It’s the fall of 9th grade, a time of transition and adjustment. Let him be. I disagree with ecmotherx2 on the need to be well-rounded or even to have leadership roles at school. Right now he has a “passion”, tennis. Over the years he will develop others. I do believe parents can be attentive to interests that develop and do things to help support that growth, but it needs to come from the kid. A 9th grader heavily involved in tennis is doing just fine. If he wants to help seniors with computers or whatever, do it for the right reason and not to get into college.
There are always at least two goals: the satisfied kid who explores his own interests, sure. And, the kid adequately preparing for the future he hopes to achieve, in 3.5 years.
When I read posts from kids who want some major or some particular future, but don’t want the courses or the obvious ECs, I see a kid not covering bases. Yes, he has time. But that doesn’t mean he can’t add something now, try it.
OP said top colleges. They’ll need to see this willingness to try new things. If OP had named some activity beyond tennis (a long shot for recruiting,) I’d probably feel it’s a start. But why does CC ever tell kids with aggressive goals to lean back? To me, it’s counterintuitive.
Sports writer for the school newspaper? School photographer?
lookingforward, I think most of us post based on our own experiences, and our family had excellent admissions results with a more laid back freshman year that allowed our kids to settle in, get grounded, and move out from there to specific interests that arose in the next years.
analytics and fantasy football are totally different things. If you use analytics to help your high school sports team, say to help them make better decisions around who to start etc., that’s one thing and could resonate with an adcom, since you’re looking at things differently, helping out a sport where you’re not even involved with . Fantasy football, as someone noted already, will be looked at as more gambling than anything else, and something a bunch of kids (mainly boys) do without including many others.
If he is a competitive type he could try one of the competitive academic ECs like Model UN, Mock Trial, or Debate. There may be other competitive ECs that I am forgetting but I think an athletic kid who likes competition might enjoy these. My youngest did Model UN and was also a lacrosse player. He loved Model UN. A few of his team mates did Mock Trial.
A 9th grader should be able to identify ECs they would like to try on their own. The parents shouldn’t be making that decision.
OP isn’t making the decision–she’s asking for possible options that might interest her son–huge difference.
It takes a good camera but photography might be a good EC. It could also be turned into community service for taking photos for service organizations. If he likes sports then start there with school events.
My own son did MUN and loved it. He was in MUN in college too.
Why not start giving free tennis lessons to some low income areas. Outdoor courts are usually free to use and not used that often these days. If he could start a program from scratch and by senior year have it get decent size that would look really good. It checks the box for many things. Service and Leadership.