I agree with some posters above that if this kid does not plan to use his sport to be recruited to college then tennis is better than squash as it is a more popular and accessible sport and playing for your HS is fun. If the kid wants to capitalize on his sport for college then the answer will depend on his abilities, predicted height, available training opportunities and other factors. Quite possible that squash may be better for recruiting.
No, you do not need to practice 6 hours a day and spend 12 years in training to get recruited to college, especially the one like Amherst. I know where one of their tennis recruits trained - nobody there practices more than 2-3 hours a day. Are you sure men’s tennis has less varsity college programs than squash? I would guess it is other way around.
Too bad he has to choose…my family was squash, tennis, handball, racquetball, paddle tennis and one of the kids played tennis in HS because “no squash” in our area high schools, one decided to keep the ball at the end of a golf club…and now some of us “oldies” are playing pickleball 
There are many more college tennis programs than squash programs, but also more high school tennis teams than squash feeding into them.
Tennis that feeds into varsity college teams is not a HS based sport. Number of HS tennis programs is irrelevant. Pure HS tennis players can only play for weak unranked D3 tennis programs. All serious junior tennis players practice year-round outside of HS and play USTA and ITF tournaments; many top players attend online high-school programs and do not participate in HS tennis.
Some players come out of HS, but many college tennis players don’t come from the traditional high school route, they are out playing USTA events and not HS tennis (which is considerably lower level than the USTA system offers), plus there is a large international population taking spots in men’s and women’s tennis. So it is a big pool out there that has been playing many years before they ever get to HS.
Girls usually start playing tennis at 3 - 8 and boys at 5 - 9 and play tournaments starting around 6 - 9. 10 yo is usually too late unless the kid is a crossover from another sport and has above average talent.
Yes, the same is true of squash. Very few high schools actually have in-school squash programs. What I really meant was that there are many more college tennis programs than squash but also more high school age tennis players than squash players.
There are hundreds of college tennis players who ‘just’ played high school tennis. Not at Stanford, not at Arizona, but at lots of the smaller(or less competitive) D1 or D2 schools. There was a girl from our High school who plays at Navy now. Regular high school student, probably also played at the local swim club/country club, but didn’t go to a tennis boarding school or online school to play 6 hours a day.
infomom909, you asked how long a student would need to start competing competitively. The answer is that it depends upon what role the student wants tennis to play in his/her life.
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There are certainly opportunities in less competitive programs in some colleges for HS level players if a kid wants to play. The Patriot league would certainly fit the HS player, but can also have some very high end players within it here and there. Many USTA players attend regular HS, the better players often forgo HS competitions however (competes with USTA events). I think the question is going in different directions - there are many levels of skill within DI, DII, DIII, and NJCAA. Then there is whether or not someone is actually recruited, and whether they get help getting admitted or help with scholarship. There are some people that believe one can just pick up a racquet in HS and get a scholarship, that is not the case. Also since men’s tennis is fully funded at 4.5 scholarships for a team of 8-10, and many schools don’t even fully fund (Vanderbilt Men’s tennis has 2 scholarships to divide between the entire team for example) people need to know there isn’t always the money perk either. There are some great club teams at colleges, some even travel and have budgets, particularly at the bigger D1 schools that have the big athletic budgets. Then there are rec leagues on campus’ that have courts. I don’t know a thing about squash though.
Navy just played in the final of Patriot League tournament. They are not a less competitive team. Although they have a huge roster of 16 women each and every one of them was a legitimate 4 or high 3 star player in the fall of their senior year in HS. They did not “just played HS tennis”, they were playing USTA tournaments and winning matches. And practiced year round but not 6 hours a day. You can check your player on www.tennisrecruiting.net
If you really want to play tennis in college go to Kalamazoo it is absolutely the best in the nation for Div. III tennis. Kalamazoo is the only school that has participated in every national tournament since its inception in 1976. But I’m biased.
Love the Zoo and Kalamazoo!
Great tennis town with a huge heart
Oh come on! If you are playing Kalamazoo (The tournament not the college), you are a player with pro-potential. It is the dream of nearly every (boy) player I know, from the 12s on up, to play Kalamazoo. We’re talking the Harrisons and Rubin level. (ahh, on second thought, never mind about the Harrisons-just kidding)
Yes, that is true. It’s a great tournament (with the best berries and cream - yum) and is a tennis lovin’ town.
“There are hundreds of college tennis players who ‘just’ played high school tennis. Not at Stanford, not at Arizona, but at lots of the smaller(or less competitive) D1 or D2 schools. There was a girl from our High school who plays at Navy now. Regular high school student, probably also played at the local swim club/country club, but didn’t go to a tennis boarding school or online school to play 6 hours a day.”
Hahaha…nope! D3… year round probably averaging 3 hours/day and maybe 20 tournaments a year…and much more intense during the summer. Probably racking up about 20-30K in costs if in the northeast.
@lostaccount Ha, on the Harrison thing. Where would they be without WCs (or that temper ha)?
(apologize for brief off tracking, back to our regular scheduled posting)
There were almost 11,000 women playing on varsity teams in 2014 in all three divisions. Did all 11,000 of them go to high schools specializing in tennis or online high schools so they could play year round? Did all spend 5 hours per day playing. Absolutely the top players did, but all 11,000 spending $30k on tournaments per year?
LOl…WC…they were warned against them. Better to do it the old fashioned way. Where would they be if PH hadn’t started to post brags about his kids at age 5 being the 2nd comi… …well, oops, sorry. If this were an actual emerg… …Back to the regular scheduled posting.
I don’t think anyone is saying they all skipped traditional high school, and the top is subjective. I consider top to be blue chips and maybe some 5 stars (not all). Frankly 1-10 in Blue chip is very different than #11-25. Others might think a 3 star is. With different views comes different perspectives.
In the U.S. there are currently over 10k men’s and 10k women’s college tennis players across all the NCAA and NAIA divisions (so about 2500 each year). There are 190,000 US high school men’s tennis players and 215,000 US girl’s high school tennis players.
95% of HS players do not make the jump to college. Only only around 5.3% of boy’s HS players play college tennis and only 5% of girl’s high school players do. Only 1.4% of US high school boy’s tennis players compete at the Division I level and only .9% of US girl’s high school players make it to DI. So it is obviously true to say that most high school players aren’t good enough for college, but isn’t that true of every sport?
So of those small percentages, a fraction attends HS while another fraction does academy or online school. We know which ones go to the best tennis colleges, but there are schools where that is not required, just a small amount of spots overall in both cases.
Then take more than 30% out of the totals because that is how many foreign players (men and women) play U.S. college tennis. Many don’t realize tennis is one of the most competitive sports to get a scholarship in.
But back to the OP, I would still vote for tennis. It’s a lifetime sport.