My son is in middle school and plays two individual sports, both at a nationally ranked level for which he could eventually be recruited.
His first sport (and main passion) is one where the most elite players either turn pro after high school or go to a major powerhouse program (think major sports conferences like SEC or PAC12) which are basically feeders to a potential professional career. He is not at this elite level, but just a notch below, and we believe he is talented enough to play his main sport at one of the top Ivyâs (HYP), where you have to be very very good but not have any professional aspirations.
His second sport is extremely niche and one where the elite players all want to play at top academic schools (including HYP). He is just below this elite level as well, but could easily play for a very good, but not top tier, D1 academic school.
The sports seasons donât overlap, so up until now he has done both during the respective seasons.
We are now trying to think about what to do during high school, and are wondering which of the following would be a better path for maximizing admissions to a HYP caliber academic school (keeping in mind he eventually wants to play his first sport in college):
continue to train and play national tournaments in both sports during respective seasons; participate on varsity high school teams
continue to train and play national tournaments in both sports during respective seasons; opt out of varsity high school teams (to free up time for academics or other ECs)
focus on first (main) sport for training and national tournaments year-round; participate in varsity high school team for both sports
focus on first (main) sport for training and national tournaments year-round; participate in varsity high school team for second sport only
Question: Is there additional value in playing more than one sport at a college (recruited athlete) level?
Or is he just taking away from training time and risking injury by participating in multiple sports at that level?
Middle school??? IMO, itâs WAY too early to be predicting HYPs level anything.
Your son is what, 13/14 years old? He needs to be focused on doing the sport/sports he enjoys, being with his friends, and continuing to get good grades in the most rigorous courses available to him.
And middle school is too early to be thinking about HYP specifically.
As for what to do sports-wise - what does he want to do? Without knowing the kid or the sports, itâs hard for anonymous people to advise; depending on the sport, if he continues at a ânationally ranked level,â HS varsity will be too low a level. But Iâm going to move to thread to the athletic recruits forum to allow some of the experts there to weigh in.
Coaches like good athletes, and some claim to pick the âbest athleteâ even if that athlete has little experience playing the sport. That used to be true in rowing, but now there really are a lot of accomplished high school rowers so the coaches can pick a known quantity, not just a good athlete. A baseball coach is not going to recruit a kid who has no baseball experience no matter how good he is at basketball.
Most college coaches donât want you playing for a second team. There just arenât that many Bo Jacksons, Dion Sanders, or John Elways anymore. There is a very talented woman who played lacrosse and hockey at BC. She would play hockey until the season ended and then pick up lacrosse half way through the season. There arenât many athletes who can do that, and not many coaches who allow it. Her senior year she only played hockey and now has a full year of eligibility left for lacrosse, but last year when they were playing for the national championship, Iâm sure the lacrosse coach would have liked her on the team last May. There are a few combos that still work. A few football players are also track stars. There are lacrosse/field hockey combos. I donât know that it helps you get recruited, more that you have to request permission to play both sports and often the answer from one coach or the other is âno.â
You have to look for recruiting for the sports. Some sports are recruited from high school teams while others are recruited from club or traveling teams. Your son also needs to decide where heâll have the most fun. Some Olympic swimmers stay with their high school teams because thatâs what makes high school fun and swimming fun, although their main competition is at national tournaments or even world events. Iâm sure Missy Franklin wasnât all that challenged by the backstroker from TJ High school, but she liked swimming with her school friends.
Like momofsenior1 said, keep the focus on academics and make sure heâs taking the most rigorous courses available. Iâve known many top high school athletes who were injured and unable to play their sport in college.
Agree with posters above, way too early, especially if S is privy to these conversations re: college scholarships and prestige hunting.
Adding: the training that comes with two different sports actually lowers injury risk as athlete is using different muscles/motions. Please let your S decide how hard and at what level to pursue either or both sports. If he says he wants a break, let him take a break. I live in a very sports centric, high achieving community and many, many of my kidsâ peers burned out on their sports by high school. Additionally, many kids make great strides in athletic ability in high schoolâŠsome kids who were stars prior to high school werenât able to keep improving and were overtaken by others.
Playing two sports at a collegiate level can help with Division III admissions, but is unlikely to helpâand may harmâDivision I recruiting (think football & baseball or any revenue sport combined with a non-revenueâalthough football & 100 meter track is a positive).
In the past, some Div. I ice hockey programs were at DIII schools & even the scholarship players for ice hockey were permitted to play DIII lacrosse. So it depends upon the particular sports. Why keep them secret ? You should get better advice if you reveal the two sports. Tennis & squash ? Golf & squash ? Soccer & squash ?
My best guess is that your sonâs sports are golf & squashâboth non-revenue sports which should help even for Division I programs. Easy to research the leading colleges & universities for each sport. However, if one sport is fencing, then there is a lengthy & long-running fencing thread on CC where you can get expert guidance.
For now Iâd prefer not to disclose the sports as it may reveal identity to those in our community.
I am very familiar with the typical rankings (looking back historically many years) by graduating class and age group for each of the sports for the different schools and he is solidly in the range for the schools mentioned.
I am an alum of one of the HYP but do not donate - I figured this wonât really move the needle in admissions.
We also live in the northeast and are not URM, so have that working against.
He is a very strong student and spouse and I always emphasize academics over sports, but his biggest talent (and true passion) is his primary sport.
Since your son is in middle school, you may be a bit too early. But there are great DII & DIII schools you should consider: (Williams College, Colgate University, Bucknell University, etc.) as well as Ivies.
The trend for even elite athletes is to engage in multiple sports to develop overall coordination and conditioning, avoid injuries from repetitive movements and to avoid burnout. So if your S enjoys both sports, he should continue them at some level.
