Somebody needs to email this thread link to Vassar’s admission director and athletic head.
I shouldn’t really reply, but I feel like stirring the pot tonight.
You resent the influence of Power 5 football, we get it. You aren’t wrong there.
And even though it completely dominates college athletics and their funding, you don’t acknowledge it. You may be getting more wrong here.
I’m not sure that the capital one cup, which even most of the minor college sport nerds on this board (like me) have never heard of, is advancing your argument. Although in your defense I don’t really understand your argument, so maybe it does help. I do know it is wholly unrelated to the topic of this post.
OP back to comment. Somehow when Alabama does it for their football bios, it doesn’t bother me as much. After all Alabama is football and there is a lot of jockeying for the same players at that level. But Vassar is not a sports school, so the bios struck me not as look where this kid wanted to play for, but look at how elite Vassar is because these kids picked us over Wes or another fill in the blank school. It came off not as a sports/ team choice, but as a school choice, and that’s why it seemed distasteful to me. At that academic level, no need to dis other schools.
So I looked at the Vassar women’s lacrosse roster. None of the Freshmen listed other schools, but about half the sophomores did, and almost all of the juniors and seniors chose Vassar over MIT/Amherst/MHC/Williams ‘because of the great coach and the academics.’
What I noticed was that those who had a lacrosse resume so were probably recruited chose Vassar over much lower ranked schools, but the ones choosing Vassar over Notre Dame and Holy Cross had no hope of making those lacrosse teams. None. They had not played for good high school or club teams, and they had no states or honors listed.
I wonder if they are dropping the practice of listing the other schools or if the person who wrote the freshmen bios last year was just lazy and didn’t take the info off the brag sheet.
@twoinanddone I see freshman listed in some sports with the 'schools declined ’ thing listed in the bios. Not all the new rosters are posted yet, but women’s soccer has the current roster up and the practice of naming schools continues for some of the frosh.
The ones I was looking at were last year’s freshman and sophomore (2018 not up yet). Perhaps the kids didn’t put much on their brag sheet. I know my daughter didn’t because she hates that stuff.
Honestly, the ones with the ‘turned down MIT’ were so long I had to really look and probably wouldn’t have noticed if not for this thread. I do find it strange, but I also find it strange that they list who else in the family also played sports at different schools 30 years ago. Uncle played at Brown, brother played at Colby. Who cares?
@twoinanddone I see the mentions of parents and siblings who played varsity sports in college at schools other than Vassar too. That doesn’t bother me. When I first noticed it, I was actually surprised by the number of college varsity athletes who had parents or siblings who also played at the college level. But I guess athletic genes run in families!
Well, there really isn’t all that much interesting to say about most kids coming out of high school. The poor AD’s intern that wrote this stuff needs to put something down, lol.
I’m pretty sure the girl whose bio I was reading with all the relatives was adopted (Irish last name, Asian in appearance) so no genes involved. It’s the same with my daughter.
It does mean that the player was most likely raised in a sports family, got involved in sports early, and maybe had some help dealing with the recruiting part of the college application process. For my daughter, the playing from an early age was true, but no one helped her in recruiting at all. No connections. No tips.
Some of it is genetic certainly. But a lot of it is modeled behavior, too. My son started working out and lifting before most of his friends because I did, and when he was younger he wanted to hang out with dad. So I taught him how to do it the right way, as I understood it then. Of course now he critiques my work outs, lol.
In addition and in my experience as both a coach and parent, children of former competitive athletes in the main learn to focus on things that will make them better earlier than kids of non athletic parents. It is just the knowledge base. When my son would say he wanted to be able to do this or that I could help him with things that matter a whole lot but are rarely taught to young athletes. Things like balance, flexibility, etc. This makes a big difference, especially in the younger years.
I think there’s also an aspect of, kids who grow up knowing mom and or dad played college sports, and a lot of times that also means some of their aunts and uncles and maybe older cousins and or siblings did as well, are more likely to see the idea of playing college sports as normal and something they can achieve. And thus, they may be more motivated to perfect their craft and reach out proactively to college coaches, starting from a baseline belief that it’s possible.
^Also very true.
“And thus, they may be more motivated to perfect their craft”
Or pressured either overtly or more subtly.
@Ohiodad51 I think the AD’s could find some interesting things to say about each kid coming out of HS. I like to see bios where the kids list awards and recognition, club teams they played on, high school activities and interests outside of sports. I like the bios where the kids list their favorite movies, songs, pre-game meals etc.
That is certainly more interesting than the “I chose Vassar over Middlebury” crap. That’s obnoxious.
One of the things I have noticed is that sometimes the kids of athletes are not as successful early on. That’s because Mom or Dad is focused on fundamentals and making the sport fun, not on winning at a young age. That long term view is critical for most prospective athletes to make it to the college level.
I know wrestling best, but I think in most sports there is some crappy technique that will win at the younger level, but not as the competition gets better. I wasn’t a college athlete, but my son has been surrounded by national caliber college athletes in his sport since kindergarten. They have frequently stopped him doing something that was working, because they knew it wouldn’t work at the next level. They helped him develop technique and a style that would still work at the division 1 level back in middle school. He lost a lot until he hit high school, because there was some junk that works on 12 year olds he didn’t use. Now unless we travel to national competitions he looks like a college wrestler picking on the high school kids, many of whom beat him regularly 4-5 years ago. If it had been me as a dad wanting to win now guiding him without the college alums fixing what I did he probably wouldn’t be at this level.
Also the focus on fun to prevent burnout. I’ve seen a ton of athletes over many sports fizzle out in high school because they are just sick of the grind.