Nearly all of the travel sports obsessed kids who were “recruited” for college seem to quit?
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Anonymous
| Anyone else notice this? Almost all of them end up at regional public or podunk private colleges, then proceed to quit their sport after a year. And then most of them seem to transfer out to the university more (or most) of their high school friends attend. Even the D1 swimmer girl we knew quit and left her SEC university. Seems like these realities are totally ignored by the fanatic parents? |
Anonymous
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Haven't noticed this. My kid did the sport the whole time at college and went on to do the sport professionally for several years. when he was ready to move on, he went to grad school. He has a number of friends who followed the same or similar path.
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Anonymous
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Who is the “them” you are referring to?
Back in the day I was a recruited swimmer at a Div III SLAC. I quit after sophomore year because my shoulder blew out. 16 years of the sport took its toll. I have a feeling, though, that the percentage of students who decide not to continue with their sport is roughly the same as the number who quit orchestra, band or theatre. |
Anonymous
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For some people the sports scholarship feels like the only way to pay for college, they think. Some kids are just that driven and their parents encourage the sport.
Soccer and lax kids seem to have the largest issue with what you are observing. Bottom line is soccer pays nothing as a "real job" neither does "lax". Unless, DC wants to be a coach or trainer or maybe sports medicine. Most are one injury away from never playing as well. You will get a ton of push back from this forum as many feel their DC is a sports star. Every family should do what they think is best. As soon as mine said they were not having fun anymore, sport stoped. I can remember driving home from a soccer game WAGS U13 dad in the car next to us cursing at his daughter because "his" team lost. She went to a low ranked school "scholarship" stayed one semester. Didn't play. Transferred twice, never graduated. Another boy went to a "IVY" mom wrote all his papers and a got a job at that school. He did graduate college. Can not even write an email. Does he have a good job, sure, connections, will he succeed long term, highly doubt it... These are extreme examples... Many parents will say that sports help with team work in jobs, that is another reason to play and push their kids. |
Anonymous
| ^^^ No such thing as a sports scholarship at Division 2 and 3 regional public and podunk private colleges. And most of the student-athletes at D1s are on partial scholarships, if anything. |
Anonymous
I just notice most of these supposedly recruited athletes end up at colleges they'd never have any interest in were it not for a spot on some team that plays in front of a dozen fans. It seems so pointless and predictable. Of course your kid is going to be unhappy. Why even allow this? Seems far wiser to your child go where they genuinely want, then play club or intramurals. |
Anonymous
+100 Yeah the sports scene is extremely crazy! Starting travel sport at a young age doesn’t seem to pay off. |
Anonymous
| Probably never occurred to the OP but some kids play travel because they like it. College sports was never the goal for two of my kids. One would’ve but wasn’t good enough. The other two play their sports in college. Zero scholarships but one got into a T10 LAC that otherwise might not have happened. All of them played high school, which is what I wanted for them as it gave them confidence and sense of belonging there. Different kids, different outcomes, but all of them played travel because they enjoyed it. And yes, it cost me a fortune! |
Anonymous
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“Almost all”
“Most of them” You have any sources for this, or just pulling it out of your ass? |
Anonymous
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Most aren’t on athletic scholarships; often, the sport is an admissions back door. So it makes sense that some might quit after they get in and decide they don’t want to commit the time/energy to the sport anymore.
This is particularly true of “rich kid sports”: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/harvard-university-and-scandal-sports-recruitment/599248/ |
Anonymous
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Mom of a college senior. In DC HS grad class, three students we know well were recruited (one as junior) to play in their sports. D1 schools. One athlete had a sports-career ending injury during training at the college just before the season began. The other athlete has had back to back injuries each requiring extensive surgery, rehab, P/t and might play one season junior year. And, another became sidelined in the midst of the season with recurrent aches and pains and noticeable performance decline, went home for evaluation and was told that due to over training, it was either dicey surgery followed by long recuperation (sitting out one season) or just quitting the sport altogether. Chose to quit. |
Anonymous
Same can be said about academics. |
Anonymous
Kids on a tough academic track don’t temd to drop out of college. A few do. But most graduate and go on to grad school. You can argue that going overboard in search of an Ivy is silly. And I agree. But if you look at a atJ class, they are almost all going to graduate from college very employable. |
Anonymous
Agreed! It’s overkill |
Anonymous
It also doesn’t leave a lot of room for high school kids who still want to play at rec league levels in high school for fun and exercise in many sports. Kids end up dropping even though they like the sport because they don’t look college recruitable or can’t make a HS team. |