My school offers sports as a class that takes up two periods, and the soccer coach has offered me, a freshman, the starting spot on the varsity team. I currently play for a club team, but am not sure I will make the cut for it again next year. I was faced with this dilemma this past course selection period (for freshman year) and I chose to take AP Human, which has but me at rank 1/1,100 for my school since not many people took it. Should I continue to bolster my academic profile or take soccer? Would taking soccer put me out of the running for schools that weigh course selection very heavily, like Bowdoin?
That doesn’t sound legit. Rarely do freshman make Varsity and it shouldn’t take time out of the school day. I made JV, as did 2 other freshman, but Varsity at most schools has a couple sophomores, and bulk juniors and seniors. It’s not so much of a EC that shows your commitment and ability to manage time while taking rigorous classes if it takes two periods during the day, in my opinion. I would pass on it only because it’s taking two class periods. I’m not really understanding how that works though.
Is it really soccer OR AP Human Geo? Can’t you take both?
It works like this:
Sports are classes, not extra curriculars, so to speak.
And yes, I know it doesn’t sound right but my coach has been trying to get me to tryout for some time, and he thinks I am ready for the varsity spot. I agree with your assessment, and I will probably come to the same conclusion next year.
Are you good enough that you could be recruited (for D3, NESCAC for example…) ?
If you take the “double period soccer class”, what other classes will you have? Will that lead to other 2-period “soccer classes”?
Be aware that no college will consider these periods as “classes”, so you’ll need to have each of your 5 cores (English, Math, Science, Social Science, Foreign Language) every year and you won’t have any space for electives, unless your school has 8-period days of A/B block scheduling.
Do soccer, you will not regret it. If I could count sports as a class, I’d do it
Ok, ignore what someone said about D3… That’s really stupid. I agree with @Orioles21 that you should do soccer and you won’t regret it, bu only if you actually enjoy soccer. I still don’t like the idea that it doesn’t count for a EC. You’ll have more fun dominating club soccer leagues and taking 2 classes in place of ‘sports periods’ as oppose to wasting 8 periods over 4 years on a sport that counts only as a class. Varsity sports look good on apps, but if it’s was a class I feel like adcoms would get a little suspicious because it doesn’t show any ability of time management while doing a big EC. Just my advice, take it as a grain of salt!
Anish, it’d be nice if you remembered that you’re a high school freshman before sprouting “stupid” in about every thread you’re commenting on. You MIGHT not have enough perspective wrt to college choices yet. 
Why is D3 stupid in your opinion (genuinely curious)?
OP may not want to play as a professional player in MLS but may want to play at a rather high level. Many colleges play at a pretty high level while offering excellent academics (NESCAC, etc) and would be an excellent choice for a student who plays club soccer and is ranked 1st in his class, since he’d be able to balance excellence in both fields. A good D3 recruit is recruited in the Spring/Summer before Senior year, narrows down his choices, and applies ED to a college where he got along with the coach’s style. So that requires stellar academics as well as soccer performance from the get-go.
Even if the HS considers “soccer” a class, colleges won’t, which means OP has a very narrow academic path to walk to be competitive for top colleges. On the other hand, starting (varsity) freshman year would certainly be an impressive achievement and if OP continues to achieve on the field as well as in academics, that would open up many opportunities.
Are you planning to play soccer in college? If so, coaches do not recruit from high schools anyway, but from clubs. It sounds like you are a great player, but the thing that makes great players really attractive to college coaches is great academics on top of athletic ability. Good academics also give you a lot more options for scholarship money than soccer scholarships do also. Since D3’s don’t offer athletic scholarships at all, and even many D1’s and D2’s offer only partial ones, it is better to rely on academic awards if money is an issue. I know that high school soccer is really fun-my son loved it so much that he did not play on an academy team since in CA academy players can not also play high school- but unfortunately since your school has made it part of the curriculum, it really impacts your academics. I would lean towards not playing high school soccer as long as you can continue with club. However, if you really want to play HS soccer and continue to keep up your academics, there should still be plenty of options open by the time you are looking at college.
^ a good ACT will net you a higher scholarship than a D1 soccer scholarship; and a D3 financial aid offer that’s made easier because you’re a good player will go a long way.