Nearly all of the travel sports obsessed kids who were “recruited” for college seem to quit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

PP here. Forgot to mention that my DC is Lebron James.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d rather my sporty kids attend namebrand UVA or UMD and play club or intramural sports, than some backwater no name school that only exists to exploit travel-sports obsessed parents. I’m convinced these schools would be insolvent were they not able to convince hundreds of gullible parents each year they are “recruiting” their student-athlete child.

This is what I've seen and don't understand. Why do parents go along with this?

Ego is a powerful thing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://reformedsportsparent.com/

I love this website where top players and coaches discuss reality.

Why do you love it? Do you have kids in sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d rather my sporty kids attend namebrand UVA or UMD and play club or intramural sports, than some backwater no name school that only exists to exploit travel-sports obsessed parents. I’m convinced these schools would be insolvent were they not able to convince hundreds of gullible parents each year they are “recruiting” their student-athlete child.

A-freaking-men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:33% of D1 athletes quit their sport, 50% of those are due to injury.

It very hard to make it through all 4 years ... injury, time commitment, playing time, etc.

That is why athletes are highly recruited to jobs ... it's hard and they are in a very small percentage of the population who can actually do it.

I do find it odd, though. When the chance of being an athlete is so low, and then the chance of making it 4 years is only 66%.. that I know a ton of athletes that did it and did it at highly academic schools.

I'm calling bs on this. My husband and I both worked in recruiting for technical jobs for years. At no point was anyone ever considered because of the sport they played in high school or college. I also think the poster who mentioned special recruiting for college athletes is not being entirely honest. If there is special recruiting it is because the college is worried the athletes don't have enough to get jobs.

And you are assuming that every industry works exactly the same way? Regardless of any one family’s personal experience, there are a lot of kids who are recruited in part due to their athletics. The ones I know all had an easy path into finance, sales, or other business-oriented fields. The percentages of female CEOs who played college sports are really eye-opening.

Uh huh. Sales at Best Buy. Do high school coaches get some kind of kick back for having kids signed at colleges?

I was referencing CEOs of large companies, like the people mentioned here: https://www.inc.com/rebecca-hinds/the-1-trait-94-percent-of-c-suite-women-share-and-how-to-get-it.html . Why are you so prejudiced against athletes, if you don’t mind sharing?

I'm prejudiced against parents who don't do what is best for their kids. I have multiple kids all involved in sports and most of the parents I encountered were certain their kid would be a pro at whatever sport until the kid hit high school. Reality hit a good percentage of those parents in the face at the high school level. The high school stars I know have not gone on to succeed at college and none have gone pro. I know the families of several kids who've gotten great scholarships at d1 schools and I've seen what happens to those kids.

Thank you for responding. I can understand your perspective if you haven’t encountered any smart athletes or well-informed parents, but you must know your experience is not universal, right? There truly is a strong sports bro and sports gal pipeline to lucrative jobs in Wall Street, consulting and other industries even if you don’t see as many in tech or some other fields. It’s a well documented phenomenon as you can see from that article and many others. I also personally know many doctors who were former athletes. There are some definite links between the traits and ambition necessary to succeed in athletics and in other career fields.

- signed regional college athletic recruiter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d rather my sporty kids attend namebrand UVA or UMD and play club or intramural sports, than some backwater no name school that only exists to exploit travel-sports obsessed parents. I’m convinced these schools would be insolvent were they not able to convince hundreds of gullible parents each year they are “recruiting” their student-athlete child.

A-freaking-men.

Well the chances of making UMD or UVA club teams are slim to none. They are as hard to make as some D1/D3 schools. So you mean intramural.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d rather my sporty kids attend namebrand UVA or UMD and play club or intramural sports, than some backwater no name school that only exists to exploit travel-sports obsessed parents. I’m convinced these schools would be insolvent were they not able to convince hundreds of gullible parents each year they are “recruiting” their student-athlete child.

A-freaking-men.

Well the chances of making UMD or UVA club teams are slim to none. They are as hard to make as some D1/D3 schools. So you mean intramural.

Not true at all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d rather my sporty kids attend namebrand UVA or UMD and play club or intramural sports, than some backwater no name school that only exists to exploit travel-sports obsessed parents. I’m convinced these schools would be insolvent were they not able to convince hundreds of gullible parents each year they are “recruiting” their student-athlete child.

A-freaking-men.

Well the chances of making UMD or UVA club teams are slim to none. They are as hard to make as some D1/D3 schools. So you mean intramural.

Yes but you’re talking to a clown who has no idea what they are talking about. Bitter loser who got picked last for dodgeball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d rather my sporty kids attend namebrand UVA or UMD and play club or intramural sports, than some backwater no name school that only exists to exploit travel-sports obsessed parents. I’m convinced these schools would be insolvent were they not able to convince hundreds of gullible parents each year they are “recruiting” their student-athlete child.

