<p>I used to play soccer/baseball when a was a little girl and I was pretty good. I played from the age of 5 to 14, but stopped at the end of 9th grade. I just had too much going on in my life to continue playing sports: School, family, church, etc. I'm a junior know and I'm thinking about trying out for the Spring season Crew and Lacrosse. I used to play both sports in Middle School as well. I'd like to restart playing again and maybe earn a scholarship or get recruited to a good private college (b/c I know I'll desperately need the money for college), but I'm not sure if its too late for that. I've always loved playing sports but I also need the money for college, because things at home aren't that great and money is extremely tight. I don't want to have to rely on loans or my parents to get into college.</p>
<p>Go ahead and join a sport if you really want to play, but if you are looking at it strictly from a monetary point I think you’ll be better off working hard academically and looking for merit scholarships.</p>
<p>My two cents…I agree with Varska. Playing a sport for scholarship money is probably not the best use of your time & talents at this point in high school (junior year). BTW…There are scholarships (work study) that you can leverage once in college, and this would be part of your financial aid package. I would suggest you go to [College</a> Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5DCollege”>http://www.collegeboard.com) and run through the Financial Aid calculators to see what is possible and what you can afford.</p>
<p>There are so many angles you can look at this. If your primary goal is to get an education, I would stick with that. In my home state (VA), we have a Community College (CC) program that allows you to leverage (with results) that CC experience into one of the main state schools (UVA, VA Tech, JMU, etc) after two years. So you go to CC for two years and then transfer into state school if you meet all the criteria (guaranteed). The benefit of the CC is that it is substantially less $$ than a 4 year school. I would look into a program like this in your home state and call this Plan A. If you were my daughter, I would research the heck out of Plan A first. My understanding is this program is very popular right now given our national economic condition and the escalating cost of Higher Education.</p>
<p>I would then think about playing a sport that you are passionate about, and the sport that presents you with the best chance of scholarship. I would call that Plan B. Keep in mind that you will spend considerable time playing the recruiting “game”, playing your sport, and maintaining your studies. It may look good from the outside, but it is really hard work. You haven’t played a sport in a while, so it will be even harder. Realistically, it really helps to have someone at home help you with this if you go Plan B.</p>
<p>Next option would be a combination of Plan A and Plan B if you are really passionate about a particular sport. Otherwise work study may be your best way to finance your education.</p>
<p>Those are my initial thoughts. I hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck.</p>
<p>first of all, crew and lacrosse are in the same season and you wouldnt be able to play both.
2nd, lacrosse is very competitive and a lot of girls start at a young age or at least before high school. if you’re thinking of doing a sport just for fun/fitness, crew would be a good choice and it looks pretty good for colleges. i highly doubt you will make it in lacrosse because it is just so competitive, and you’ll be put on like freshman or jv as a senior which is really embarrassing. if you’re thinking of getting recruited for college, don’t do lacrosse. but crew will look good for colleges especially ivy league if you’re up to that caliber. </p>
<p>it is kind of late and you probably won’t get recruited but crew is your best bet especially if you have strong arms and stamina.</p>
<p>Thanks, ylaxw1123 for the feedback. Just in case I’ll tryout for both, though. I’m interested in crew but I also need it to better appeal to colleges. How good would I have to be to do so?</p>
<p>^^I don’t know any college coaches that’ll be interested when they know you’re doing it to get into college and they’ll know. And I don’t think you’ll be good enough unless you’re doing it because you love it.</p>
<p>Although there are amazing athletes who are an exception to what I just said. Joe DiMaggio was an exceptional baseball player and he didn’t even like the game, he did it purely for the the money!</p>
<p>in rough terms about 10% of high school varisty athletes are good enough to play in college at some level (D1, D2, D3) … and about 1% of high school athletes are good enough to play D1. The odds of taking up a sport as a senior and beating out all the kids who have been playing sports all their life are not good unless you are a terrific natural athlete … fyi, crew is a sport that good athlete new to the sport have better shots of jumping in nearer the top.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comment 3togo and pacheight. Even if it is too late for any monetary benefits I still plan on joining crew. I have a lot of friends there and it should still be fun. Oh, not sure if I noted it before but I’m a Junior.</p>
<p>AppleBeam,
send me a private message. Crew is a great sport, and even junior year is not too late. Does your school have winter conditioning for crew? If yes, you should sign up asap.</p>