It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here

[Anonymous]

As long as your child chooses to do sports for a healthy reason, it's a good thing to do. It is by no means the only option, of course.

Absent a spikey one-in-a-thousand kind of talent, what colleges want to see is that your kid is involved in the community at school in some way, knows how to commit to something, and works at it over time. Absent the small number of spikey kids, it does not matter at all what "level" the activity is or how good the team, or band, or play actually is in the end -- just that your kid took part in it all and had the experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sports are not more important than other extracurriculars like music. And those go all year, not just a season.

Another Captain America, emerging from the ice after being frozen for decades.

Varsity HS sports are nearly all year round, with training, AAU and travel competition as well. Soccer parents probably spit out their coffee reading this.

At some schools this is true. At many it is not. Our HS sports season are ~8 weeks. One of mine did club sports and HS, another enjoyed trying six different sports during HS. They also had time to be involved in fine arts due to the short HS season.

[Anonymous]

Discouraging sports is a bad idea. Don't need to do travel or go all out if that's not their intended career, but sports are so good for kids/adults - commraderie, physical health, mental health, social, fun, ...the benefits are enormous. HS is life too - its not just a preparation for life. I wouldn't have my kid do anything in HS just for college or not do because of college admissions. Except they have to take the SAT and do the college applications. Otherwise, I let their interests and passions guide their activities. And I require something physical that gets their body moving and gets them away from sitting at a desk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wasting time on sportsball is a waste of time.

It depends. Sportsball is definitely indicative of discipline, drive, and teamwork - and every school values that.

But sportsball comes with such an enormous opportunity cost. It's extremely time consuming and 98 percent of participants are not getting an athletic scholarship. And no one at Yale cares about your little field hockey experience.

On the other hand, sportsball is fun and healthy and great for social stuff and all that.

In the end, the kid's sanity and enjoyment is what matters. F Yale. I'd rather have a happy, well adjusted, healthy, and strong kid that does sportsball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team

Remember this if your kid thinks they want a T20 or competitive college. It can be just as difficult/competitive in college to join clubs, write for the newspaper, join robotics or model UN, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sports are not more important than other extracurriculars like music. And those go all year, not just a season.

Another Captain America, emerging from the ice after being frozen for decades.

Varsity HS sports are nearly all year round, with training, AAU and travel competition as well. Soccer parents probably spit out their coffee reading this.

At some schools this is true. At many it is not. Our HS sports season are ~8 weeks. One of mine did club sports and HS, another enjoyed trying six different sports during HS. They also had time to be involved in fine arts due to the short HS season.

Yes, but I was responding to someone who said marching band is year round while HS sports aren’t. So I guess their argument is that all marching band is year round but some high school sports aren’t? I find this dubious, if not an effort to denigrate the effort of the kids in HS sports by this other person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team

I think there's an overemphasis on organized sports in American culture. I think it should be more about exercise, free play and connecting socially. Instead it's become a treadmill of keeping up with the Joneses and rushing to join leagues, club and varsity teams and have to do a relentless schedule of mandatory practices, games and meets that feels like a job without pay. All to show your "commitment" to the team. We've lost the plot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team

I think there's an overemphasis on organized sports in American culture. I think it should be more about exercise, free play and connecting socially. Instead it's become a treadmill of keeping up with the Joneses and rushing to join leagues, club and varsity teams and have to do a relentless schedule of mandatory practices, games and meets that feels like a job without pay. All to show your "commitment" to the team. We've lost the plot.

Yep. Lots of sports strivers and sports grinders. Those terms are not just for academics.
Often these people scoff at those who pursue academics more and yet, they are doing the same nonsense just in a different area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is frustrating when the time commitment is enormous. I would hope that schools would give some "credit" to a kid who plays a varsity sport and manages to do well academically because that type of work ethic will get them far in life, even if it may not help with college admissions.

Ahem. My non-athletic kid also has a good work ethic, mind you. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team

I think there's an overemphasis on organized sports in American culture. I think it should be more about exercise, free play and connecting socially. Instead it's become a treadmill of keeping up with the Joneses and rushing to join leagues, club and varsity teams and have to do a relentless schedule of mandatory practices, games and meets that feels like a job without pay. All to show your "commitment" to the team. We've lost the plot.

What are you? Some sort of commie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team.

This can't be real.

It's very real at sports powerhouse high schools. At my kids school there were many college bound AAU women's basketball players or club volleyball players who couldn't make the varsity team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team.

This can't be real.

It's very real at sports powerhouse high schools. At my kids school there were many college bound AAU women's basketball players or club volleyball players who couldn't make the varsity team.

There are crappy club teams in every sport…if you are trying to claim that there are AAU players that are playing in college but can’t make the HS team, I find that hard to believe, unless they are playing for a crappy D3 team (of which there are many).

Even the very best DMV basketball teams (some nationally ranked) have players that aren’t playing in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team

Who cares? focus on academics. Sports should not have anything to do with admissions to colleges. College should be academically based. Both of mine at ivies, no hooks, no varsity sports, one did JV one year then quit. Both top 1% academically, one truly off the charts. No other country values sports as much as US, it is silly. It is DEI for white rich athletes with mediocre academic stats at ivies, and it shows when they flounder on the calc and econ curves compared to non-recruited freshman.

Your problem is that they don't flounder and you are jealous because they are the ones who go get the best IB and MBB positions. Sour grapes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We actively discouraged HS sports for our two sons. Way too much time for any meaningful payoff in terms of college admissions. GPA is much more important than 4 years on the baseball team or whatever. Kids play club sports that don't have grueling travel schedules and focus on academics.

But we seem to be the minority. I'm baffled by the number of people I know whose kids spent 30+ hours a week around sports in HS. Very few will be recruited anywhere attractive and even among those who are, it's not uncommon to lose interest, get injured, etc and ultimately you may be stuck at a school that wouldn't have been optimal without the team aspect. I really think there is some kind of mania/obsession that sets in and skews perspectives.

Or, you can crush both sides get a dozen offers from top schools, pick the best fit from the bunch, skip all of the "applying to 20 schools in hope that you don't get shut out" nonsense, and have a relaxing senior year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about cuts, everyone mentioned how you many kids on travel teams since 8 don’t pass freshman tryouts in high school. Even if your kid is lucky enough to make varsity, it doesn’t matter much for admissions. It’s just crazy when it’s so hard to make the high school team

I think there's an overemphasis on organized sports in American culture. I think it should be more about exercise, free play and connecting socially. Instead it's become a treadmill of keeping up with the Joneses and rushing to join leagues, club and varsity teams and have to do a relentless schedule of mandatory practices, games and meets that feels like a job without pay. All to show your "commitment" to the team. We've lost the plot.

+100