I am just curious about this…but I have been suspecting that some recruited athletes decides to give up on their recruit position right after they get accepted through sports…is this bad for future recruited athlete?
No evidence, but I would speculate that the presence or absence of a sports-related scholarship would factor in.
I believe very very few truly recruited athletes give up their sport "right after they are accepted ".
I agree with this.
Let’s focus on D3 as from past posts that seems to be where OP is targeting. If an applicant is a recruited athlete who gets support from the coach it is expected they would at least play their sport for one year/season…I don’t think many students in this situation ‘give up their position right after getting accepted’. One’s word is important in life, and to commit to play a sport, take advantage of a coach’s support to gain admission, and then immediately walk away from that is a bad look, at best.
If we are talking DI/II, a student athlete who leaves the team would lose any athletic scholarship dollars. Depending on the student’s level of need and the school’s policies, those dollars may not be able to be replaced with other financial aid, whether need or merit based.
I agree with @cinnamon1212 that very few drop the sport “right after they are accepted.” To do that would indicate a level of premeditation that schools would probably have a way to counter (eliminating the scholarship and/or denying continued admission.)
I had a friend who dropped his baseball scholarship at the start of his sophomore season because he felt the time commitment to baseball was interfering with his school work.
I don’t think immediately after accepted but I have met several adult athletes who have shared that they stopped playing their sport because it was impossible to get an education and devote the time expected to their sport. I recently watched a Ted Talk about mental health and college athletes. Apparently it is much more of a problem than discussed. This was by a USC women’s volleyball player.
Probably very few, but it would be interesting to see how many drop off the team after freshman year.
I just know d3 men’s soccer, and in that sport the answer is still very few. Bear in mind, it’s a two way street – after freshman year, athletes can be cut by coaches too.
“I don’t think immediately after accepted but I have met several adult athletes who have shared that they stopped playing their sport because it was impossible to get an education and devote the time expected to their sport.”
I got together with two old college friends last week, both of whom started for 4 years on our school’s D1 soccer team. This was 30 years ago. They now have kids in college who are good athletes, but only play club. According to my friends (who are familiar with the current situation), the commitment required to play D1 sports in college today is nuts, and really takes away from the overall college experience. 6 AM training/workouts four days a week in the off-season? No thanks.
I actually know several who did drop before ever playing a game. Often they also left the school so it was a situation of just not being ready to go to college or they picked the college for the sport and when the sport didn’t work out there was no reason to stay at the college.
I do know one who attended an elite D1, and never played at all. Attended the school all 4 years, was talented and could have been a starter, but didn’t play at all after getting in. I don’t know when the decision not to play happened. It’s a spring sport so was accepted before she played her last season in high school. A lot can happen in a year.
I know folks who dropped their sports after freshman year but mostly because of injuries.
We also knew a volleyball player that switched schools at the last minute after committing because of financial issues.
It’s common to not play four years. Look at any roster and chances are there are fewer than 25% seniors. And when you consider just the various ways a player can lose playing time (injuries, better teammates, new coach/system, lost desire, social conflict with teammates/coach) and then look at other reasons to not choose varsity athletics (academic failure, schedule conflict with major) and then normal reasons to leave school (financial problems, boyfriend/girlfriend, homesickness, family need) you can finally layer in the less visible things like mental issues (anxiety, eating disorders, depression) and it’s kind of a wonder anyone stays on D3 team. It’s far worse on a D1 team where your obligations span 12 months a year and frequently dictate where you can live, what majors you can take, who you spend the majority of your time with, if you can study abroad and, oh by the way, I got a great kid coming in from Des Moines so you’re on the practice squad now.
School is hard, sports make it harder. School is also very rewarding and sports can make it even more rewarding, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for everyone.
I don’t agree. I think sports give a lot of structure to school.
I had two start college at the same time. Very different personalities, of course, but the athlete adjusted to college much better than her sister. She loved the structure sports provided with morning lifting, night study tables, no drinking on nights before games or practices (and every day was a practice day!), trainers to help when her throat was soar (and a lot more sympathetic than her mom).
Agree that sports can make school easier due to necessity to use time wisely while keeping one on a regular schedule.
There’s precious few full ride scholarships outside of a couple of sports at the highest college levels.
For non-scholarship or lightly scholarship-ed kids, it is pretty typical to see 50% of the kids drop out between frosh and senior year. Time demands, injuries, changing interests and (the big one) lack of playing time.
If there’s no major schollie dollars involved, most kids don’t continue once if becomes clear they will be stuck on the bench for the duration. Very typical to see the number of frosh on the roster be double the number of seniors.
“If there’s no major schollie dollars involved, most kids don’t continue once if becomes clear they will be stuck on the bench for the duration.”
That sounds about right, and it’s understandable given the time commitments demanded by college athletics. Even at the HS level, it’s not uncommon to see a kid quit a sport senior year if they know they aren’t going to see much PT.
As others mention above, I suppose it would depend on the school and whether or not it is a scholarship sport.
Based on the question I am assuming you are referring to higher-end academics such as Ivy’s & NESCAC in which being a recruited athlete played a role in getting admitted. At an official overnight at a top Ivy, my D/S had to essentially promise the head coach that if supported they will play all 4-years. They were told it was typically not a problem for their team/sport but other sports/teams have had recruited athletes decide not to play, I would assume not the 1st year but perhaps later years. That said I know a few that did not play all 4-years at this Ivy, I believe for legit reasons, injury, class load, health issues, etc. and it was fine.
I have known and seen a few athletes and/or parents announce a commitment to a D2 school, which may be a school that is not that difficult to get admitted to academically so they would probably get in without the sports hook, talk about the package, etc. Then 1-2 years later the are transferring to a D3 school. Hence the caution not to pick the school soley on the excitment of being a recruited athlete and announce a comittment to play.
I wonder if the OP is thinking of athletes in the Ivies/Nescacs or equivalent schools who play the “Affirmative Action for rich kids” sports like Fencing, Squash, etc. which few public schools have facilities for. Apparently the high end private schools steer kids to these sports to give them a better chance of going top twenty. I have heard talk of kids never picking up a saber again after getting recruited to an Ivy, but don’t know any confirmed cases. It’s probably rare, but maybe less rare than in sports like soccer, baseball, football, etc.
I know there was a swimmer who told an Ivy coach after being admitted that they wouldn’t be part of the team. Like in January of their senior year. I’m sure that’s incredibly rare, but I can confirm it happened at least once.
Just looked up the roster of a friend’s kid who plays a minor sport at an Ivy.
Roster has 14 frosh (probably not all of whom were recruited/tipped) and four seniors. Friend’s kid played two years, then dropped.