How do kids have time for sports in high school?

[Anonymous]

I went to a well regarded private and our valedictorian was quarterback of the football team and a star lacrosse player. Went to an Ivy and played lacrosse there. Students have been balancing both successfully for a long time, it all depends on their time management and innate skills.

[Anonymous]

this is a bizarre thread. Plenty of academic kids play sports too.

HS in Fairfax gets out at 2:50. Sports are done by 5. My kid goes to bed at 11pm so there is plenty of time for dinner, homework and downtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is a bizarre thread. Plenty of academic kids play sports too.

HS in Fairfax gets out at 2:50. Sports are done by 5. My kid goes to bed at 11pm so there is plenty of time for dinner, homework and downtime.

TJ does not get out until 4:00 pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a bizarre thread. Plenty of academic kids play sports too.

HS in Fairfax gets out at 2:50. Sports are done by 5. My kid goes to bed at 11pm so there is plenty of time for dinner, homework and downtime.

TJ does not get out until 4:00 pm.

TJ has no real athletes

[Anonymous]

My Ivy League junior son (DS) was raised by his “tiger mom” (my wife), who wanted him to excel in everything. He started piano at age five, tennis at six, golf at seven, and guitar at ten. As a freshman, he was the top tennis player on a team that went on to capture the state 6A title. He finished as the state runner-up in golf three years in a row. By the end of his junior year of high school, he had completed Level 10 of the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in piano and had also become an accomplished guitarist. He earned a 1450 on the SAT and a 3.5 GPA, but his athletic achievements helped him gain tennis recruitment offers from several Ivy League schools. In my opinion, that’s far more impressive than having 15+ AP classes, a 4.5 GPA, and a perfect SAT score with no hobbies or sports. YMMV.

[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

Every kid does everything now. Everyone is top athlete and has top scores. The world is much different. Parents expect this and kids deliver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Ivy League junior son (DS) was raised by his “tiger mom” (my wife), who wanted him to excel in everything. He started piano at age five, tennis at six, golf at seven, and guitar at ten. As a freshman, he was the top tennis player on a team that went on to capture the state 6A title. He finished as the state runner-up in golf three years in a row. By the end of his junior year of high school, he had completed Level 10 of the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in piano and had also become an accomplished guitarist. He earned a 1450 on the SAT and a 3.5 GPA, but his athletic achievements helped him gain tennis recruitment offers from several Ivy League schools. In my opinion, that’s far more impressive than having 15+ AP classes, a 4.5 GPA, and a perfect SAT score with no hobbies or sports. YMMV.

Your made up story would have made more sense if you kept the sat scores straight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a bizarre thread. Plenty of academic kids play sports too.

HS in Fairfax gets out at 2:50. Sports are done by 5. My kid goes to bed at 11pm so there is plenty of time for dinner, homework and downtime.

TJ does not get out until 4:00 pm.

TJ has no real athletes

Maybe, maybe not but they do have athletes get recruited to top schools.

[Anonymous]

I can not believe that most of the posters on this thread are actually parents of teenagers. Because if they were they would know that extracurricular activities (and especially sports) almost always result in higher grades. I have not met any teens that use the hours of 230-6 on weekdays for studying unless they have practice at 7. The truth is unless you have truly special kids or truly domineering parents the time taken up by XCs are taken up by screens and fooling around.

If you want to knock sports for anything it’s that there is no time for the free range stuff that we used to take for granted (eg after school jobs, unfocused hanging out, garage bands etc.)

[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

This is no different from kids you play an instrument and play in the school orchestra or band.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly kids do it. HSs have tons of sports teams. And those kids are successful students because there are academic achievement standards required to be on a sports team.

My kid was/is super organized and maximized all of her free time to get the school work done. It worked fine for her.

Some kids prefer to just do academics though and don’t care to do what it takes to do both sports and academics. And some kids aren’t really academically qualified to do 15 AP classes. All of it is ok because there is no make or break profile for success.

Literally NONE of the students in the top 10% of my high school played sports (and this this was a school of 2500 students)

There are recreational tracks for sports, 2-3 times a week. And some healthy movement can truly benefit the kid and enhance academics.

I work in finance and our MDs recruit athletes with lesser GPA over top GPA students.

[Anonymous]

Very surprised here. Doesn’t anyone have kids who has to work on lab reports, projects etc ?

That plus a test the next day and one homework can take more than 5 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very surprised here. Doesn’t anyone have kids who has to work on lab reports, projects etc ?

That plus a test the next day and one homework can take more than 5 hours.

Typically the teacher assigns reports weeks in advance, if you have focus/deep work for 1 hr per day you should be in good hands for completion. That’s what my kid does while managing her pre pro dance training.

If you are on top of the deep work schedule there is no reason to study extra for a test.

That’s how I managed back in the day and I continue to use this method to manage my work. Considering my peers typically manage the same scope with teams of 11 and I am fine at 7, I would say it really works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a bizarre thread. Plenty of academic kids play sports too.

HS in Fairfax gets out at 2:50. Sports are done by 5. My kid goes to bed at 11pm so there is plenty of time for dinner, homework and downtime.

TJ does not get out until 4:00 pm.

TJ has no real athletes

+1

To suggest otherwise is laughable.