To OPs original question. No. No incremental help with admissions for D1. Two sports can be attractive to D3 for reasons stated.
Quite honestly, when my own kids were in middle school we were not focused at all on college, and certainly not college athletics. We were focused on putting them in the best high school environment to succeed at that level (both with their academics and their ECs, including sports).
Because like most here, I live a typical pain in the butt upper middle class lifestyle and am blessed with disposable income, I know many parents who were focused on junior or juniorette being the next big thing in some club driven sport during middle school, and who assumed that this eventual athletic skill would open all kinds of doors in college. It âworked outâ for a few, but for most the kids either burned out on their sport and stopped playing, didnât develop athletically the way the parent assumed, or simply couldnât keep up the academics.
I am not saying this will or is even likely to happen to you or your son, but I will say that you need to focus on the next step right now, which is the transition to high school. Once that is over, and you have a handle on the level your son is performing at athletically and academically, then it might be time to shift your gaze forward a bit. There is plenty of time yet. The recruiting process itself doesnât take that much time.
As far as the specific question of what benefit there is in playing two sports, if your question is whether being able to participate at a varsity level in the second sport would give your son a âleg upâ either with admissions or in recruiting, I very much doubt it. I think there are probably very few sports rosters in Division 1, let alone at high academic D1 schools (Ivys, Stanford, ND, Duke, etc), where coaches are having trouble filling out rosters. Even if there were, then that would be a pretty powerful indication that the school didnât sink a lot of resources into that particular sport, make sense?
If your question is will your son have a better chance to develop into a recruitable athlete if he plays two sports or one in high school, I think that depends entirely on the sports. Some sports compliment each other very well. Others less so. Assuming, along with everyone else on the thread, that the âmainâ sport is golf, I doubt seriously that playing another sport, particularly an "extremely nicheâ sport, will help much at all.
How in the world is this possible? Are you saying that college coaches are committing to kids who they have never seen?
Does he enjoy both?
Does he get stressed out by all the practices?
One thing no one mentioned, but which I thought might be relevant, is the potential upside a college coach may see in a potential recruit who had not specialized yet. Playing multiple sports is time consuming, and eventually giving one up to focus solely on the other would allow more practice time and result in the recruit theoretically having a higher ceiling.
I ignore most parenting advice I am offered on the internet. Every child is different, and without knowing anything specific about the temperament of the child, the parent, and the child/parent dynamic itself, it seems like even well-intentioned advice could be misguided and flat out wrong. People always assume âtheir wayâ is the best way if it worked for them.
Heâs only in middle school. Despite being an all A student now, youâll never know how the work load and his grades will turn out in high school. For your target HYP schools, if you are indeed planning for him to be recruited, the grades are the most important. Just recently, one very elite athlete who is currently ranked number 1 with very good grades and test scores did not receive his Likely Letter yet because he had âtoo many Bâsâ. If he isnât recruited by the coach as a likely letter athlete, then as some mentioned above, the sports are only considered as another EC. It would not give him the same hook in admission as a recruited athlete.
OP. Coaches at D1 programs , ivy or otherwise, do not care about another sport nor are they thinking about upside potential should one sport fall away. They want great players for their team when they need them. . Some sports like hockey often require most players go play juniors somewher to mature or wait their turn. College sports are really not in the development business. They want to win. Can you perform in X sport and can you get admitted are what most coaches are thinking
Except for 100 meter & 60 yard dash/meter runners are sometimes recruited for football.
Even professional football scouting reports note achievements of college football players in high school wrestling (linemen) & in high school & college sprint track times & successes (receivers & running backs).
But you asked.
I donât think I asked for advice on how to raise my kids.
I think coaches in all sports actually do take into account upside or ability to improve and not just how much the recruit can help day 1.
He enjoys both sports, but loves one much more than the other. Different seasons keep things fresh without risk of burnout, but obviously limits incremental improvement (there are only so many hours).
Lastly, spouse and I (also Ivy although not HYP) have pretty high academic standards and are somewhat familiar with what is required - we think heâs generally on track in that regard.
I agree with all that say it is pretty hard to predict at this age. Based on middle school I figured S would have the grades and test scores for anything, and his athletic ability would be the limiting factor, low D1 or maybe D3. It turned out the opposite, athletically he blossomed in HS, but his grades and test scores, while still very good, were low enough that he flat out isnât getting into an Ivy without coach help.
If your S is recruitable, that is the only factor that will really matter, assuming academically he is ok and has no disciplinary issues. Coach 1 doesnât care a lick if he is recruitable for the NFL as long as his is committed to that coaches sport. The bigger issue might be for D1 convincing the coach you are 100% committed and willing to drop the second sport.
If he ends up not recruitable, then having the second heavy committment EC is going to be a plus I would think.
The Ivies still require very good grades and good/very good test scores â even for their recruited athletes. A straight-A student in my family, a recruited Ivy athlete, was asked to retake her SATs and was told point blank that unless she raised it by 40 points she would be a no-go. Another athlete â ranked no 1 nationally â was told his grades werenât good enough for any of the Ivies (the grades were in the B to B+ range) while his sister â not anywhere near the level of her brother in the same sport â but with excellent grades and SATs, was accepted at both Harvard and Yale.
