in the age cohort as a teen player before academies became widespread but since I ended up working at a club which had an academy (and tons of other teams at various levels), I understood the structural and logistical requirements to shepherd my siblings through the development process.

I remember having to 'pitch' the training and development path to my parents like i was a management consultant before they 'signed off' on it so to speak - which given the cost of club soccer in the US - is a huge financial commitment.

I guess my point is, especially for the DCUM crowd given the demographics of the posters here, d3 soccer at a strong academic brand is achievable IMO for a lot more kids than people here are stating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't buy into all of the sports hype, get you into an elite college nonsense that these over-the-hill has-been coaches are spewing. They are all thirtysomethings who did nothing with their lives and now they are trying sell you private lessons and camps for your children for ten years from 7 to 17.

First of all what they are selling is a lie. They are dishonest people.

Secondly, these guys are thirty-something Lax Bros. Respectable families don't want their children mentored for ten years by failed-jock Lax Bros.

Bloggy?

[Anonymous]

How is Georgetown prep for DS who is into national level baseball. In 8th grade currently in public school, has been missing a couple weeks of school through the year for championships. Would you recommend Georgetown prep/ Good Counsel/ St John for DS to maintain good balance between academics and sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is Georgetown prep for DS who is into national level baseball. In 8th grade currently in public school, has been missing a couple weeks of school through the year for championships. Would you recommend Georgetown prep/ Good Counsel/ St John for DS to maintain good balance between academics and sports?

Prep if he could get in - it’s a very academic school. They’re not going to take your kid if he’s not strong in the academics.

Honestly I see kids who play sports at good private schools receiving athletic scholarships to top private schools that I don’t think that they could have gotten into otherwise. The average public school kid I see more going to state schools or schools you’ve never ever heard of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know anyone in law or engineering that played college sports. Also, if one has goals set for mba/law/medicine/phd at a top school, how can one achieve those grades for entrance when time is spent playing sports? Are these college sports players pursuing business?

Raises hand.

I played D1 all 4 years, studied engineering , and have a PhD.

I have suggested D3 sports to my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Playing soccer at the jhu/williams is not high level and very easy to obtain if you are a bench player on an academy team with decent grades.

we are an below average asian family of poor genetics when it comes to athleticism and have had two in our family play at top 10 lac's for soccer.

the soccer pool at the strong academic d3 schools is really bad from a technical standpoint. If you are focused on being in the best aerobic shape possibly and you have a modicum of skill, you can make it.

I am 10 years older than my siblings and when I found out how large the hook was for being recruited, we devised a plan for my younger siblings so that they became the best athletes they could be.

At the d3 level for soccer, i believe the average american could play at that level if they focused on training from ages 9-17 on that specific goal.

pretty much any race is more athletically inclined than mine, so if we can do it - your average umc white family can do it. you guys have better athletic genetics and richer resources for training.

but it does require focus and dedication if you aren't athletically blessed. we used it only as a hook to get in. both people in my family quit after one season.

Probably the same nutball given the overlap in some phrases. Might even be Bloggy McTinfoilhat. Hey Bloggy!

Just poor reasoning, factually untrue, and creepily race-focused. Yeesh. We are suburban Maryland public with a decent, somewhat competitive soccer team, meaning we smoke the teams with kids who play soccer as a second or conditioning sport and get handled by schools with dedicated players. Even so, making varsity soccer at our school isn’t anywhere near reasonable for a kid with poor skills and “aerobic shape”. The kids running cross country, for instance, who have “aerobic shape” wouldn’t have a prayer without a long history of club ball or some incredible latent talent. And yet we might have one or two who could possibly play at Williams, the perennial D3 athletic powerhouse. Very few move on to college soccer. Girls lacrosse is much more common to land D3 and even D1 spots, but that’s a sport where we’re more competitive as a region so kind of an anomaly.

In sum, you’re wrong and pretty strange.

