On the off chance my sophomore makes varsity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma. High school varsity basketball is pretty ridiculous these days. It's like a full-time, year round job. Forget about doing other meaningful ECs. Sometimes you need to make a choice.

Our DS looked at the time commitment, and said not worth it. It's not like he was going to get a D1 scholarship to Duke. So he backed off to a pretty competitive AAU team. Just for the fun of it. Instead of 7 days a week, it was 2 or 3. And it allowed him to do other things. It worked out. Varsity sports has gotten completely out of hand these days. And if you're not going to be recruited by a desirable college, it really is not worth the opportunity cost anymore.

What school is this that has basketball all 3 seasons? My kid would also drop her varsity sport if it required that kind of time commitment?

My kids don’t play basketball but all sports are pretty much year round commitments at their school. Even the freshman teams, which are not easy to make. One of my kids dropped sports after 9th grade because of never having time for anything else. He wanted to occasionally sleep or have downtime at home. The commitment was 6 days per week in season and at least 3-4 days per week the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

That is insane. So kids can’t have a primary sport, a secondary sport and participate in theater at your kids school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma. High school varsity basketball is pretty ridiculous these days. It's like a full-time, year round job. Forget about doing other meaningful ECs. Sometimes you need to make a choice.

Our DS looked at the time commitment, and said not worth it. It's not like he was going to get a D1 scholarship to Duke. So he backed off to a pretty competitive AAU team. Just for the fun of it. Instead of 7 days a week, it was 2 or 3. And it allowed him to do other things. It worked out. Varsity sports has gotten completely out of hand these days. And if you're not going to be recruited by a desirable college, it really is not worth the opportunity cost anymore.

What school is this that has basketball all 3 seasons? My kid would also drop her varsity sport if it required that kind of time commitment?

I think this is pretty common. My kid's DMV public high school played fall league, the school basketball season, then had open gyms in the spring, then school summer league until mid-July. Kids got half of July and August off. But, they were also expected to play AAU from March-July. Often my kid had a 2 hour "optional" school open gym the same school night that he had a 2 hour AAU practice. It was insane. They sent some kids to schools like Maryland, but my kid wasn't on that track and decided it wasn't worth it for him.

OP, the only kid I know of who did what you are suggesting was a freak athlete at my son's school who was recruited to a top program in a different sport. He told coaches he wanted to play JV basketball (they wanted him to play varsity), and they were happy to have whatever time he'd give them. This was a kid for whom they ran an inbound alley-oop from the backcourt (a kid could throw an inbound pass toward the basket from behind the half-court line, and this kid could catch and dunk it), so he was kind of a special case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is insane. So kids can’t have a primary sport, a secondary sport and participate in theater at your kids school?

DP and my middle schooler can’t even do that. There would be too many conflicts with theater at school and sports practice. My high schooler can’t even have a primary sport and secondary sport. If either did theater, it would be that and no sport. Theater is extremely time consuming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is insane. So kids can’t have a primary sport, a secondary sport and participate in theater at your kids school?

DP and my middle schooler can’t even do that. There would be too many conflicts with theater at school and sports practice. My high schooler can’t even have a primary sport and secondary sport. If either did theater, it would be that and no sport. Theater is extremely time consuming.

FULL STOP

[Anonymous]

Interesting. My kid is in private school…she does her main sport during fall term and a secondary sport during winter term; she also does her club sport (which is the same sport she plays in the fall) November-May so occasionally misses meets for her secondary sport. She can’t do theater though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We faced this dilemma. High school varsity basketball is pretty ridiculous these days. It's like a full-time, year round job. Forget about doing other meaningful ECs. Sometimes you need to make a choice.

Our DS looked at the time commitment, and said not worth it. It's not like he was going to get a D1 scholarship to Duke. So he backed off to a pretty competitive AAU team. Just for the fun of it. Instead of 7 days a week, it was 2 or 3. And it allowed him to do other things. It worked out. Varsity sports has gotten completely out of hand these days. And if you're not going to be recruited by a desirable college, it really is not worth the opportunity cost anymore.

What school is this that has basketball all 3 seasons? My kid would also drop her varsity sport if it required that kind of time commitment?

I think this is pretty common. My kid's DMV public high school played fall league, the school basketball season, then had open gyms in the spring, then school summer league until mid-July. Kids got half of July and August off. But, they were also expected to play AAU from March-July. Often my kid had a 2 hour "optional" school open gym the same school night that he had a 2 hour AAU practice. It was insane. They sent some kids to schools like Maryland, but my kid wasn't on that track and decided it wasn't worth it for him.

OP, the only kid I know of who did what you are suggesting was a freak athlete at my son's school who was recruited to a top program in a different sport. He told coaches he wanted to play JV basketball (they wanted him to play varsity), and they were happy to have whatever time he'd give them. This was a kid for whom they ran an inbound alley-oop from the backcourt (a kid could throw an inbound pass toward the basket from behind the half-court line, and this kid could catch and dunk it), so he was kind of a special case.

Same. They are either practicing in season, doing "open gyms" off season, or doing AAU the rest of the time. A kid could play multiple sports and try to get a spot, but others are practicing/playing basketball year round and getting better while your kid is playing a completely different sport. If something can be done year round, it is being done somewhere year round. Including football, even, with 7 on 7.

[Anonymous]

Is the goal to play DI-DIII level and later professionally?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal to play DI-DIII level and later professionally?

Obviously not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal to play DI-DIII level and later professionally?

Not in our house. The goal has always been to enjoy the sport. Neither kid wants to play at all in college. It comes to a point where these sports keep going and if you don’t participate in whatever during the off season they won’t get a spot during the real season. If it’s not enjoyable anymore, they stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crazy how petty and vindictive these coaches are.
Is the JV squad working as hard as the squad?

I don’t think the coaches are being petty. His interest lies elsewhere so why waste a spot on him? If he turns down varsity this year he most likely won’t even be considered for varsity next year.

It's HIGH SCHOOL, not the NCAA. Why does HS have to be treated as such these days?

[Anonymous]

Parents are saying that HS and even MS kids have to act like they are professional athletes (play one sport year round) if they want to play varsity. The uptick is youth sport injuries makes perfect sense now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents are saying that HS and even MS kids have to act like they are professional athletes (play one sport year round) if they want to play varsity. The uptick is youth sport injuries makes perfect sense now.

My kid was told by multiple coaches starting in MS "You have to think of this as a job, not as fun. You're competing with kids who are going to do this for a living. If that's not you, you shouldn't be doing it." It was really sad and crazy. Everyone who coached/trained him had played professionally, so that was 100% the mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal to play DI-DIII level and later professionally?

In their dreams

[Anonymous]

From what I have seen, only the “superstar” athletes are able to swing this. They are so talented that the coaches will take whatever time they can get, and are very tolerant of other commitments. They can miss off season workouts to play another sport, miss for other extracurriculars etc.- especially if school sponsored. All of this has been true, more or less, since the competitive youth sport level - travel/club.

It isn’t necessarily “fair”, I don’t particularly like the way things work…but it is what it is. The majority of kids do have to choose a primary sport - certainly by high school, or they won’t be playing a HS sport at all.