I need your guidance. This is one of those issues where my high school experience from decades ago appears to be vastly different than what I am hearing now. That’s why I’m reaching out to the CC parent community to make sure I’m getting a meaningfully realistic understanding.
My basic question is this: I am being told by some folks that club sports carry more weight with colleges (whether for recruiting or as an EC) than sports at high school. In my D’s case, she’s not playing a “major” sport, but one where there is good competition at both the high school and club level.
In the days of old (i.e., when I was in high school), your high school was kinda’ everything. Students who were excellent in academics and in their high school’s sports were considered phenoms. However, in the past few days, in speaking with some parents and student-athletes, I’m being told that a strong club sport outweighs the high school sport when it comes to admissions.
Nothing really hinges on this for D, but I just wanted to get a feel for what other CC parents who have kids who are athletes are seeing.
I am being deliberately vague in not identifying any particular sport, as my question is general. Perhaps by not being more specific as to the sport(s) at issue, the question can’t be answered, and that’s fine too.
I grew up in the “be true to your school” generation, and that everything revolved around that. Am I so out of date or naive to believe that this is still the case?
Again, appreciating the generality of my question, I’m interested in any thoughts you might have.
Not sure about club outweighing HS as far as admissions depending on what else the student is pursuing during the after school/weekend time. If you’re a HS athlete and you have an after school job or you have family responsibilities that’s fine. And you’re not looking to be a recruited.
However, most athletes who are serious about their sport (and want to be recruited or play in college as a walk on) would say that club sports are generally better regarded than high school sports, particularly if you’re playing on a high skill level club team. The competition to make the team as well as the level of play is often considerably higher than found with HS sports and enables athletes to play year round. Clubs also play in tournaments which provide easy one stop shopping for college coaches looking for potential recruits.
That being said there are clearly HS teams who field very accomplished athletes. And for all athletes HS teams provide another platform for leadership, team building, athletic awards/achievement and so forth.
I think club teams are a force in highly populated major metro areas. High school leagues often have limits on year round competing, but clubs get around the limits.
Have seen clubs be key for soccer and track and field, for access to regional or national tournaments.
It may depend on the sport but most have a club option that is more intense, and most recruits come from that system. Many also play for their high school if it fits into theirvschedule. . My kid was an all-league soccer player and was told by more than one coach that they had interest only in his club experience. He could send film, of course, and attend ID camps, but all, from a coach’s perspective “without context”.
A big difference is that school sports tend only to be for one season. Most recruitable athletes are doing their sport year round. Clubs allow this. And by being more selective, they often pull up the level of play. And they often have big tournaments which coaches can easily attend for scouting.
So yes, particularly if recruitment is the goal, club is more valuable. If it’s not the goal, both are good ECs.
I guess this all depends on your daughter’s goal. If she’s not necessarily looking to be recruited for her sport then high school will likely be the best experience for her. Keep in mind, though, that she’ll compete for a roster spot and playing time with players that are in fact playing club sports.
Honestly, if your daughter doesn’t drive the club soccer decision then I wouldn’t pursue it. Let her determine her level of interest and participation.
I don’t know if sports themselves help with admissions for non-recruited athletes. I imagine a leadership position within the team carries a bit of weight, but it’s not a game changer by any means. The closer an athlete gets to the top of their sport’s pyramid, though, the more intense things become. At that point the time commitment to the sport is significant. Successfully juggling academic and athletic performance at that point demonstrates strong time management skills and commitment to task. That probably helps.
To put things in perspective, my son is a recruited athlete and he’s never played a single minute for his high school team. That’s the extreme end of the spectrum.
As others have said, the level and quality of training and competition is generally higher on club teams than on HS teams, except perhaps for football. My youngest kid played on a club team starting in 3rd grade and played HS. He may have been able to play D3, but was not interested and ended up on a club team at a large public University. He had other ECs, but his sport was the primary one.
