This is a question for all of the students (and parents) who played a varsity sport at the D3 level. I have read that the student body at many D3 schools have little to no interest in sports as a spectator, fan, or other supporter. The level of student body support probably depends on the sport itself as even some sports played at D1 schools are not overly supported/watched by fans. My D is being recruited to play a varsity sport at a couple of highly selective D3 schools and is comfortable with a lack of student/fan support. My D plays a sport that would normally not fill up the stadium stands anyway.
How was your experience playing your sport at the D3 level in light of a presumed lack of student or fan “support?” Did the sport you played end up being more of a chore for you?
There are obviously a lot of positives of playing a varsity sport in college but we wanted to get some feedback from former or current D3 athletes (and parents). Also, as parents, we feel that our D playing a varsity sport in college is a uniquely enriching experience that very few other students will ever experience.
Also one follow up question for feedback. Can anyone give us their opinion on which D3 schools where sports may be more empathized and/or supported by the students?
Daughter played softball at a NESCAC. They got decent turnout at their home games – mostly friends of the players and parents/relatives who could make the drive. A couple of the profs who were close to team members would also show up, especially if the weather were nice. The team played in Florida over Spring Break, and we got very good turnout because almost all the families came down for a week to 10 days.
It was a great experience for our daughter. Her closest friends were primarily teammates. The sport helped dictate structure and forced better time management. At the same time, the coaches get it that academics take priority. On the other hand, professors were also accommodating when necessary.
Student support varies by school and sport, but I would say men’s football, basketball and ice hockey (at least in the NE) have the widest general support. Thereafter, support probably is a function of how many athletes are on the team (more athletes = more friends = more fans) and how successful the team is.
My D3 Men’s Soccer player, in a competitive conference, did not have stands filled with adoring fans. It was players’ friends, often the women’s team if they played before or after, parents, and his mentors/favorite profs. Big rivalries brought out more fans. Other teams on campus were more successful (top 10 national ranking etc) so had more fans and attention than his team did.
While I’m sure my kid would have liked more publicity for the team, that was not really a priority for him. The bond with his teammates, the lessons learned in terms of work ethic and perseverance, plus getting to play and compete for four more years at his school, that’s what it was all about. It was never, ever, a chore (okay, he might say that lifting on a Friday evening was a pain, or doing the conditioning test at preseason was a chore, but still worth it). Plus, his team does an international trip every 4 years, so he had an incredible experience training and competing overseas. Finally, he found that being a 4 year athlete helped in job apps for roles requiring teamwork etc.
Thanks momma and bkquared. Great input and very informative.
I know this is subjective, but does anyone have an opinion as to which D3 schools have the best student support for sports?
My D is considering a D3 school in a large city on the east and a D3 school in a small city in the Midwest. Our guess is that the D3 located in the large city may not get a lot of student support as college sports must compete with what the city has to offer. Maybe a D3 locates in the Midwest with more a traditional school campus would garner more strident support
Every school has a different sports scene. You might get more informative answers if you were willing to state the sport and schools under consideration.
Son played baseball for NJAC team. Home games were always crowded, road games were decent depending on the trip. Probably 400-500 for weekend games. Big student body travelled to the Regionals every year. Couple of hundred travelled to the World Series in Wisconsin.
The basketball games are always nearly sold out in the NJAC
Track events were always jammed. Not sure if it was because of the large number of schools that participated at a time.
@Dadof3 , my advice to my son was, if you were injured and couldn’t play, would you be happy at this school?
And as Momma said above, 4 year athlete definitely opened up job opportunities during summer and after graduation.
Last spring I was at UVA. The men’s tennis team was playing GTech. There was maybe a handful of people watching each match. We watched for a few minutes because you could see it from the sidewalk. At UChicago, the courts are tucked behind the small football stands(smaller than the visitors stands at my DS’s HS). Looking at google maps, it doesn’t look like they have any seating for tennis.
I spent a great deal of time at DI schools with National Championship calibre teams. Was easy to walk in and watch matches during the playoffs for the national championship. So if your daughter is expecting crowded stands at a DIII tennis match, then I think that she will be disappointed.
Ok I did D1 year round sport in the big east and except for the championship meets there were not a ton of folks and it did not matter, it was the group of guys I ran with, 30 years later we still get together every 5 years to see where we stand in life. I will say as someone who hires people , anyone who is a college athlete, gets their resume toss aide for a 2 reading but that is bc I know the amount of time it takes to be a college athlete.
Eyeore, appreciate the comments. No my D does not expect crowds to watch tennis. That is what I was alluding to in my initial post about my D playing a sport that would not fill up an stands. Team tennis lots of fun, but tennis is definitely a more singularly played sport
We were just curious about whether some D3 schools were better than others about supporting student athletes. For example, we hear at NYU that the students are not too generally interested in sports (and NYU does not field a football team) but on the flip side, we know of some student athletes at NYU and other D3 schools who really enjoy their student-athlete experiences (regardless of fan support)
@dadof3and1dog , it really depends on the sport and school. Bowdoin and Colby, for example, tend to have every seat filled at men’s ice hockey games but soccer and field hockey may have only friends and family.
Often, if a team advances to the conference championship or beyond, students will come out to support them. They may even travel in fan busses. For example, at the ncaa finals for men’s lax, the D3 contenders make a pretty good showing.
