@melvin123 said, “you also mentioned that you don’t want sports to dictate where he goes to college as you don’t think he’ll be a professional athlete afterwards. But I think you should consider whether he’ll still want to play, and at what level, and how this would impact his college choice.”
I think this is excellent advice. If your son wants to play his sport in college, in my opinion, the type of athletic experience he wants also needs to factor into the initial search criteria. For example, my son, who was also looking for a rigorous academic experience, was recruited by major D1 programs and schools in the Ivy League. He immediately eliminated the major D1 programs because he felt the athletic time commitment would be too much. He then was able to narrow his search to schools in the Ivy League and top academic D3 schools. After visits, he was then able to choose the school that was the best fit for him.
OP, I don’t know what sport your son plays, but for my son’s sport, coaches have already begun making offers to high school juniors.
Good luck in putting all of the pieces together and finding both an excellent academic fit and an athletic fit.