Anonymous
12/04/2025 21:30
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it’s interesting that many of you don’t let your kids play on the HS sports team. My kid would say that was the most fun part of playing their sport once they hit HS. They got to play with their closest friends (not usually on the same teams for travel), for their school where classmates could come cheer them on, working towards a collective goals as representatives of their community. And from playing club soccer they knew a few players on almost every opposing team. It’s a much more fun atmosphere and the season is like 3 months max.
I wish our child played for their high school. It would have made my life so much easier. Our child wanted to compete against the best players and teams. That ruled high school out completely.
My son and many of his HS teammates also played ECNL. Some are now playing in college. He still had way more fun playing for his HS. I know MLSnext doesn’t allow it but ECNL does. I hope your son finds great success off the field! Mine decided that since he wasn’t destined for the pros he’d go to the best school he could and play club in college and he’s having a blast.
Our son started in USSDA which eventually became MLSNext. His high school was a perennial championship contender but they would have lost to his club team 10-0. He was recruited to D1 and has since graduated.
And is he a professional soccer player?
Anonymous
12/04/2025 21:29
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's almost like the purpose of college is to develop a skill for employment rather than play a sport.
lol. It always amazes me about the amount of money and effort some parents put into travel sports. If they put that amount of effort into supporting their academic pursuits, many of those kids would be top of their class
Many kids don’t care to be top of their class. They won’t put in the work. They will, however, put in the work for their sport.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 21:27
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it’s interesting that many of you don’t let your kids play on the HS sports team. My kid would say that was the most fun part of playing their sport once they hit HS. They got to play with their closest friends (not usually on the same teams for travel), for their school where classmates could come cheer them on, working towards a collective goals as representatives of their community. And from playing club soccer they knew a few players on almost every opposing team. It’s a much more fun atmosphere and the season is like 3 months max.
I wish our child played for their high school. It would have made my life so much easier. Our child wanted to compete against the best players and teams. That ruled high school out completely.
You and your kid weren’t clever enough to realize that you can play for your high school AND whatever elite team they simply had to be on?
Anonymous
12/04/2025 21:09
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it’s interesting that many of you don’t let your kids play on the HS sports team. My kid would say that was the most fun part of playing their sport once they hit HS. They got to play with their closest friends (not usually on the same teams for travel), for their school where classmates could come cheer them on, working towards a collective goals as representatives of their community. And from playing club soccer they knew a few players on almost every opposing team. It’s a much more fun atmosphere and the season is like 3 months max.
I wish our child played for their high school. It would have made my life so much easier. Our child wanted to compete against the best players and teams. That ruled high school out completely.
My son and many of his HS teammates also played ECNL. Some are now playing in college. He still had way more fun playing for his HS. I know MLSnext doesn’t allow it but ECNL does. I hope your son finds great success off the field! Mine decided that since he wasn’t destined for the pros he’d go to the best school he could and play club in college and he’s having a blast.
Our son started in USSDA which eventually became MLSNext. His high school was a perennial championship contender but they would have lost to his club team 10-0. He was recruited to D1 and has since graduated.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 20:21
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Colleges get that sports take a lot of time. They are impressed by kids who can excel academically while devoting so much time to a non-academic pursuit. They know that the kid who did sports had to work much harder and be more efficient and organized than the kid who studied and only did academic-related extracurriculars.
Keep telling yourself that! Most colleges pay much more attention to grades and stats. No one is giving extra points to a candidate for sports practice.
Well, my kids were accepted at top schools and we got feedback from two of them that they were impressed with the number of hours spent on sports and the excellent grades/test scores my kids had. Neither recruited, although one walked on to a Division I team.
You are missing out if you don’t realize how sports participation shows how intelligent, organized, and efficient an applicant is. A kid who excels in sports and academics at the same time is a student who adds to a college community in a way that admissions officials recognize.
None of DC's ivy friends played a sport at the varsity level in HS unless their HS mandated sports. All had other in depth ECs, but not traditional american sports. All are unhooked and yet in at ivy.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 20:19
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's almost like the purpose of college is to develop a skill for employment rather than play a sport.
lol. It always amazes me about the amount of money and effort some parents put into travel sports. If they put that amount of effort into supporting their academic pursuits, many of those kids would be top of their class
Nah because the kids who have the pushy travel sports parents are never the smartest kids in the grade. Effort and pushing from the parents would never get them to top of the class.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 20:16
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Colleges get that sports take a lot of time. They are impressed by kids who can excel academically while devoting so much time to a non-academic pursuit. They know that the kid who did sports had to work much harder and be more efficient and organized than the kid who studied and only did academic-related extracurriculars.
Keep telling yourself that! Most colleges pay much more attention to grades and stats. No one is giving extra points to a candidate for sports practice.
