<p>Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>My son is entering 9th grade. He goes to a private academic school
where any activities beside Intel or Olympic math are frowned upon.</p>
<p>Ok, so he has been at the same school and does ok. ( A's and B's).</p>
<p>This year, I have to increase his tennis time from 2 hours a night to 3 hours
as he needs more fitness. Also, it is a commute to the tennis center and back....</p>
<p>School is 8 to 4. Commuting to it is 7:30 - 4:30.</p>
<p>He only has now about 3 hours left for hw, dinner, shower.</p>
<p>Nationally ranked.</p>
<p>What is more important for high school?</p>
<p>To continue to be a nationally ranked player around 100
and have some A's and probably more B's now...</p>
<p>Or to be a straight A student and let the tennis slide.</p>
<p>He can't be a straight A and be ranked 100.<br>
His school is too tough and not enough hours in a day.</p>
<p>Let him do what he loves, I’m a student with a huge commute and work load for soccer but I’ve always kept a 4.0 I wouldn’t do soccer and commit that hard to it ifi didn’t love it.</p>
<p>Well, I suppose the advice would depend on what sort of college you want your son to attend. The Ivies and their peer schools will require both great grades AND top tennis, so your son may not be able to pull off that feat based on your own assessment. Unfortunately, tennis is a sport with some very smart athletes who will have excellent scores and GPA in addition to talent. How high in the rankings do you think your son might climb with more time on tennis?</p>
<p>I once asked a similar question to yours, though regarding running, and was advised that any slight improvement in speed due to studying a little less in order to get more sleep would probably not impact my D’s recruitment options. However, the balance of A’s to B’s probably would. In general, prioritizing academics is wiser and safer for a child’s future. Remember that injury, illness, your personal finances in this rough economy, etc. could do a number on his tennis. He won’t need tennis to get a good job, but he will need a good education.</p>
<p>Having said that, though, 9th grade is a safer year than 10th or 11th to experiment a little with more tennis time, because colleges are lenient in their assessment of freshman year. If his grades suffer too much, then you can adjust for the following year. Take along a booklight or flashlight in the car so he can study and do homework. That helped my kids.</p>
<p>My son goes to a private school which is highly regarded in our area. The workload is heavy and extreme at times. The school’s administration can’t stress enough the importance of EVERY aspect of student life: academics, sports, and clubs. </p>
<p>My opinion on what is more important: what he feels makes him happy. If he wants to play tennis, I don’t think you should take that away from him for academics. He should be able to find a way to make it work. It doesn’t sound like the school has a tennis team; that’s too bad. But I still don’t think he should give it up.</p>
<p>I do think school should come first, but it should not be the ‘only.’</p>
<p>No one is suggesting that the OP’s son give up tennis! The discussion is whether increasing the daily practice time by one hour is a good idea, given that the OP believes doing so would negatively impact academics.</p>
<p>I once asked a similar question to yours, though regarding running, and was advised that any slight improvement in speed due to studying a little less in order to get more sleep would probably not impact my D’s recruitment options. However, the balance of A’s to B’s probably would. In general, prioritizing academics is wiser and safer for a child’s future. Remember that injury, illness, your personal finances in this rough economy, etc. could do a number on his tennis. He won’t need tennis to get a good job, but he will need a good education.</p>
<p>=====================================
Your advice is so insightful. Thank you for sharing your experiences too. And the rough economy is right - tennis costs a fortune, more than owning a horse if you compete nationally.</p>
<p>It depends on what level of college your son is aiming for.</p>
<p>If he’s aiming high, I think TheGFG’s observations in post #4 are spot on. The tippy top schools will have enough applicants with great grades and great athletics to fill their rosters. Beneath that level, finding the right balance between academics and athletics is on a case by case basis, but when in doubt, I think that academics trump athletics. As a couple examples: I know a kid who is nationally ranked either #2 or #3 among HS juniors in his sport. He is a “B” student. The Ivies and peers are not interested. I know another talented kid who fell completely off the national points list, but maintained a near 4.0 UW with a rigorous courseload; recruited by and accepted ED at a top 10 university.</p>
<p>Edit to clarify: these examples are not for tennis, but I think the point is universal.</p>
<p>Everyone was great here in responding. So, I thought I would follow up.</p>
<p>Although I planned on a heavy sports year for my son last year,
that got set aside when he fell in love with a great volunteer job at a hospital.
This year, he is hoping to do more.</p>
<p>I guess the moral of the story is you can plan for one thing, and then something else comes along. It was a surprise to us as parents that his interests changed so much, but as my mother-in-law says,
“He is not going to be a pro athlete, so why not encourage his other interests”… </p>
<p>Thanks again for all the good advice last year.</p>
<p>Would switching schools be a possibility? Sounds like his school environment is not very conducive to the pursuit of serious athletics. I agree with what others have said about academics coming first, but balance is very important. If he went to a slightly less rigorous school with athletics, maybe he could keep high marks, be on the school tennis team, and still do the 3 hours practice.</p>
<p>My d’s sport involves lots of club hours, and she goes to a rigorous public school that offers her sport. It has been amazing for her to be able to contribute to her school athletically. She has special permission to leave school early each day to make it to club practice (it was not easy to get this, but we were able to). She has been able to keep up her grades well enough to pass all her Ivy pre-reads. </p>
<p>Contrast her situation with her club teammate who just graduated. Her friend went to a very prestigious private school with cut-throat academics. She struggled to keep a B+ average, to the detriment of her athletics. Her goal had been to go Ivy, using her sport as a hook. Though her grades and test scores were good, her athletics had suffered from trying to keep up at school. She missed lots of practices and did not progress because of that. She received no interest from the Ivy coaches. Also, her high school did not offer her sport, so she missed out on the respect, recognition, and feeling of belonging that go along with that. I couldn’t help thinking that she might have achieved her goals (and maybe had a little fun) if she had attended the extremely well-respected public high school in her area.</p>
<p>Of course, everyone’s situation is different, and local publics (or other privates) may not be options in your case. Good luck!</p>