You did read the part where I said the player in question needs to be at the level of a reserve player in the academy system. Which in the grand scheme of things is not a high technical level. I've attended training sessions at williams in the past (they run id clinics in the late springs/summer every year - i was there in 2009 and two years ago) and when you see the speed in which the ball moves, and tactical decision making of the kids at that level it isn't great.

nothing creepy about me mentioning race. it was a small component. For example, manchester city scouts recently were exposed to mentioning players were "bbqs" - standnig for big, black, quick - in scouting reports.

What i'm trying to say is for academic focused d3 schools, the level required to play can be 'trained' for by an average athlete if they focus at it. Of the four compenents of a footballer - technical, tactical, physical, and mental/psychosocial - the d3 levels skews HEAVILY to the physical side - which is the easiest to train for.

They were exposed because it was horrible. Yet you offer it as some sort of defense. Lord you’re racist AND dumb.

I'm sure the best trainer on the planet, pep guardiola, is going to sternly lecture them

If you have any experience with european or south american scouts, they are WAY less PC.

Yes, categorizing people by race for some athletic evaluative purpose is merely PC, not racist. And I don’t care who he is, he’s a douchebag racist.

Well, this level of functioning is too common among coaches - is this who you want your child spending lots of time with in college?
And how come no one has mentioned U of Maryland football? Unless you’ve been living under a bridge for 30 years you should know what heatstroke looks like and still, in 2018, a student football player died under a coaches care. Do these programs really care about your student or is your kid just in a ring to fight lions for other people’s viewing pleasure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know anyone in law or engineering that played college sports. Also, if one has goals set for mba/law/medicine/phd at a top school, how can one achieve those grades for entrance when time is spent playing sports? Are these college sports players pursuing business?

Raises hand.

I played D1 all 4 years, studied engineering , and have a PhD.

I have suggested D3 sports to my kids.

How many years ago was that, which sport, and which engineering major ?

I was talking to a high level judge who played football back in his day but he said that no way no how would he ever have played now. He said that basically in his day they were just playing around for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Georgetown prep for DS who is into national level baseball. In 8th grade currently in public school, has been missing a couple weeks of school through the year for championships. Would you recommend Georgetown prep/ Good Counsel/ St John for DS to maintain good balance between academics and sports?

Prep if he could get in - it’s a very academic school. They’re not going to take your kid if he’s not strong in the academics.

Honestly I see kids who play sports at good private schools receiving athletic scholarships to top private schools that I don’t think that they could have gotten into otherwise. The average public school kid I see more going to state schools or schools you’ve never ever heard of.[/quote]

Why the difference? I've heard this before but don't understand it. Is it because the teams are better at private schools because they recruit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Georgetown prep for DS who is into national level baseball. In 8th grade currently in public school, has been missing a couple weeks of school through the year for championships. Would you recommend Georgetown prep/ Good Counsel/ St John for DS to maintain good balance between academics and sports?

Prep if he could get in - it’s a very academic school. They’re not going to take your kid if he’s not strong in the academics.

Honestly I see kids who play sports at good private schools receiving athletic scholarships to top private schools that I don’t think that they could have gotten into otherwise. The average public school kid I see more going to state schools or schools you’ve never ever heard of.

Why the difference? I've heard this before but don't understand it. Is it because the teams are better at private schools because they recruit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Georgetown prep for DS who is into national level baseball. In 8th grade currently in public school, has been missing a couple weeks of school through the year for championships. Would you recommend Georgetown prep/ Good Counsel/ St John for DS to maintain good balance between academics and sports?

Prep if he could get in - it’s a very academic school. They’re not going to take your kid if he’s not strong in the academics.

Honestly I see kids who play sports at good private schools receiving athletic scholarships to top private schools that I don’t think that they could have gotten into otherwise. The average public school kid I see more going to state schools or schools you’ve never ever heard of.

Why the difference? I've heard this before but don't understand it. Is it because the teams are better at private schools because they recruit?

For lacrosse and crew, those are 2 sports the private schools focus on.

[Anonymous]

Field hockey too.

[Anonymous]

D3 sports are mostly just a con to get rich kids in the door so their rich parents and grandparents 1) pay full boat tuition 2) send big donation checks.

I knew a couple girls that ran cross country for HYP. They were totally mediocre. But daddy was a billionaire.