A-freaking-men.

Well the chances of making UMD or UVA club teams are slim to none. They are as hard to make as some D1/D3 schools. So you mean intramural.

Not true at all

yea... it is. IF you know a kid that is playing on the club team they are good... of course there is the club b team .. .not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

PP here. Forgot to mention that my DC is Lebron James.

[Anonymous]

No. They do not take away Merit aid. But it comes as a surprise to many that FA goes away... you have to ask.... they find out they are getting $10K in FA then a college offers $15K in scholarship... $25K aid makes a $40K-$50K school pretty affordable but $15k not so much.

Phew. He is actually being recruited by a D1 school as well now -- has been invited for formal overnight visit! However, one of the first questions they asked S20 was what our EFC was, which is high so they pretty much know that we won't qualify for FA. It will be our first official recruit visit -- I look forward to having the FA discussion and seeing what they can offer.

Either way...S20 still might pick another school even though not recruited to play soccer. We have told him that we will make it work and also that the school he picks should be first and foremost the school that is best for him - the right "fit", the right academic programs, etc. We plan to take a holistic view of all acceptances that come in -- weighing FA/Merit Aid, Academic Programs and "Fit". Being recruited to play soccer will be simply a "nice to have" only because of D20's love of soccer. He has an older cousin in the work world who also plays soccer in a rec league and he already says that's what he wants to do.

Now...back to OP's question. Assuming there are statistics out there that support this statement....I can see a variety of reasons for this....

(a) Handling a sport (especially D1) in college + maintaining good grades is not that easy.
(b) Burn Out.
(c) Sometimes a player is recruited...but how often do they actually play? Are they warming the bench a lot?
(d) Repeated injuries...even though injuries might not make you need to quit the sport...I'm sure that leads to difficulty in keeping grades up if always doing PT, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of the parents speaking up here are trying to give an alternate, maybe more realistic, view of what happens after the sport obsessed family's kids graduate from high school. I don't think the parents are jealous - they are more or less sending a warning.

The parents are going to be exposed to so much hype as their kids move through the years of travel teams and special teams.

You could be right, but if that’s their goal, they’ve come to perhaps the last place where that message is going to be of any use to anyone. If you spend any time on the DCUM college forum, you will quickly realize that the vast majority of posters here are well educated and extremely focused on finding the best possible college for their kids (whether that is in terms of prestige or fit). Almost no one here would choose a “lesser” school for their kids if they had any other options, no matter how much the kid enjoyed athletics.

Keeping in mind that those are the posters and audience here, I think those who post about athletics here are either:

1. Those of us who have high level athletes (or have friends in this boat) who are weighing how best they can balance athletics with academics to help their kid get into great schools and have great career options. Most of us in this group live among others who are similarly focused on academics. We are the ones who seem to know a lot of very successful college athletes who go on to great careers. Our kids probably generally attend pressure cooker schools, but not always.

2. Those posters who are themselves well-educated, but live in (or their kids play sports in) communities where others are either less so or don’t really value academics as much. Apparently these posters see a lot of families who make college decisions based almost entirely on athletics and they think all or most athletes in question are unlikely to succeed in college or their careers, so they think the athletes’ families are delusional. The posters in this category incorrectly think all or most recruited athletes (or recruited athlete wannabes) are like the ones they know.

3. Posters who think all athletes are dumb and/or that it’s ridiculous that any elite schools give them admissions preference since they contribute nothing that a university ought to value. These posters tend not to know many athletes at all.

If the people in category 2 really want to spread their message, it would make more sense for them to directly target families of athletes who are bright but don’t have much parental guidance about colleges. There is no one here in that category.

[Anonymous]

^PP here...one more thing....I am making sure S20 knows...if he ends up going to college as recruited athlete....and an unfortunate injury or other event happens so that he is no longer able to play....that he had better still be happy with the college selection.

[Anonymous]

1. Those of us who have high level athletes (or have friends in this boat) who are weighing how best they can balance athletics with academics to help their kid get into great schools and have great career options. Most of us in this group live among others who are similarly focused on academics. We are the ones who seem to know a lot of very successful college athletes who go on to great careers. Our kids probably generally attend pressure cooker schools, but not always.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^PP here...one more thing....I am making sure S20 knows...if he ends up going to college as recruited athlete....and an unfortunate injury or other event happens so that he is no longer able to play....that he had better still be happy with the college selection.

I mean sure... in theory.... but just like non-athletes, he might change his view on "what he likes"... I know a bunch of non-athletes that moved schools after the 1st year. It's happens.