Hello all, I have played a sport throughout my entire high school career. I now have an opportunity to play that sport in college, but I am not so sure that I want to. (there are some schools that do not offer it). This may seem like a dumb question, but what will my life look like without a sport? Please take this seriously. Please do not say “There is a diverse range of activities available at any college.” Is there anything that is equivalent in terms of time?
Thanks
I’m in your boat. I’ve played competitive sports for 12 years and am looking at various schools - at one I have a shot at the school team but not at the others. I’m not 100% confident that I want to do college athletics simply because of the commitment on top of a double major. However, depending on your school, they may offer intramural or club teams for your sport that are separate from the school’s “official” team. Is this an option for you?
I just finished my freshman year of college, and I played tennis all 4 years in high school. I played anywhere from 4-15 hours per week in the offseason, depending on the time of year. I was faced with a similar decision. I am good enough to play varsity tennis for a Division III school, but I ended up choosing a Division I school for academic reasons. I barely played at all during the school year.
I enjoyed playing tennis in high school, but I didn’t miss it in college. I spent the extra time with friends, and we played a lot of pick-up basketball. None of us are great players, but we got a lot of exercise and had fun. Personally, I think people should pick the college that is the best fit in terms of money and education. If that college happens to have a sport you can play, then great. I just wouldn’t choose a college just based on whether you can play sports there unless you are on scholarship.
DS played varsity football from 8th grade on (started both sides beginning in 9th grade) and also did four years of varsity track. By the time college came around he was tired of it and so he chose not to join any teams in college, and he doesn’t regret it one bit. He spent a lot of time singing acapella, joined a campus Christian fellowship, and hopes to join an engineering building team next year. He also spent time learning juggling and tae kwon do which are sports technically but much more relaxing than being on a team. He also had plenty of time to study and to work for extra $$. Hope this helps.
I was a bike racer (road) all through HS but I did not intend to do sports except casually in college. However, when I got to college, I ended up walking onto the crew team. I had never been a crew boat in my life, but they had a club fair and the crew coach spotted me and asked me to come out. I rowed crew for 4 years at college (varsity). So this is not an answer to ‘what will I do without a sport’, but just saying that you don’t have to decide now. There are many different opportunities to do sports at college and at many different levels (intermural/club/varsity). Some people just do a sport 1 or 2 years—have a team experience for a year but don’t make it the center of their college experience.
My D1 dropped her sport when she went to college, and she had been HS team captain for two years and played in the off season. She had some interest from D3 coaches, but decided (partly due to a lingering injury) not to play in college. She was a little bit at loose ends her first semester, but soon found a lot of activities she enjoyed. She said later she was glad she had dropped it.
D played soccer through middle school, dropped sports for high school, and took up rugby in college. Not totally responsive to your question, but, if you miss being involved in a sport, you will find one, and, if you don’t miss it, you will have lots of time for other stuff. Win-win.
What will your life look like? You’ll have more time for socializing, studying and resting. You’ll have to make more of an effort to exercise. Your social circle will likely be wider but you won’t have the close connection to teammates you may be used to.
Thanks y’all. This has been very helpful.
Good question. I am a tri-athlete and I’m not playing anymore sports in college because I want to focus on school for once.
Remember that it is not just Varsity or Nothing…there can be intramural or club sports as well.
I played Soccer, Basketball and Softball in HS but there were no Soccer or Softball teams when I got to college (this was back in the day). I had fun playing intramural basketball, football, softball and waterpolo. Junior year they started a soccer team so I joined that and decided i could add back in Basketball as well.
Was wondering about a related issue. S2 is recruited at a school he wants to attend for academic reasons, lucky.
But I know many drop out of varsity sports when they see it’s a much bigger time commitment than before college.
There is much else to do in college. And even if you make a team, playing time is another factor.
Intramural and club sports would give most people “enough” sports activity.
Varsity could be great if you really are the best (get playing time) and prefer to spend
time with teammates over other activities that other college students might participate in.
Or it could be too much time and too little playing time, and you’ll be glad to stop.
Really depends on the person and particular school/teammates).
My friend’s daughter is a competitive swimmer…she looked at good D3 colleges (Like CWRU) instead of D1 so she would have less practice time but still be able to compete.
@10s4life That can depend on the coach and location of the school relative to the conference.
We visited schools where all games were within an hour’s bus ride (except spring break), and others where they travel extensively, both D3 schools. Practice may be more flexible time wise in d3,
off season semester coach was ok with any class schedules. On season the d3 we looked at had just about as tough a schedule as d1 schools in our area. And looked at at least one d1 in our area that traveled about the same as our d3, less than most d1.
My S’s school is d3 but with a coach who is a bit on the aggressive side in terms of travel,
compared to other d3 programs. I am sure still less than most d1 time wise, but not sure just how much less in this case. Like the coach and school, was not going to settle for an easier program though.