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[quote=Anonymous]The initial post discussed a high school junior who had decided on a college and the poster’s child who was dealing with college apps and admittance in her Senior year.  I did the post pointing out that kids playing non-revenue college sports (not football or basketball at Power5 conference schools), had as much, and frankly it is a lot more stress with their own “application” process, but that it took place when they were Sophomores and Juniors.

I dropped in to note that the next step of actually playing a college sport is an entirely different animal than what any kid does before college.  The sport is who you are and what you do at college.  You are a lacrosse player, swimmer, soccer player, or whatever.  You will be spending all your free time on your sport before and during the college season, and most of your free time when the season is over.  That makes for a very different college experience.

Now, NCAA rules limit college athletes’ involvement in their sport to 20 hours a week during the defined season and 7 hours a week out of the defined season.  But - the 20 hours does not include travel time nor does it include “volunteered” time.  So - not surprisingly, you volunteer to do weightroom, physical therapy, and film review.  The time limits also do not apply to the time it takes for you to transport yourself to and from practice, as well as change and get ready for practices and games.  Got a 15 minute walk to practice, plus change into practice gear and stretch, get taped up, and get to the field - say another hour - none of that counts in that time limit.  Got to ice down anything after practice, then shower and change and walk back to your dorm.  Not part of the time limit hours.

The reality is that during the season - kids eat, sleep, go to class, go to required study hours (needed), go to practice and go to games.  There is not much time to do anything else.  Out of season the kids do have more free time, but they still will have a steady practice and team commitment.  So - what all that means is if a kid is not playing, or likely to play a lot next year, they will quit and maybe transfer.  I tell parents of athletes all the time to go to the team website for any school their kid is considering and look at the number of seniors on the team.  Then go back 4 years and look at the number of freshmen on the team.  Typically at least half and often two-thirds of those freshmen will be gone by their senior year.

Why?  It is a very different atmosphere than prior to college.  The coach is not your friend.  Your parents are not paying the coach.  The coach wants you to stay out of trouble, follow the rules, be ready to play - and always be improving.  And, if you do not do those things - the coach wants you gone so that your scholarship money can be given to someone else.

Your teammates are mostly not your friends either.  Everyone wants the team to do well, but everyone also wants to play.  If you play that means someone else is sitting out, and they want to play.  If you get hurt or do poorly, they will play.  They absolutely want the team to do well, but there will be teammates who are not very sad if you get injured and cannot play, or if you don’t do great and lose playing time.  There are no “I”s in “team”, but there are two in “playing time”.  Being on a college team takes way too much time and effort to not also play.

Additionally, because of the time commitments required, it is very important for non-revenue sport athletes to make sure they can do the academic side of things.  Yes there are general supports - study hours and tutors - but you still have to do the work and get the grades.  The football stars may be able to skate through but not the girls lacrosse team players.  If you can’t do the work to get good grades it is a very bad idea to go to that school.  Being the dumb kid in the class is never fun.

Finally - being a college athlete does limit your choice of majors.  It is nearly impossible to be in an art, music or lab science major.  Majors where you cannot do the required work (carve a piece of marble, practice as a quartet, attend mandatory labs) because you are on the road traveling x days out of the term really means you cannot have one of those types of majors.  “But I could take the class in the off season term or over the summer.”  Yes, you could, but look how classes are sequenced as you hit Junior and Senior year.  You can’t take required Organic 402 until you have had Lab 210 and Lab 340 and while you could do 210 over the summer, 340 is only offered during the season.  Rinse, wash, repeat with other similar types of courses.

It is not all bad news though.  My daughter did play soccer all 4 years in college - though sophomore year was a mess and she did get her starting position because a player was injured.   She was warmed up ready to enter for another player and instead went in for the injured player.  She ended up keeping the position for 2 years.  In her 4 years she figures that she actual spoke one on one with the head coach maybe a total of about 2 hours - in 4 years.  And she won the coach’s award for team leadership 2 years.  But, after her senior season was over the coach has been absolutely great.  He has written letters of recommendation, talked to grad school and job recruiters and really done everything you could want.

And - now having seen the whole process through - I can see why being a college athlete is a common attribute for leadership positions of all types - particularly for women.  My kid went to O/P grad school, and is now in her second year of post grad doing the prosthesis internship segment.  The company she is working for was only going to take 1 in to this segment, but decided to take two so they could have her as several of the principals in the group liked her ability to work under stressful conditions and pursue collaborative approaches with little to no direction.  She credits a lot of those types of skills to her experience of being on the college soccer team.

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