What’s the best way to balance sports? I do a sport every season and here and there I do clubs. Also I’m trying to volunteer more but I take 3 AP Classes, 1 Honors, and 3 regular classes. How can I balance all 3 things and still manage a social life?
The saying for college sports and academics and a social life is this… You can do 2 things very well. Basically if you try to add in all 3 something will suffer. You need to really search where your priorities lie and go from there. My son when he was a D1 athlete it was sport first/school second, (he planned on turning pro after college which he has) and did not really have time for a social life. The teammates who joined a frat etc… some had academic ineligibility and some could not make the lineup because their skills were not as sharp as they should have been.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you’re a recruited athlete,colleges won’t care if you have no other ECs.
i’m trying to be D1 for FSU, so what your son did was spent all his time in the gym perfecting his craft, then did his work and forgot about friends. How did him putting sports first affect his chances of college?
You are trying to balance the high school sports, and the responses are about college. Even in high school most athletes have a social life around their teammates. My daughter had a spring sport, but they also played a club ‘fall ball’. During the spring, she didn’t do as many social activities because she just didn’t have time. If you think your sport is going to make you a recruited athlete, concentrate on that. When my daughter was in high school, I’d often get up on a Sunday morning and find her doing homework before she left for games at noon, or sitting at that kitchen table at 9 pm when she got home from practice. There just wasn’t a lot of down time. Her friend would come by to get her to go to get ice cream, and my daughter just didn’t have the time to go, even for an hour.
Now at college, my daughter has academics as the first priority, her sport as her second (because she has a scholarship and cannot attend this school without it) and her social life is a far distant third. She belongs to a sorority, but misses about 1/2 the meetings and activities (a lot of athletes in the group, and everyone understands). She has no time for anything else (work, travel). She was pouting last week that ‘everyone’ is going away for spring break and she can’t. She was not consoled when I told her I’d never had a spring break like in the movies because I always had to work during mine; she wants to go on a cruise.
Only you can prioritize, but you need to realize you can’t do it all.
^^^ agree. In high school, my son tried doing 3 different sports in addition to his club team. He had a social life, but a lot of it revolved around other athletes. By his junior year, he found the committment to his club team had increased to the point he had to give up 2 of his HS sports and only kept the primary sport (same as his club sport). HIs club played their season in fall, the HS team was winter, and then his club played a spring season. During fall, he really did have to limit his activites to practice, games and academics. The rest of the year, he had a little more flexibility. Since his goal was to play in college, he was fine with this schedule. He didn’t have time to volunteer a lot in HS or to be heavily involved in school clubs, but again, he was aiming to play soccer in college.
Now in college, his first priority is also academics, with his sport close behind. He keeps his academic load light in the fall and does actually work a few hours a week on campus, as well as coach a high school jv team in the winter. He looked at frats but decided the time committment was too much. He is very social and still gets in time with friends- again often it is with his teammates.
Your really have to decide where your priorities lie. If you are trying to get recruited, then your sport is the most important and colleges will not care about having a lot of EC’s. Most importantly, keep up your grades -coaches love to see a recruited athlete with good grades as it makes it easier on them with admissions, and lets them know they will not have to babysit you in order for you to keep your grades up in college. Good luck!
Kaye- my son was a college golfer, and the amount of time they were out on course was tremendous and tournament took them away for many days of classes, that is why when they were back they had a lot to do to catch up with academics. It was fine for my kid because he is happy doing that, he is not one to desire a busy social life, his social life revolved and still does around the golf course. But that is not the same for everyone.
that’s my thing, wouldnt the teacher fail you in college? my biology teacher told me that some teachers check for attendance and if you’re not there they’ll mark points off
If you get your friends to turn out for sports, then your social life can revolve around sports. Same goes for music, too, I suppose.
My son plays a D2 sport. He always let’s teachers know at the beginning of the term that h e is a member of the team and ginves them his schedule. He tries to do any work he will miss before he goes on a team trip. He communicates with his teachers frequently to show interest and coordinates any missed tests very early. He has not had any problems with teachers. His school does not give athletes a break on admissions- they have to meet regular requirements to get in so it might help that teachers know they have worked hard to get there.
Playing in college is an excused absence, but the student needs to make up the work. Also, picking a good schedule is important. My daughter had the choice of a lab on a Monday or Wed, and she picked Monday because she had 2-3 away games on Wednesdays but none on Mondays. She also took only 16 credits instead of 18. All professors excuse athletes. It IS hard to miss, but the students work together. DD had a friend in a fall sport, and when he missed class, she tutored him (and she found this VERY helpful for her, as if she’d missed something, it showed up when she tried to teach him). She’ll do this in reverse when she misses class this semester. BTW, she didn’t miss any classes in the fall because she knows she can’t miss. I think she’ll miss 4-5 total classes this spring.
One of the reasons she picked this college is because it is in Florida and most teams travel to Florida to play. I think she has 10 home games and 5 away games, and only 3 of those are out of state. Makes a huge difference in missing class.
What balance? My self-motivated S, a junior, was a 2 sport athlete, but now is focused on football. He does 2-a-days 5 days per week, goes to school taking 3 APS, gets SAT/ACT tutoring twice per week, needs to factor in spring football, get ready for exams etc. And this is what he wants to do…
I fear that our children are so success driven that they do not have the time or opportunity to be young…
College is WAY WAY harder than high school, can’t even compare the two… Most all athletes who go on to play in college are self motivated take APS and all of that. It is a very legit question from OP.
High school sports, academics, clubs and social life is a challenge. Kids who are “true athletes” who will be recruited into D1 or high D3 schools in their respective sports receive one set of messages from their high school guidance counselor, and one set of messages from coaches who recruit them. The guidance counselor promotes the “well rounded” student with strong participation in their sport, high academics, and a need for 2 or 3 extra curricular clubs/activities outside their sport–with leadership roles in those.
However, when you begin to talk to college coaches, they frankly care about three things:
- How competitive are you in your sport, and can you improve their program?
- What is your GPA?
- What is your SAT/ACT scores
They don’t care about clubs, activities, or leadership positions. This is especially true in D1, but even in D3, our experience with coaches was very similar.
This would leave you to believe that if you are truly interested in being a recruited athlete in these types of programs, you should focus on grades and athletics.
And in college, athletes hear repetitively…you have three things to focus on: academics, athletics, and social life. You can only do two well, and you have to choose.
So…the real gist of the story is that if you want to play your sport in college, you’ll still be making trade offs, and if the school is helping to pay your way to college, athletics will take their fair share of your time.
Your teammates are your friends and your social lives revolves around the team.