Well, my kids were accepted at top schools and we got feedback from two of them that they were impressed with the number of hours spent on sports and the excellent grades/test scores my kids had. Neither recruited, although one walked on to a Division I team.
You are missing out if you don’t realize how sports participation shows how intelligent, organized, and efficient an applicant is. A kid who excels in sports and academics at the same time is a student who adds to a college community in a way that admissions officials recognize.
Except for the big money makers like football and basketball, many athletes are not contributing to the general college community, just the small circle of other people who do the same sport. seriously, how many people go to watch and cheer on swimming events or the lacrosse team other than the friends/families of the people playing?
Anonymous
12/04/2025 20:13
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:It's almost like the purpose of college is to develop a skill for employment rather than play a sport.
lol. It always amazes me about the amount of money and effort some parents put into travel sports. If they put that amount of effort into supporting their academic pursuits, many of those kids would be top of their class
Anonymous
12/04/2025 19:04
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
It's almost like the purpose of college is to develop a skill for employment rather than play a sport.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 18:56
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it’s interesting that many of you don’t let your kids play on the HS sports team. My kid would say that was the most fun part of playing their sport once they hit HS. They got to play with their closest friends (not usually on the same teams for travel), for their school where classmates could come cheer them on, working towards a collective goals as representatives of their community. And from playing club soccer they knew a few players on almost every opposing team. It’s a much more fun atmosphere and the season is like 3 months max.
I wish our child played for their high school. It would have made my life so much easier. Our child wanted to compete against the best players and teams. That ruled high school out completely.
My son and many of his HS teammates also played ECNL. Some are now playing in college. He still had way more fun playing for his HS. I know MLSnext doesn’t allow it but ECNL does. I hope your son finds great success off the field! Mine decided that since he wasn’t destined for the pros he’d go to the best school he could and play club in college and he’s having a blast.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 14:20
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Colleges get that sports take a lot of time. They are impressed by kids who can excel academically while devoting so much time to a non-academic pursuit. They know that the kid who did sports had to work much harder and be more efficient and organized than the kid who studied and only did academic-related extracurriculars.
Keep telling yourself that! Most colleges pay much more attention to grades and stats. No one is giving extra points to a candidate for sports practice.
Well, my kids were accepted at top schools and we got feedback from two of them that they were impressed with the number of hours spent on sports and the excellent grades/test scores my kids had. Neither recruited, although one walked on to a Division I team.
You are missing out if you don’t realize how sports participation shows how intelligent, organized, and efficient an applicant is. A kid who excels in sports and academics at the same time is a student who adds to a college community in a way that admissions officials recognize.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 13:24
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:I think it’s interesting that many of you don’t let your kids play on the HS sports team. My kid would say that was the most fun part of playing their sport once they hit HS. They got to play with their closest friends (not usually on the same teams for travel), for their school where classmates could come cheer them on, working towards a collective goals as representatives of their community. And from playing club soccer they knew a few players on almost every opposing team. It’s a much more fun atmosphere and the season is like 3 months max.
I wish our child played for their high school. It would have made my life so much easier. Our child wanted to compete against the best players and teams. That ruled high school out completely.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 09:20
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
True, I can speak from personal experience here. My daughter has been a 4-year Varsity athlete (Marching Band) and there has been an enormous time commitment on her part.
I do hope the universities understand this, and appreciate it, and really take it into consideration as we are now applying to colleges at the moment.
The regional AO at my kid’s school played a sport in college. It’s a top school- he has a lot of sports. They were his main EX. Admitted RD unhooked at a 3% admission rate school.
He obviously had the grades/scores too.
That's a lot of information to know about the admissions officer.
Really? They have a list of names. One google simple name search pulls it up.
It tells you whether they had a hook? How do you know they weren’t recruited if they played in college?
Anonymous
12/04/2025 09:19
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
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
“Travel teams” will take anyone’s money and create as many levels of teams possible. That doesn’t make a travel player good. It certainly doesn’t ensure that they got good coaching.
If you aren’t a recruited athlete your participation in athletics is a run of the mill EC. High school athletics aren’t necessarily the top of the pyramid.
Anonymous
12/04/2025 09:14
Subject: It’s frustrating high school sports don’t matter for admissions when they are so hard to join here
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it’s interesting that many of you don’t let your kids play on the HS sports team. My kid would say that was the most fun part of playing their sport once they hit HS. They got to play with their closest friends (not usually on the same teams for travel), for their school where classmates could come cheer them on, working towards a collective goals as representatives of their community. And from playing club soccer they knew a few players on almost every opposing team. It’s a much more fun atmosphere and the season is like 3 months max.
+1
Well said. I cannot believe how many parents think life begins at college. It just seems like a sad waste of childhood and adolescence.
College is for getting internships and jobs
Jobs are for getting promotions and big houses.