Really?
You asked for advice on what he should play and where he should play.
Most of us have said that coaches donât care that much about a second sport but you think otherwise. Thatâs fine, but why ask if you arenât interested in the responses?
Perhaps I wasnât clear enough in my initial and subsequent posts.
Probably because the users with experience feel itâs unimportant.
The OP asked questions. Presumably, he wanted opinions. Many of the respondents are users that have had plenty of experience with the process via their own kids, yet, based upon the OPâs responses, he seems uninterested in opinions that run contrary to his own. Thatâs his right, I suppose. However, since this whole conversation seems to be going around in circles, Iâm going to step out of the conversation.
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Well, you are not wrong that sometimes coaches recruit potential, and bet that a kid who is not year round committed to one sport will blossom when he or she focuses on that sport full time. In fact, the Vandy baseball coach kind of famously built that program into what it is by recruiting a lot of kids with obvious athletic and baseball talent from northern states, where the kids simply were not able to play the 100+ games that kids in the southern states routinely play in the high school years. The football coach at Harvard has also done very well with recruiting guys who are two or three sport stars at smaller high schools. Both are betting that a significant portion of those recruits will take a significant jump when they focus just on one sport in college.
I think the problem with that thinking in your situation is two fold. First, I think that a plan to recruit on the if come depends in large part on large roster sizes, because some kids just arenât gonna take the huge athletic jump for whatever reason. I am assuming that golf and the other âextremely nicheâ sport do not have large rosters and even fewer supported slots in the Ivy or other high academic schools. Second, I donât know if golf is one of those sports where just base athleticism is easily translatable. I always thought of golf as much more of a skill. Yes, you need some base level athletic skill, flexibility, hand eye coordination, good hips, etc. But it is a lot easier to see how a 100 meter sprinter might translate into a decent or better wide receiver than it is to see how a basketball player may turn into a good golfer, know what I mean?
Even in D3 many sports are two season or year round activities, so dabbling in a secondary sport is going to be a direct choice over the primary that he has true passion for. Depending on the sport, coaches may be very insistent or merely insistent that they get a full commitment to the team, though cases of complimentary sports like FB and sprints are common exceptions. At any rate if heâs truly national class and at all interested in pursuing the sport heâll end up specializing before the age of 20, and it could be much earlier if he entertains thoughts of a national team.
Another thought: a lot depends on how your son develops as a person. I have a family member who committed to Huge School before sophomore year HS in hockey. He quit high school, played a few years of juniors, finished his HS degree online and at some point realized he wasnât going to enjoy living the Huge lifestyle, so he decommitted. (Some was him, some was coaching changes at Huge.) Instead he picked up a full ride at a very small school that is highly ranked in his sport that suited his personality much better. TLDR: itâs very early and you have to let things unfold for each kid. Your comments indicate youâre aware of this, but it always bears repeating.
In my experience with CC, the parents who take the time to share their opinions, insights, and experiences generally do so with the best of intentions and best of outcomes for your child in mind. You donât necessarily have to follow their adviceâŠafter all, you know your kid better than any of do. But to push back with a âDonât tell me how to raise my kids!â when, in essence, thatâs what youâve asked for advice onâŠthatâs not going to be warmly received.
OP, keep in mind that most (if not all) of the people who have commented on this thread HAVE successfully shepherded their kid through the athletic recruiting process â some at extremely selective schools.
If middle school success was predictive, my son would now be a star defensive tackle in the NFL. I know another who would be President of the US. And another who would be in prison. Yet none of these outcomes were realized. The quietest kid under everyoneâs radar is now worth hundreds of millions. Lives in New Zealand & in Aspen, Colorado & has offices on four or five different continents.
The athletic stars of my sonâs football league who received DI scholarships all had fathers who played in the NFL or in the NBA. Granted that golf is different in that it is easier to measure one against oneâs peers nationwide. But it is still middle school & many fail to develop into Division I athletes even though promising when in junior high school. Itâs just too early. Maybe better to investigate high schools & prep boarding schools which excel in this sportâfor example, Lawrenceville with squash & its strong placement of squash players at Princeton. Or elite tennis academies. Or the Florida schoolâthe name escapes meâthat is well known for developing high school athletes into DI recruited prospects. If wrestling, then most would direct one to one of two nationally known elite Northeastern US boarding schools.
In our experience, based on conversations with college coaches recruiting our kids and a travel ball coach (who just had 2 of his recent âalumniâ in the LCS and WS), coaches may consider âpotentialâ if either (1) the kid is highly skilled and it is pretty evident that he (usually) is just starting to grow/fill out or (2) the recruit has incredible physical attributes and can easily improve in the necessary skill sets. In a nutshell, they may consider rolling the dice if they see a prospect with very significant upside against limited variables. I agree with @Ohiodad51 that the willingness of the coach to take such a chance is dependent on the slots he has and what the makeup of the current team is (already strong team with few graduating seniors vs a struggling team that needs immediate help). While I am sure there are always unique situations where a kid is recruited on the come with other considerations in play, I think the 2 situations I described are the most common.