If you are looking at high academic schools, minimum grades and test scores will be required. Understand the Academic Index (how it is calculated and how it is used) if you are looking at Ivies. It is also a good benchmark for other high academic schools.
Understand how recruiting is conducted for the relevant sports so you can get your son down that path. Is recruiting primarily done based on HS, club, showcase or other (e.g. AJGA) performances? How will that scheduling work?
Agree with the above posters that it is unlikely that a D1 coach is going to feel that it is a plus that your son will also be playing another sport. For D3âs, it is probably not an issue and may help (2 sports for the price of 1 slot in the AOâs accounting).
At this point, the best thing to do is to get educated about the entire process (athletic and academic) for both sports. I would also add that kidsâ interests change and there will be a lot of physical changes going through HS. We know of so many kids that were âdominantâ in youth ball (pre HS) that just fell behind physically in HS (size, strength and speed) or the reverse.
@Publisher: âUnfortunately, your username isnât as discreet as you may want it to be.â FTFY. AlsoâŠmaybe heâs just a fan of domestic luxury vehichles?
I donât think heâll be harming himself by concentrating on the primary sport.
I know a lot of lacrosse boys who were also varsity athletes on another sport - golf, swimming, hockey. They play on the high school teams, they play on a club team, go to summer tournament, etc., but do the other sport too. They are recruited for lacrosse and not the other sport. The top player in lacrosse in our state also was a varsity golfer, but didnât play golf at the level to be recruited to GA or AZ or Stanford. He is good, as that high school is very competitive in all sports and some golfers from the team do get golf scholarships, but his better chance at a scholarship was lax (and his preferred sport).
If your son is not going to be recruited for the second sport, it most likely will be considered as a nice EC by the admissions of the top schools. The coaches of the first sport may like that he plays a second sport, but admissions is not as easily impressed. They give admissions preferences to recruits the coaches want.
If one of the sports can be gleaned by your user name, that sport is played both fall and spring in most conferences⊠That schedule is extra difficult at schools that are on the quarter system, because the student doesnât have the luxury to schedule more difficult classes, or lab classes, etc. in the 2 off-season quarters. Many students also report difficulty in keeping up with school work and maintaining high GPAs because the content moves so fast during quartersâŠitâs hard to stay on top of assignments, missed labs, etc. when they are gone so much.
These are really great responses - thanks very much.
I know that it is still early, but there are kids verbally committing to schools by freshman/sophomore year (albeit not necessarily the schools we are targeting) and, even for HYP, recruiting seems to get locked up by summer between Junior and Senior year of college, so only a few years to prepare.
It sounds like participating in the second sport at a really high (potentially D1 varsity) level doesnât help that much in admissions if the intent is to play the primary sport for the school one is targeting.
HOWEVER in the scenario where he isnât recruited at a targeted school for the primary sport (perhaps not many spots open that recruiting year, coach has other recruits he prefers, etc.), would applying for admission as a non-recruited athlete help if he is performing at a recruitment level in multiple sports?
In other words, if targeted schools donât need him for the primary sport (typically 2-3 recruits per year) will having participated in multiple sports at a D1 varsity college level help him in the normal admissions process?
For a student who is not being recruited, it helps in the sense that any strong EC helps. It helps in terms of intangibles that he learns through the sport. Is it more help than another EC with similar time commitments and learning opportunities? IMO, no. Keep in mind that Nathan Chen, as a non-recruited athlete, was reportedly rejected from Harvard. But I think heâll do just fine attending Yale.
It would be thrown into the quality of EC evaluation. I donât think you get bonus points for having participated at a high level in 2 sports (except maybe for Harvard). The kid who was a debate champ and won a bunch of robotics awards might be viewed equally as your son who was all conference in 2 sports for instance. The real edge you get through athletics is the athletic recruit card where your son is on a completely different admissions path.
Agreed, the new NCAA rules have not cut down on this practice in many sports. But you are in control of the process and I would encourage you to not feel pressure for S to commit until fall of junior year at the earliest, when your S can go on OVs. Before then sure you can arrange phone calls between S and college coaches, fill out recruiting questionnaires, meet coaches at camps, etc., but you have to really know you love a school and a program to verbally commit without having met the coach in person (happening a lot now!) and team members during a visit to campus (students can visit campus but canât have any athletic dept contact on visits prior to junior year in many sports in DI and DII).
The second sport will be treated as an EC, albeit a distinguished high achieving one. Certainly wonât hurt in admissions if he is not a recruited athlete, but at the schools on your list there are lots of kids with high level ECs.
I donât think it is too early for you to be thinking about these things. However, it also isnât too early to go overboard. So, try to not to put too much pressure on your son too now - there will be plenty of pressure to go around by junior year of high school.
The true leverage for athletics in college admissions is for an athlete that a coach believes will contribute to a team. Otherwise, no matter what your athletic background is, you are just another well rounded applicant to college. If you canât contribute to two teams, your second sport will matter to the adcom as much as being in the choir or the play.
It is hard to make a real assessment without a control group, but I donât sense my two sporters had any better odds than my one sporter.
For better or worse, you wonât have a control group for any of your questions. You have no way of knowing whether if your son quits his secondary sport he will become incrementally better in his primary sport. You do probably know how good your high school teams are, but I personally wouldnât opt out of high school sports so that your son can join the chess club. Colleges are not looking for a well rounded applicant. They are looking for a well rounded class. They will pick the violin virtuoso over the jack of all trades every single time. Incidentally, no disrespect is intended for the jack of all trades, in fact they tend to be quite happy at college and life, but the well rounded do not have an advantage in college admissions.
Since you donât have a crystal ball, why not just let your son choose. If he likes two sports, go with it. If doing two is impossible, ask him to choose. If his body breaks down, itâs time to reassess.
