I think OP has gotten a lot of good information and any potential upside to being a 2 sport athlete is going to be very specific and a case by case scenario. I would add that there is quite a bit of misinformation about D1 Ivy verses D1 everyone else (NCAA) regarding grades and admissions. I.e too many Bs etc. Since OP seems Ivy interested I will point out that Ivy admissions/coaches use the Academic Index to vett/qualify their athletes. HYP generally have higher AIs than the other Ivies. However the AI fluctuates significantly from sport to sportâfencing is likely to be higher than Basketball or Hockey. The Index is 2/3rds scores (SAT and two subject tests OR SAT doubled) and 1/3 grades. The formula used to include class rank but no longer uses that component. The Index is 176 -240 (240 being the most points available). Each team has a target AI and the AI is based on the mean of the school. So the quotes about tier 1 recruits being told sorry you have too many Bs or your scores are too low doesnt really compute. If you are a top athlete --I.e a supported recruit your AI will have to work for that teams target. Lets say we are talking hockey: If you are one of the top kids in the country you can literally have a 178 which is a 3.4 and an 1100 with equivalent scores on the SAT2 . However that means that the other recruits may need to be higher to offset. Each team may have a different target AI and a different number of recruits. So a recruit that was told they had too many Bs would have likely been an AI boosterâi.e not a top recruit but someone who played the sport, could be rostered and helped raise the team AI. If you have the AI to qualify you have it. In hockey for example you will see rostered kids who never play. There are endless scenarios but suffice it to say if you are a truly top athlete --nationally recruited --you can get in with a 176âIF the coach wants you bad enough. You cannot get in if your AI is below that under any circumstancesâtwo recent Harvard hockey recruits decommitted and went to MI and BC because of this. Anyone have any other information please add on here.
Not to beat this dead horse too much, but fwiw, I think the OP is misconstruing some of the advice about it being too early to ask the questions he is asking. I donât think people are trying to tell him how to raise his son, rather I think we are trying to point out that there are a number of steps from where his son is now and where the OP thinks his son wants to end up.
As a personal example, I knew when my son was in junior high that he had the potential to be a good athlete, and that he was a pretty smart kid. But if you would have asked me when he was in eighth grade I would have said he would end up a baseball player. He was a good football player at that point, but he was really good at baseball. He hit everything, had a great glove, decent arm and was fast enough. He also probably enjoyed baseball more, likely because he had some great coaches. It wasnât until after his freshman year of football that that particular bug really bit him, and baseball faded into the background.
The point being that kids change, particularly at the stage of their life. So in addition to all the points about physical and intellectual development, middle school is just too early to try and fine tune an athletic career.
Not to mention predicting injuries. We had a couple of family friends with super talented student athletes who had sport ending injuries in high school. And none in contact sports. Thankfully the academics were enough to get them into good schools but there was a scramble to recreate college lists.
I can understand that @daddycaddy is trying to figure out a game plan. Here are 2 cents from a mom of a very athletic kid, double sport, from the age of 6. It will work itself out. I know thatâs an annoying answer, but I swear, it will happen that way.
After moving to the states from Europe, DS competed on the high school Varsity team in both sports while still in middle school (small school K-12). 'Started national travel with Sport 1. Later on in HS, 'broke his wrist playing Sport 2. Sport 2 got dropped. 'Continued on HS Varsity team with Sport 1. HS Coach changed, practices were annoying, and he preferred to concentrate on academics. Sport 1 HS Varsity went by the wayside except when competing against the cross town rivals. In the end he was left with only Club in Sport 1. With the exception of volunteer work and summer jobs, no other outside ECâs. Recruited, 1 and done.
Because of the way the Ivy system is set up, I would tend to agree that coaches are looking for a âsure thingâ. @SevenDad and I both know of kids âcommittingâ then changing their minds at the last minute, and even worse, getting in through recruitment then quitting the team. As a result, Ivy coaches look for kids who love their sport. When the love goes, youâre sunk. (Read the previous sentence one more time, itâs important) Itâs early, so minimize any parental pressure as it can be a contributing factor to the sport(s) ânot being fun anymoreâ.
@Ohiodad51 and @chelsea465 make really key commentsâIvy coaches are very wary of kids just trying to get in and there are a ton of those! Some sports have real issues with kids quitting before the season even startsâŠ
Thank you all for the replies and advice
I appreciate the different points of view and experiences some of you have shared from having gone through the process
It gives me a lot to think about and consider