High school sports or club sports?

[Anonymous]

My son will be a rising freshman next year (my oldest). He has been playing travel soccer on a competitive team since U9. He is interested in trying out for a few different high school sports (fall, winter, and spring). It will help him make new friends, really go all-in at high school, etc. He is very athletic and will likely make at least the freshman/JV teams. If he does this, I assume he will need to stop playing travel soccer, as when will there be time for all of this and homework. He doesn't need to play in college, but wants to still play competitive sports and be active. What do most people do?

[Anonymous]

My son had to drop his sport he played since he was 7 when he started HS. His other sport took up more time in HS. So your son is going to have to make a decision if the practices and games overlap.

[Anonymous]

Soccer is a bit unusual in that college recruiting is still very active at the club level. Partly depends on your school and coach though. You can likely pick one and contact schools yourself though.

[Anonymous]

School's view on sports matters. Size of school matters. Area and economics of students matter.

A bigger suburban school where lots of kids play club sports will have teams full of kids who focus mostly on that sport. Depending on size, there will be room for some kids who do not play club on freshmen/JV but not varsity. There are always no cut sports like football, track, swimming and wrestling. Kids may not get a varsity letter in those but can always participate.

My advise would be to talk to your schools athletic director. Get his/her's thoughts on the subject.

I think you will find that high school coaches, like pretty much all coaches, think that their sport is the most important thing your kid does so everything else most not interfere.

[Anonymous]

I guess I have a different take than other posters. Almost every child I know in high school, including ours, plays at least one school sport and one club team OR does something similar with drama/chorus/band/orchestra. Several of our children play two or more school sports (different or slightly overlapping seasons) and one club team. I think it depends on the child, the school, course selection and family support.

We have not found that our children have had to drop something they enjoy and that provides them with great physical health and psychological benefits. They also have enjoyed integrating themselves further into the school community while still maintaining older contacts and relationships on club teams. FWIW, all of our children have all take 5-7 AP classes by the time they have graduated or will graduate from high school and all other classes have been Honors. Grades remained strong (A's with an occasional B+) despite intense practice schedules. Our kids are in private schools in DC if that matters but many of our friends have children in our local public in Virginia and their experiences seem very similar.

It also does take some juggling of schedules and judgement calls about which game the kid will play when there is no possible way to get to both. For the most part the coaches have been supportive. However, I have heard a complete horror story from friends at another school about her child being totally sidelined because the soccer coach and the basketball coach on the high school team wouldn't work together (so it didn't even involve the kid's travel soccer team).

If your son is like our children, who thrive when they are pushing themselves, then he should be able to manage it. It seems like you have a thoughtful approach to the matter and I think it will all work out. Follow your instincts (and your son's) about what will work best.

[Anonymous]

In our area (MoCo), I'd say close to 100% of the kids who play high school soccer continue to play on their club travel teams as well. The club level is almost always higher than the HS one, and the kids who have stuck with it this long want to play the best soccer they can. Plus, as another PP mentioned, all recruiting is based on club play. I'm not sure you can predict in 9th grade whether a kid will potentially be interested in playing in college. Virtually all clubs play a lighter schedule in the fall to accommodate the HS season.

If a kid wants to be a 3-season HS athlete, then that will be difficult or impossible to combine with club soccer.

[Anonymous]

Op, they need to have a group at their high school that they consider friends. Being on a high school team does this. It's a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I have a different take than other posters. Almost every child I know in high school, including ours, plays at least one school sport and one club team OR does something similar with drama/chorus/band/orchestra. Several of our children play two or more school sports (different or slightly overlapping seasons) and one club team. I think it depends on the child, the school, course selection and family support.

We have not found that our children have had to drop something they enjoy and that provides them with great physical health and psychological benefits. They also have enjoyed integrating themselves further into the school community while still maintaining older contacts and relationships on club teams. FWIW, all of our children have all take 5-7 AP classes by the time they have graduated or will graduate from high school and all other classes have been Honors. Grades remained strong (A's with an occasional B+) despite intense practice schedules. Our kids are in private schools in DC if that matters but many of our friends have children in our local public in Virginia and their experiences seem very similar.

It also does take some juggling of schedules and judgement calls about which game the kid will play when there is no possible way to get to both. For the most part the coaches have been supportive. However, I have heard a complete horror story from friends at another school about her child being totally sidelined because the soccer coach and the basketball coach on the high school team wouldn't work together (so it didn't even involve the kid's travel soccer team).

If your son is like our children, who thrive when they are pushing themselves, then he should be able to manage it. It seems like you have a thoughtful approach to the matter and I think it will all work out. Follow your instincts (and your son's) about what will work best.

This may work in private but in a large public with legitimate tryouts and cuts, a Coach will never let you miss a high school game for a club game. You are all in and will find yourself quickly sitting on the sidelines of you do this.

3 sports in HS is really tough on a kid. We do two and I actually think it is too much.

[Anonymous]

Playing soccer in HS if you are use to a high level club team is so incredibly frustrating and there is a high number of injuries because you are playing against kids that don't really know the rules and just want to slide tackle the best player.