<p>A friend's student is a D1 athlete with a sizable scholarship. The largest of the freshmen recruiting class...and our guess is that few others have scholarships that large.</p>
<p>The student was lamenting about the tone of the team and the other athletes--because as everyone knew going into this....next years scholarships will be impacted by everyone's contribution to the team's success etc.
It seems the tone of the teammates with eachother, the rumors, etc are pretty rampant, and the drama is across the board from Srs down to frosh. </p>
<p>I realize there is controversy about "paid to play" and certainly this might underline why this can be a sticking point...where the tone of the team, the interaction etc is impacted by the pecking order...yet as in life that is the case. There is a pecking order and performance impacts compensation.</p>
<p>So do any other experienced CC parents have thoughts on this?
It is early--just barely out of October so the team has most of the year ahead.
Is this typical as an undercurrent?<br>
all of the athletes and their parents knew going in that the schoalrships are impacted based on contribution etc..so it isn't a surprise. </p>
<p>I have no advice for this parent as our student plays at a school where no athlete gets $ for playing. So any thoughts are welcome.</p>
<p>Is the girl doing well performance-wise? Do you think she is the victim of jealousy due to the presumption that her great scholarship amount will be renewed next year, leading to less available money for them? Or is it more that she herself is feeling a lot of pressure to perform because her scholarship will be reduced if she doesn’t? Do the rumors center around who’s getting what, or are they catty, gossipy tales about personal stuff which is rooted in the jealousy over money?</p>
<p>D is on a top 10 Div. 1 team. The girls do not seem to know or care who is getting what as far as scholarships. If they thought about it, no doubt they could guess who might be getting money. For example, they’d assume that the freshman girl who was the number one recruit in the country is getting a full ride or close to it. However, since she’s objectively that good, no one begrudges her. Also, the coach does make competition decisions purely on performance, not on who has a scholarship and thus who they should make look good. When two walk-ons showed they could make the grade, they were given the chance to compete at the expense of recruited athletes.</p>
<p>However, that situation was an unhappy one for the team members who got bumped, and some girls were definitely pretty upset over it. But to quote my D, “The walk-on is such a nice person, that no can really be angry at her.” Having said that, my D thinks her college team is super nice, and low-drama. Her high school team, on the other hand, was hellish because of jealousy. S told me a female friend at his Ivy was miserable on her team because of the dynamics. So to answer your question, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is common on girls’ teams.</p>
<p>The drama seems to surround a few themes…
so far no direct conversation about $… though the parent wonders outloud if it is because the teammates all feel this pressure to perform…</p>
<p>-pressure about who plays what position/when (don’t all teams have this?)
-pressure to be recognized high result contributor (again all teams have some inner competition)
-lots of gossip about coachs/bad mouthing coaches (bad role modeling from Srs IMHO)
-comments to this recruit that she will be yelled at by head coach (it didn’t happen)
-coaches heard “rumors” about this recruit that she is “complaining”.</p>
<p>fwiw–I think all athletes feel the pressure to be their best and to maintain their position on the team/top athletes so I don’t think that is unusual…</p>
<p>the gossipiness is unhealthy.
the parent wonders if the scholarship aspect intensifies this sort of behavior.</p>
<p>Fogfog - sounds like those athletes are spending too much time worrying about what should be obvious to them: the best talent gets a bigger slice of the pie. Shouldn’t be a surprise. Will that change each year? Maybe. A real shame to have those distractions so early in the year! Are walk ons typically treated poorly by recruited athletes?</p>
<p>From the perspective of the varsity athletes…they look down on the walk-ons…
It is considered bad to play with walk ons because they aren’t “recruited.” There is definite tier system.
This particular school does A LOT for recruited athletes, and walkons who do the same workouts/competitions don’t get any of those perks.</p>
<p>However the coaches are trying to build a team and they are trying to bring along the walkons as quickly as possible. I do not think they look down on their walk ons–just that they have only so many slots per yr.</p>
<p>That said–I believe this particular athlete has NOT said bad things about the walk ons and has had a great attitude about playing with them. (Neither I nor the parent can confirm that not being there) --however it’s generally not been in this recruit’s character to be elitist or cruel.</p>
<p>I think it is possible that jealousy is playing a piece of this–thanks GFG for pointing that out.
And yes FrancoisV–the bigger the talent=bigger slice should be obvious–it was all spelled out clearly at recruiting.</p>
<p>I don’t think this recruit has ever shared the package details with anyone…both coach and parents advised recruit to never discuss packages. My guess is the kids start to get a feel for things…and guess. Plus they are looking to see who is pulling their weight etc./pecking order etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s thoughts and PMs.
The parent and I appreciate it. We suspect that some of this is girl drama, hormones, some due to compeition, etc.
The good thing is this scholar-athlete has an awareness of the odd stuff going on and is working to "fly above everyone ele’se “kaka” so to speak.</p>