<p>Hello everyone, I'm caught up in a bit of a predicament. It's my junior year and basketball practice started on Monday. I've been playing since 7th grade and I've always loved it. I am by no means a great player, I just enjoy being part of the team and contributing to our success. However, these past few days I've been realizing that I'm losing a passion for the game. I haven't/ can't focus on playing and I make stupid mistakes on simple plays. I still enjoy our team, it's just that I feel as if my mind isn't preoccupied enough, which leads me to the conclusion that I just don't care about this sport anymore. In the spring I play tennis, and I really love everything about the sport, and I'm better at tennis than basketball.</p>
<p>About two months ago my mother was laid off by her company, so we've been living off of about half of our family's usual salary. I'm just wondering, do you feel it would be advisable to quit basketball and get an after-school job to contribute to my family and play tennis in the spring, or just suck it up? If I work, I'll still be able to maintain my grades (4.0UW, 4.3 something W), but I feel like I owe it to my teammates to stay. Although I'm probably not helping us out by making really stupid mistakes..Also, do you think that adcoms would hold it against me if they saw I quit a sport halfway through high school or would they understand? Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>No I don’t think it will count against you, especially if you mention why you had to. Honestly, I think colleges will look at a part-time job as more of a time commitment than a sport and will probably like it even better. Ask yourself if your family is more important than your team, and make your decision from there. It should be obvious what you should do.</p>
<p>Lol, I was going to post a thread asking pretty much the same question a few days ago. I’ve also played 7-10th and though I still like the sport, “liking” isn’t enough to make me go through the 2 hour practices anymore. I was a hustler/rebounder but I didn’t have a natural talent or IQ for the game. </p>
<p>I don’t think that “owing” your teammates should be a reason for staying - 3 yo 4 of my teammates quit within the first week last year, and that was that. This season, I thought it over and decided that I won’t be playing this year since the time commitment is too much and because I don’t love the game as much as I used to. I went to practice but there was a different coach, none of my teammate’s from last year showed up, and I felt that I was just out of it. But I also do a spring sport and I’ll be doing it this year… I feel like I can perform better in that sport as well.</p>
<p>My advice to you: do something that you won’t regret. If my family needed money, I’ld drop both of my sports in a heartbeat but that’s just me. If you don’t feel like you can put 100% into something that takes so much time (I’m sure you know how much sports takes out of you), then I would honestly drop it.</p>
<p>And no, adcoms don’t care. Pretty of kids try sports just for fun fresh/soph. year and then just drop it… they won’t hunt you down if you weren’t varsity and state level for all 4 years of high school.</p>