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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You never want to be the dumbest kid in the class.  The view that your kid didn’t pull top scores or grades because they spent time playing their sport is wrong.  The kids who did get the top grades and test scores, and were not playing sports, were doing other things - art, music, tech, whatever.  They just are smarter.

That’s fine.  Go to a college where your kid’s academics are at least in the middle of the pack.  It is hard enough to play a sport and do okay academically in college when you are not the dumb one.

Even at an academic D3 college, the coach does not care about your kid’s grades other than they have to be good enough that the coach never hears anything about them.  The coach does not give a rip if your kid has a test or a paper due.  Practice is at X time, and  your kid better be there.  It’s not high school.  You can’t call and tell the coach Billy has to study.  
It is - always - sink or swim.  Most kids sink.  
Kids who are in over their heads academically to begin with are almost always going to sink.

Think I’m wrong?  Do this.  Go to the team website for the high academic school you’re thinking your kid wants to get into.  Look at last years team.  How many seniors are on it?  Go back 4 years and look at that team.  How many freshmen?  [b]If 50% survived until senior year that’s very good.[/b]  Very often it’s less.  Injuries can happen.  Kids turning out not to be good enough can happen - a lot, and kids flunking out.

Don’t start off underwater.  Playing a sport is a huge time commitment.  In season it’s easily 40 hours a week plus travel.  Off season it’s 20 hours.

[/quote]

I think you are coming to the wrong conclusion.

Harvard did a study on their student-athletes and I believe 25% of all athletes stopped playing for the Varsity team...with certain sports like XCountry and crew seeing higher quit rates.

It's not because they were failing.  It's because the kids realized that there was nothing beyond Harvard in their sport...other than continuing to do it to keep in shape, but nobody was planning to go to the Olympics or otherwise pursue the sport professionally.

So, they were practicing like crazy and physically wiped most days. They weren't having the "fun" experience of most college students and just decided by sophomore or junior year that they wanted to have a traditional college experience before it was over.

Basketball and field hockey (that one seems odd) had the highest retention rates of all sports.

In high school, those sports have a secondary purpose...getting you into your desired school like Harvard.  Once at Harvard, there is no other purpose.  You have to love the sport and your team which many kids decide they don't at the level required from D1.[/quote]

Totally agree.  Lots of college athletes drop out of their sport after freshman year b/c it’s not as interesting as it was in hs.  IN HS,  participating in a sport gives you lots of benefits: you’re playing with friends that you’ve known your whole life; You’re a minor celebrity in your school;  It gives you some freedom from your parents (my kids loved the road trips they did with their HS & Club teams); Etc.

Several of my friends with kids playing college sports have told me their kids have dropped out after freshman year.  They want to use the time they would’ve been training and playing to get internships meet girls go to parties.

It’s a real wake up call for those of us who have been supporting these athletes for the last decade.

[/quote]

DP. I think what I find unappealing about your post and similar other ones - aside from the implication that athletes are dumb and can’t keep up at ‘elite’ schools- is that there’s this judgmental air about the value (or lack there of) of playing a sport, particularly if it’s for more than just to gain an admission edge and only then for a school the kid is ‘smart enough’ (as determined solely by their SAT and GPA, I guess) to attend. Sure, some kids will move on, and decide to focus on other things, but so what? Does that make their efforts any less important? I don’t think so. The experience of being dedicated and disciplined, working on a team, etc, was so valuable.

Although by your tone and attitude, I suspect your cohort might lean towards the parent groups who push kids towards sports primarily as a hook for college, and so yeah, it makes sense more of those kids would drop out early.

[/quote]

Not sure the point you are trying to make.

I was PP that commented that Harvard actually did a study and 25% of all their varsity athletes stop playing the sport...and the quit rate is 50%+ in sports like crew and lower in basketball and field hockey.

Again, this wasn't because they were struggling with their grades, but rather they were missing out on the college experience and perhaps didn't appreciate how time-intensive the sport was at a D1 program..even Harvard...and how much they were missing out on the entire experience.

There is no implication that anyone is dumb, nor were they only playing the sport to get recruited to Harvard.  It's just that the secondary motivation for the sport was very powerful in addition to enjoying playing in high school.

It's different when you get to college in a sport where 98% of the student body could care less about how well the college performs in the sport (or that they even have the sport), and very few will ever attend any of the games/matches/meets.

[/quote]

I think we are talking about different sorts of HS athletes. The ones I am discussing are not doing it bc they’re pretty good at it and it’s fun for the social aspect (I know kids do, and that’s valid of course); they are far more serious than that and if anything they’ve already confronted social sacrifices from their level of dedication [/quote]

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