Hi,
I have a couple quick questions regarding how/when to express interest in sports and clubs at prep schools.
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At this point (late summer), is it acceptable to contact coaches to express interest in a sport that you’ve never played before, but that you’re interested in playing at Exoverkiss? Do people do this? For example, if someone has experience in swimming, contacting a water polo coach, or someone with tennis experience contacting a badminton coach? Do coaches of such ‘unpopular’ sports have any weight in the admissions process?
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Do prospective students ever contact the adviser(s) of clubs at prep schools, or is the communication usually between coach and student?
Thank you all for the resources this forum provides and thanks in advance to those who help out on this thread!
Prospective athletes should definitely contact the coach. Some schools have a specific form on their website. Don’t expect any responses until after school starts.
Thanks for the reply, sgopal2. I’m still unsure about my first question, though. If anyone has any insight, it would be much appreciated.
Here’s the first question from the original post:
At this point (late summer), is it acceptable to contact coaches to express interest in a sport that you’ve never played before, but that you’re interested in playing at Exoverkiss? Do people do this? For example, if someone has experience in swimming, contacting a water polo coach, or someone with tennis experience contacting a badminton coach? Do coaches of such ‘unpopular’ sports have any weight in the admissions process?
Also, any advice for swimmers applying to St. Paul’s? Not extremely serious (i.e. not going to swim in college) - how to handle this on the application?
If you are a serious contender in a sport or activity I would definitely reach out to a coach. If it’s something you’re just interested in starting I would wait until your interview to bring it up. Many times on the first portion of the application you can express interests in a sport, activity or academic area. Are you using a common application like Gateway to Prep? The first part of the application makes you list all of your activities and how many hours/years you’ve participated. In our experience many of the departments will reach out to you depending on what you’ve selected.
We wish SPS had a swim team. Having one child that is a serious swimmer I can honestly say that most BS are not set up to train serious swimmers anyway… ( other than Bolles and possibly Peddie or Mercersburg ) They train year round, sometime 2x a day. That being said, there are many great BS with swim teams as a seasonal sport. I have also seen many swimmers switch over to crew or water polo in BS. My advice, if swimming has been important to you than its fine to write about it in one of your SPS essays or talk about it in your interview. For most applicants I don’t think BS care about what the “thing” is- they care about WHY you’re doing it. For example if you’ve learned resilience/sportsmanship/teamwork/whatever from swimming than express how that will apply to your time at SPS.
( In your interview make sure you let SPS know that despite the lack of swimming, you are interested in them for other reasons * that you can name!)
As for “unpopular” sports- I’m not sure there will be any “weight” in the admissions decision if you only express interest.
I’ll give you the same advice I gave my kid when she started… Stop stressing over the tiny details. Spend the next couple of weeks figuring out WHY you want to go to boarding school. What can you offer that is NOT on your transcript. Most of these schools need kids that can wear more than one hat so to speak- you will want to show interest in many areas of the school environment. Put together the most accurate portrait of you- because frankly, no one knows exactly what each school is looking for each year.
Then when you start your application be authentic, unique and well rounded. ( meaning don’t just talk about school or that one sport) Good luck.
Coaches of club level teams have little to no pull at admissions. Varsity level coaches sometimes do. Depends upon how much priority the school places. Deerfield for example has a top notch LAX team.
If you are a newcomer to a sport, it is highly unlikely that you will make the varsity team at most of the top boarding schools. The varsity coach can make a case for an applicant through admissions, but you need to be able to convince the coach that you are an impact player.
Since this does not appear to be the case with you, it is unlikely that the coach will pull any strings for you. But it doesn’t hurt to ask, and it is always good to express interest.
Thanks for such a thorough answer, copperboom! I really appreciate all the information - I’ll definitely keep all of this in the back of my head.
How about contacting coaches now?
I’m a late bloomer lol