Sporty families bragging about offers and committing to awful colleges in the middle of nowhere?

[Anonymous]

My local high school’s Twitter feed is full of posts like this: Larla Jones has committed to Bridgewater College to continue her field hockey career. Best of luck, Larla!

(Often, Larla was the star of the field hockey team.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college athlete and can honestly say that in every internship or job interview I had, I was asked about sports and the lessons and qualities I learned from them. I was D1 but the things you do and learn are the same and they are valuable skills in life and the workplace. So go on and shit on these families and kids all you want—they just might be the ones eventually beating your precious Johnny out for a job one day.

An employer asked a college kid about the small handful of things on their thin resume? Wow, just wow.

Is it your assertion that playing a sport at an open admit 13th grade U or broke LAC in nobodyville, USA sets you up more than attending a more selective, brand name, more resources, superior faculty, better financial aid university or LAC? Because that’s a bit deluded.

Cool it dude.

I went to an Ivy but I work in an industry with a lot of state school and no-name college grads. They are very successful and a commonality was playing sports. I know you're bothered by the notion that kids can graduate from a TTT college while playing lacrosse or football and end up senior VP in insurance or financial advisers or in tech sales making 300-400k while plenty of Ivy grads end up lowly librarians or underemployed adjunct professors.

It's called the real world. And the real world doesn't care about your Ivy degree. It was a shock to me when I figured it out but at least I got over it and don't care any more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Facebook feed is full of this right now. Nothing we'd ever do, but if you want to brag about your child's athletic offer from D1 UVA or Michigan or using sports as a hook to get into super-selective Dartmouth, Chicago or Williams, be my guest. But those are less than 5% of sporty families. The rest boast how their 15 years of sports obsession netted their kids D3 offers from completely mediocre regional private colleges nobody has ever heard of. Or some open admit regional public commuter university they'd never entertain going to were it not for the chance to play sports. What's the mindset that drives this? Seems so irrational. After freshman year, most kids quietly quit the sport and often transfer to a bigger university their high school friends went to.


Is it ego? Do sporty parents lack the ability to cede the 15 years of sports obsession can gracefully end in 12th grade?

Why does what other people do and say bother you so much?

Boast about your kids being travel sport athletic prodigies for more than a decade, then have the gall to brag they’re going to backwater joke colleges who admit everyone and whose teams don’t cut any warm body with a valid tuition check, tends to invite critique.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My local high school’s Twitter feed is full of posts like this: Larla Jones has committed to Bridgewater College to continue her field hockey career. Best of luck, Larla!

(Often, Larla was the star of the field hockey team.)

Larla will proceed to party her face off once outside of mom’s grasp. She will skip practices and ride the bench as donor kids and upperclassman teammates get all the playing time. Knowing she won’t play, she bails on “waste of time” out of town weekend games. She’s bored out of her mind watching high school friends have fun at the big state school on social media and Snapchat. By Jan or Feb she’s begging mom to transfer. Stories of the coach hating her and the upperclassman girls are mean, to guilt trip mom and dad. Facebook will never again hear of her athletic “career”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Facebook feed is full of this right now. Nothing we'd ever do, but if you want to brag about your child's athletic offer from D1 UVA or Michigan or using sports as a hook to get into super-selective Dartmouth, Chicago or Williams, be my guest. But those are less than 5% of sporty families. The rest boast how their 15 years of sports obsession netted their kids D3 offers from completely mediocre regional private colleges nobody has ever heard of. Or some open admit regional public commuter university they'd never entertain going to were it not for the chance to play sports. What's the mindset that drives this? Seems so irrational. After freshman year, most kids quietly quit the sport and often transfer to a bigger university their high school friends went to.


Is it ego? Do sporty parents lack the ability to cede the 15 years of sports obsession can gracefully end in 12th grade?

Why does what other people do and say bother you so much?

Boast about your kids being travel sport athletic prodigies for more than a decade, then have the gall to brag they’re going to backwater joke colleges who admit everyone and whose teams don’t cut any warm body with a valid tuition check, tends to invite critique.

Damn you're a miserable pr*ck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My local high school’s Twitter feed is full of posts like this: Larla Jones has committed to Bridgewater College to continue her field hockey career. Best of luck, Larla!

(Often, Larla was the star of the field hockey team.)

Larla will proceed to party her face off once outside of mom’s grasp. She will skip practices and ride the bench as donor kids and upperclassman teammates get all the playing time. Knowing she won’t play, she bails on “waste of time” out of town weekend games. She’s bored out of her mind watching high school friends have fun at the big state school on social media and Snapchat. By Jan or Feb she’s begging mom to transfer. Stories of the coach hating her and the upperclassman girls are mean, to guilt trip mom and dad. Facebook will never again hear of her athletic “career”.

