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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

Well said.  Our oldest 4 have all been recruited athletes (different sports) who are or did attend highly competitive schools.  Children like ours and the PPs are highly motivated and highly driven.  They are multi-dimensional talents, meaning that they are scholars as well as athletes.

Only 1 of our kids is in a sport where a post-college sport career is feasible.  That child realizes that the probability of making it to a professional team is slim to none.  Not because the kid isn't good but because the kid doesn't have the drive to do it.

For our kids not participating at the highest level on their college team would be tantamount to cutting off an arm.  On the other hand, like in all things, while the love endures after the kids graduated they also have found other outlets for their energy.  The 2 who have graduated are very happily working in their industries, play a little bit of their sport on the side, and have found other outlets for that athletic skill.  I don't believe that our children are unique in this approach.  I see it in almost all of our friends' kids and in the friends of our kids who are athletic.

Regarding the PP's #3, these people do exist.  2 of our children were in fact suitemates with people who were firm and outspoken believers that athletes couldn't be smart.  It was our kids' pleasure to prove them wrong.  Repeatedly.  And we cheered wildly from the sidelines every time our kids proved it.[/quote]

Lets be real, they felt that way as you pushed them into it so you wouldn't have to pay for college as you had too many kids and not enough resources.[/quote]

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