Some schools get decent crowds for basketball. It really varies.
Even for big D1 schools that are good at the sport, the fans may be limited to family, friends, the other (mens/womens) team, a few roommates. A lot will depend on where the courts/field/track is located and if the games or matches are convenient for other students to get to.
It also depends on how much fun the sport is to watch and whether the rowdy boys can have a beer at the game. My daughter played lacrosse and her games were at the local high school football field, not on campus. There were usually about 100 parents, boyfriends, and roommates at her games but could be many fewer if it was a midweek game or if the weather was bad. The boys’ games were on a much smaller field on campus with portable stands. There were often 200+ at their games as guys could back their pick up trucks near the fence and drink a few beers and hoot and holler. Boys team also have about twice as many on the team so that’s more parents, more girl friends, more roommates. One of the biggest support groups at my daughter’s games were her sorority sisters. Usually 5-10 would come to cheer for her with signs and noisemakers. Her roommates were there because they were all on the team.
How many people come to her high school matches? It will probably be similar at college.
Thanks twoin. My D plans on rushing a sorority too. I am curious as how difficult it is for your D to play a varsity sport, be in a sorority and handle the academics. Any input you could provide would be appreciated
@dadof3and1dog My son played a varsity sport, was in a fraternity, conducted research, and had no problem handling the academics. In my opinion, there is a healthy balance at the D3 level.
I have only the perspective of a parent of a student who attended an LAC known for having sporty kids. Because there is a lot of school spirit with all the kids, athletes felt well supported, but large turnouts for matches were not common. Any play-off type games, parent weekend games, and big rivalries were more well attended than most other sports events.
At colleges not known for sportiness, I imagine the support system is going to come mostly from her teammates. I think, but don’t know, that athletes at the schools you mentioned in post #7 are perhaps going to be their own support system, especially at a school lacking a sports vibe.
All those colleges will have high expectations that students will be committed to their sport AND do well in college. A good friend was a student athlete at one of those schools and said, in a nutshell, that the sport owned her soul, that the number #1 expectation was that she be committed to her sport above all else, but that she had to get the grades too. It was very stressful, she said, especially because there wasn’t much in the way of external support. Maybe things have changed since then.
My point is that perhaps at colleges such as those, sports might be more of an afterthought to everyone at the college except the coaches and the athletes.
For many recruited athletes, the structure and stress relief provided by their sport helps, rather than hinders, their college path. My student’s in-season semester grades were usually better than off-season semester because he was ruthlessly efficient and watched his sleep, diet, health to make sure his on-field performance wasn’t impacted. In the off-season, he had more free time, procrastinated (and partied more), and could see some grade blips . . . .though maybe that’s an 18-22 year old guy thing.
For context, his D3 sport in season – including film review, meetings, travel etc., required 25-30 hours per week. Off season, with lifting, informal practices etc., was anywhere between 5-15 hours per week. He had a campus job all 4 years, was involved in several organizations and had a campus leadership role his senior year. As a senior and fall season athlete, it was a very challenging to lead on the field, keep his academics up, maintain his leadership role AND apply for jobs, which itself was the equivalent time commitment of another class. That semester was the most precariously balanced of his four years, but he got through it, had his post-grad job by early winter, and could relax.
A good clue is to look at the physical sports facilities, where are they located, what is the seating capacity, and nature of the stands for your sport and the other sports, especially football and basketball, for a clue on how important sports are to general school spirit. I will say when D and I went on tour, her high school facilities were better than even most of the Ivies. We originally thought some of the D3 fields were rec fields. I would also say that the “prestige” factor of being a student athlete will be of a different order of magnitude at an academic D3 like the ones you listed vs most high schools. In fact, until proven otherwise in class, the assumption generally is that an athlete got in because of athletics. If what you mean by “support” is social prestige, probably not going to happen at a D3.
On the other hand, if what you mean by support is having a close knit ready made group of friends, professors and coaches interested in your academic and athletic success, then you will find it at most D3 programs. The more relevant sport considerations should be the adequacy and convenience of the facilities (both for her sport and for general training), the interpersonal with the coach and how she feels about her teammates if she has had a chance to visit. Another good place to look is social media. Many teams have their own FB, Instagram and Twitter accounts. How active are those accounts? Does the team do a bunch of stuff together? Do they look like they are having fun?
The first year, the coach was new (sport was new at the school) and they did travel a lot. Too much (3 weekends in a row) After that the coach realized they were in Florida and other teams were willing to travel to them. They’d do one OOS weekend per year, very early in the season, and then they were at home or in their conference and no game more than 3 hours away. The schedule makes a big difference. The freshmen had study tables required for 8 hour a week and that got her off to a good start. They also had 5:30 am conditioning 3 days a week so that meant she was in bed at 9:30. Quite the wild life for a freshman (a mother’s prayers answered - study tables and in bed early).
She wasn’t a very good sorority member! She skipped a lot of things and the sorority knew that school came first and her sport second because she was on an athletic scholarship. They even did her initiation at a different time because she had a game as a conflict. Daughter’s Big Sister became the president of the sorority so D got away with a lot and yet was included whenever it was possible. She was lucky.
She didn’t do a lot of other clubs or activities but that’s her personality anyway.