Is it worth even doing HS swim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some universities will want to see that varsity letter. Club doesn't matter to them.

How do you know this?

One university also asked my kid why he didn't have an NVSL all-star patch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some universities will want to see that varsity letter. Club doesn't matter to them.

How do you know this?

Because mine was just admitted to a school with 85%+ were varsity athletes. They specifically say they care about that. If you're a recruited athlete, that's obviously different, but mine needed the letter to be a competitive non-athlete admit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some universities will want to see that varsity letter. Club doesn't matter to them.

How do you know this?

Because mine was just admitted to a school with 85%+ were varsity athletes. They specifically say they care about that. If you're a recruited athlete, that's obviously different, but mine needed the letter to be a competitive non-athlete admit.

That doesn’t answer the question. How do you know that a college wouldn’t credit someone that competed with a year round swim club the same as a swimmer who half-assed 4 months of HS swim? Obviously an applicant could explain in their application why year round club swim is more impressive than a varsity letter in swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some universities will want to see that varsity letter. Club doesn't matter to them.

How do you know this?

Because mine was just admitted to a school with 85%+ were varsity athletes. They specifically say they care about that. If you're a recruited athlete, that's obviously different, but mine needed the letter to be a competitive non-athlete admit.

So your kid is at a Service Academy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some universities will want to see that varsity letter. Club doesn't matter to them.

How do you know this?

Because mine was just admitted to a school with 85%+ were varsity athletes. They specifically say they care about that. If you're a recruited athlete, that's obviously different, but mine needed the letter to be a competitive non-athlete admit.

So your kid is at a Service Academy?

Yes. And so he focused on high school, not club (though he did that, too). Sure, it's a specific situation, but not one every family should be writing off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some universities will want to see that varsity letter. Club doesn't matter to them.

How do you know this?

Because mine was just admitted to a school with 85%+ were varsity athletes. They specifically say they care about that. If you're a recruited athlete, that's obviously different, but mine needed the letter to be a competitive non-athlete admit.

That doesn’t answer the question. How do you know that a college wouldn’t credit someone that competed with a year round swim club the same as a swimmer who half-assed 4 months of HS swim? Obviously an applicant could explain in their application why year round club swim is more impressive than a varsity letter in swimming.

Because they literally break out "varsity athletics" in their admissions percentages. If a high schooler can half-ass that, more power to them, I guess.

Obviously YMMV. Most colleges probably don't care. But like I said, some do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader just had his first hs swim meet last week. He is a year round swimmer who goes to a school that doesn’t have a swim team, so he is swimming for a different high school. He had a blast. The kids were all cheering and screaming their lungs out, and even though my son didn’t know many of them, they were all so supportive and added him to their text chats and gave him high fives. Of course it depends on the team, but in his case, the kids are very nice, the coach is great, and it’s fun to be part of the team. Plus, high school meets are nice and short! Looking forward to the next hs meet already!

can you tell me more about how you do this? DC’s eventual HS does not have a swim team - I am curious about this option.

I’m not in dmv. In my state, if you attend an independent or charter school without a team for your sport, you can play for the high school that you are zoned for. In our case, my kid goes to a private school without a team, swims for the local club, and is able to swim for the local high school. Contact the high school athletics governing body for your state and read the bylaws. I forgot to add that homeschooled students may also do this.

We had to get a letter from the private school, giving permission to participate, and the athletic director at the public high school had to sign off, but it was fairly straightforward. I think we also had to submit proof of address to show that we are zoned for the public high school.

[Anonymous]

HS States is important for your application. Especially if you place well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HS States is important for your application. Especially if you place well.

What application? The majority of private HS in this area do not participate in state championships. The kids winning state individual events in the DMV are likely to be recruited swimmers anyway.

[Anonymous]

As a swim parent, I don’t think so at all.

The high school meets are mostly light competition and not worth a decent year round swimmer’s time.

DC tried his school’s swim team once and had to swim in the high school meets as a 6th grader just to preserve the parents’ feelings. When he did an average swim for him, we’d get nasty stares and nothing more so he quit. Haven’t missed a thing and he still swims with a club.

That’s not a humble brag. It’s a reflection of what school meets are like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a swim parent, I don’t think so at all.

The high school meets are mostly light competition and not worth a decent year round swimmer’s time.

DC tried his school’s swim team once and had to swim in the high school meets as a 6th grader just to preserve the parents’ feelings. When he did an average swim for him, we’d get nasty stares and nothing more so he quit. Haven’t missed a thing and he still swims with a club.

That’s not a humble brag. It’s a reflection of what school meets are like.

Years back at Metros, there were back to back high school National records broken in the 500 free. Those swimmers were decent too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a swim parent, I don’t think so at all.

The high school meets are mostly light competition and not worth a decent year round swimmer’s time.