I would go with what she thinks - is she committed or is it just a fun things she does? One of my other kids played rec level soccer through HS just for fun and fitness. Did other things in school.
In my daughter’s sport, gymnastics, almost every (maybe literally every) recruited athlete comes from a club team. High school teams are just not at the same level as the clubs’ upper levels, and they cannot practice enough to really get there. Even people not recruitable (ie my daughter) practice with club teams for crazy hours each week. My daughter practiced 22-30 hours per week during high school and also danced, volunteered, and had a job. The high school teams that used her gym practiced six hours a week, for comparison. I’m sure that is sport specific though.
My 18 year old son played club since 8, my 18 year old daughter did not (just town travel). She was captain of the freshman team, made varsity as a sophomore, and sat the bench (she knew she would, she was only chosen because she’s really fast, was the fastest sprinter on the track team). Every girl on varsity played club for years, so my daughter decided to play club the spring of sophomore year, so she could improve and get playing time. Second half of junior year season she was a starter, and a captain senior year. she never had any desire to play in college, but club really improved her play level.
There are a few sports where being a high school athlete is recruitable - one for sure is crew. A handful of independent schools across the US have school year long teams and are equally competitive in regattas as club teams.
In our area, recruited athletes for soccer, lacrosse, basketball and swimming all practice and compete in club and maybe play for their school team too, but the school team is not priority.
For the sports my daughter’s played they were expected to play Club/Travel also by their coaches. And at the level they play and the amount of talent around you would have a tough time making a HS team if you hadn’t been playing club.
As others have said, if your daughter is not being recruited for her sport, HS vs. club makes no difference for admission.
For recruited athletes, there are some sports where it’s hard to imagine a recruitable athlete not playing club, given that most of the development happens in the club context. Soccer for example. The best players gravitate to club and it’s the highest level of competition and most robust player development path. For those players, HS sports are a side gig and at the team and league level there isn’t as much depth as club. Some of the best soccer players I know don’t even bother with HS soccer, doing other HS sports instead.
But there are still sports like track and field that are built around the HS system, and for those there isn’t any recruiting advantage to club vs. HS. If you’re correct about the level of competition for your daughter’s sport being the same in HS vs. club, then there’s probably not much recruiting difference. But there’s a limited number of sports these days that fit that description.
My daughter played on a club team because she thought it was fun, not because it was required. She also only played on the new club team founded by the coach at the neighboring HS, and they just practiced in the summer and played 4 tournaments. It didn’t cost much, about $800/yr. There was a much bigger club in the state, and it costs a lot more (up to $5000) and the main coaches had no idea who anyone was even though they were college coaches themselves. They had a lot of players recruited, but that’s because they had a lot of players (thousands).
Daughters small club became a feeder club to my daughter’s college and at one point there were 5 from that club on her team. It was all about the coach having connections and the college coaches liking the type of players who came from that coach. The coach was also very helpful in getting those who wanted to play in college set up with the right schools and college coaches. She’d meet with the players and parents to talk them through the recruiting process. Very helpful. She was also the HS coach and would have helped any of her players who played for the big club team or who just played for her high school.
Only clubs play at the big showcase lacrosse tournaments (most high schools don’t allow their students to travel OOS or play off season, so the high school may form a club team made up of the same players to do the traveling and tournaments). In lax, it’s at the showcases were college coaches go to look at recruits, and where the games are all filmed and available to the college coaches. It just makes recruiting easier.
We live too far from a metro area to feasibly play club. My S22 is a D1 level player and isn’t getting much recruiting attention. I can only assume no club is why. He is having a blast playing high school, though, and wouldn’t give that up for anything. No regrets since he isn’t really interested in playing D1 soccer anyway
As most people have said the sport really makes the difference on the whole club v HS.
You have to ask student why she is playing and what is the ultimate goal.
I have a D23 that plays tennis. She is a very fine HS player. She doesn’t have the interest to try to take it to next level. But she likes to play. She does some park district camp/lessons in the offseason. But we don’t let it control our family schedule.