Damn you're a miserable pr*ck, part two.

[Anonymous]

This is one of the most mean spirited threads I have read.
Please be kind.
Families are juggling lots of considerations- academic fit, a desire to play sports, affordability etc.
I would assume that the school their child ends up at is the one they select based on these considerations.
They have every right to feel happy and proud of their child.

[Anonymous]

I hope my DS eventually will play his sport at one of these small D3 or even D2 colleges. DS has a learning disability and the extra attention he will get at a small school and the extra help they give the athletes is exactly what he needs. I think he would struggle and be lost at a Big U, and he certainly doesn't have the grades/SATs for a Top 20 or probably even Top 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the most mean spirited threads I have read.
Please be kind.
Families are juggling lots of considerations- academic fit, a desire to play sports, affordability etc.
I would assume that the school their child ends up at is the one they select based on these considerations.
They have every right to feel happy and proud of their child.

+10000 Well said.

[Anonymous]

I swear that social media will be the demise of us all! It simply doesn't tell the whole story. Maybe this school is more affordable for the family, maybe the student doesn't have top grades and scores, or maybe he wants to move away from this area. Facebook postings shouldn't upset you this much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college athlete and can honestly say that in every internship or job interview I had, I was asked about sports and the lessons and qualities I learned from them. I was D1 but the things you do and learn are the same and they are valuable skills in life and the workplace. So go on and shit on these families and kids all you want—they just might be the ones eventually beating your precious Johnny out for a job one day.

An employer asked a college kid about the small handful of things on their thin resume? Wow, just wow.

Is it your assertion that playing a sport at an open admit 13th grade U or broke LAC in nobodyville, USA sets you up more than attending a more selective, brand name, more resources, superior faculty, better financial aid university or LAC? Because that’s a bit deluded.

Thanks for proving my point that people on this thread are simply shitting on others’ sensible and perfectly acceptable life choices without knowing a whole lot about anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college athlete and can honestly say that in every internship or job interview I had, I was asked about sports and the lessons and qualities I learned from them. I was D1 but the things you do and learn are the same and they are valuable skills in life and the workplace. So go on and shit on these families and kids all you want—they just might be the ones eventually beating your precious Johnny out for a job one day.

An employer asked a college kid about the small handful of things on their thin resume? Wow, just wow.

Is it your assertion that playing a sport at an open admit 13th grade U or broke LAC in nobodyville, USA sets you up more than attending a more selective, brand name, more resources, superior faculty, better financial aid university or LAC? Because that’s a bit deluded.

Yes, they do. My neighbor recruits for a major company. She was just mentioning that she always takes a second look at college athletes who play D3. She said the time and commitment that they put into playing, while balancing their academic load, without the supports they get while playing D1 is often telling of their determination and time management.

[Anonymous]

OP, maybe the sport is this kid's strength. One of my kids is academically at the top of his class so far. I don't brag about it and would be disappointed if he slacked off and ended up at one of those colleges. Not because I look down on them, I just know he is capable of doing better. My other kid struggles academically and socially, and I celebrate any "victory" I can. I assume that people on my Facebook would be happy for me and that DC. That DC might end up at NOVA, and it that's what happens, I'll post that. Not to brag, but to tell people who care about us what's going on with that DC. Lighten up, OP. Not everyone can brag about things you find worthy.

[Anonymous]

OP and others piling on are the lowest of humanity.

What miserable people you are to sh#% on people’s success and happiness.

Jeff - this thread needs to be shut down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope my DS eventually will play his sport at one of these small D3 or even D2 colleges. DS has a learning disability and the extra attention he will get at a small school and the extra help they give the athletes is exactly what he needs. I think he would struggle and be lost at a Big U, and he certainly doesn't have the grades/SATs for a Top 20 or probably even Top 50.

Thank you for this. My son currently attends a MAC Commonwealth school that was linked to in a prior post (one of the 'crummy' schools). Although he's a smart kid (1300+ SAT), he also has a learning disability. Until it was diagnosed and addressed early in high school, we thought he might go to a JUCO, or maybe the military. But he worked hard and decided he wanted to play his sport in college. We found a perfect fit academically in one of the MAC schools. The school was also a good fit athletically, but it certainly didn't drive the process. He's thriving, and we couldn't be prouder of him. I posted his commitment on social media. I had no idea there were people who would be so offended by this. I feel sorry for them.