DC tried his school’s swim team once and had to swim in the high school meets as a 6th grader just to preserve the parents’ feelings. When he did an average swim for him, we’d get nasty stares and nothing more so he quit. Haven’t missed a thing and he still swims with a club.

That’s not a humble brag. It’s a reflection of what school meets are like.

Years back at Metros, there were back to back high school National records broken in the 500 free. Those swimmers were decent too.

My experience was a few years ago, so I don’t know what years ago is in PPs reference. DS went to metros and placed at the top in every event he swam in. At the time, he was only T20 in any event in a regular LC meet. So maybe we are talking about different years? Not sure.

There were a small handful of kids recruited for swimming from independent schools who placed well but their national ranks were either the same or lower than DS when he was being recruited. He ended up at D3 as a recruit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a swim parent, I don’t think so at all.

The high school meets are mostly light competition and not worth a decent year round swimmer’s time.

DC tried his school’s swim team once and had to swim in the high school meets as a 6th grader just to preserve the parents’ feelings. When he did an average swim for him, we’d get nasty stares and nothing more so he quit. Haven’t missed a thing and he still swims with a club.

That’s not a humble brag. It’s a reflection of what school meets are like.

Years back at Metros, there were back to back high school National records broken in the 500 free. Those swimmers were decent too.

My experience was a few years ago, so I don’t know what years ago is in PPs reference. DS went to metros and placed at the top in every event he swam in. At the time, he was only T20 in any event in a regular LC meet. So maybe we are talking about different years? Not sure.

There were a small handful of kids recruited for swimming from independent schools who placed well but their national ranks were either the same or lower than DS when he was being recruited. He ended up at D3 as a recruit.

The swimmers referenced above are Olympian Jack Conger and best female swimmer of all time Katie Ledecky. So their high school swim team was worth their time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a swim parent, I don’t think so at all.

The high school meets are mostly light competition and not worth a decent year round swimmer’s time.

DC tried his school’s swim team once and had to swim in the high school meets as a 6th grader just to preserve the parents’ feelings. When he did an average swim for him, we’d get nasty stares and nothing more so he quit. Haven’t missed a thing and he still swims with a club.

That’s not a humble brag. It’s a reflection of what school meets are like.

Years back at Metros, there were back to back high school National records broken in the 500 free. Those swimmers were decent too.

My experience was a few years ago, so I don’t know what years ago is in PPs reference. DS went to metros and placed at the top in every event he swam in. At the time, he was only T20 in any event in a regular LC meet. So maybe we are talking about different years? Not sure.

There were a small handful of kids recruited for swimming from independent schools who placed well but their national ranks were either the same or lower than DS when he was being recruited. He ended up at D3 as a recruit.

The swimmers referenced above are Olympian Jack Conger and best female swimmer of all time Katie Ledecky. So their high school swim team was worth their time

Ok, I don’t think the experience of Olympians is applicable to every swimmer. No high school coach is going to make it difficult for future Olympians to participate. Whether HS swim is worth it depends on a lot factors specific to each swimmer and the high school they attend. The HS my kid will attend currently has a coach that isn’t flexible with the club kids so the top club kids don’t swim HS. It’s not worth it to them to dial back on club for the sake of competing for their HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a swim parent, I don’t think so at all.

The high school meets are mostly light competition and not worth a decent year round swimmer’s time.

DC tried his school’s swim team once and had to swim in the high school meets as a 6th grader just to preserve the parents’ feelings. When he did an average swim for him, we’d get nasty stares and nothing more so he quit. Haven’t missed a thing and he still swims with a club.

That’s not a humble brag. It’s a reflection of what school meets are like.

Years back at Metros, there were back to back high school National records broken in the 500 free. Those swimmers were decent too.

My experience was a few years ago, so I don’t know what years ago is in PPs reference. DS went to metros and placed at the top in every event he swam in. At the time, he was only T20 in any event in a regular LC meet. So maybe we are talking about different years? Not sure.

There were a small handful of kids recruited for swimming from independent schools who placed well but their national ranks were either the same or lower than DS when he was being recruited. He ended up at D3 as a recruit.

The swimmers referenced above are Olympian Jack Conger and best female swimmer of all time Katie Ledecky. So their high school swim team was worth their time

Ok, I don’t think the experience of Olympians is applicable to every swimmer. No high school coach is going to make it difficult for future Olympians to participate. Whether HS swim is worth it depends on a lot factors specific to each swimmer and the high school they attend. The HS my kid will attend currently has a coach that isn’t flexible with the club kids so the top club kids don’t swim HS. It’s not worth it to them to dial back on club for the sake of competing for their HS.

This seems rather short sighted on the part of the HS coaches, but I can see why. You don't want someone who is a "distant cousin" of the other team members who aren't swimming club teams.