Student Athlete Advice

<p>I'm currently a sophomore in High School here in England, and I have a 3.95GPA and I attend one of the best academically selective schools in the country. I am also being recruited to play collegiate football (football, not soccer), and I was just wondering if anyone here did any collegiate sports, and how it made your time at college.</p>

<p>If you could tell me what college you attend/ed, what sports you do/did, and firstly how sports were at your college (facilities, level etc) and also how it was to be a student athlete in terms of managing your workload. </p>

<p>Many thanks in advance!</p>

<p>In the US football is king, and as such it is a different ball of wax from most other collegiate sports in terms of the time and intensity of the commitment required from the student- athlete. Go ahead and ask for input from a variety of athletes, but I doubt it will be relevant to your own decision-making process to hear about the experiences of rowers, fencers, runners, and soccer players, or even Div. 1 level football players if you’d be playing Div. 3 or Div. 3 level players if you’d be playing Div. 1.</p>

<p>I will say that you should mentally add on about 5 hours each week to whatever number of practice hours the coaches quote you as far as the expected weekly time commitment. There will be team meetings and team bonding events to attend, film study and learning plays, media interviews if you’re a star, time required to entertain any recruits you are asked to host, time needed for physical therapy/wrapping limbs/massage/icing/ etc., and possibly mandatory study or tutoring sessions. Also, don’t forget packing and travel time.</p>

<p>oshen24,</p>

<p>I agree with everything TheGFG has stated above You need to research (American) football specifically to get the best feel for it. I played D2 tennis in college 30 years ago, and I was a business major. My situation was manageable, and I had a full social life. My oldest son is an Ivy baseball player studying engineering. There is no similiarity whatsoever. He is consumed with his major and his sport. He has little to no time for anything else. My middle son is also a pretty good baseball player. He is going to study engineering in college next year. He has seen how difficult his older brothers situation is with engineering and baseball, and decided to forego baseball to focus on his engineering studies. So, I think your question is a fair one, but there are additional factors such as majors that you need to look at too. </p>

<p>IMHO Bottom line - If you are focused on academic schools then focus on academics. You are off to a great start with a 3.95GPA and attending a very selective school. Your potential college major will have a huge impact on your time committment as anything including football or any sport. As a hs sophomore, I applaud you for looking down the road a few years to position yourself for the future. Athletics can be an important part of a college students overall experience but it will most likely not be the most important thing. </p>

<p>PS…If football is the single most important thing then you need to go to a school that will position you to go professional such as the SEC (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M, etc…)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>

Goshen: can you describe how this recruitment is taking place? Are you going to camps this summer (in the US?). Are you getting mailers or have you been asked to submit videos? There are MANY levels of recruitment and only a very small handful rise to the top to actually get scholarship offers. And even among them, a fewer number get offers at top college FB programs. Please tell us the manner of your “recruitment”</p>

<p>I didn’t know American football was played in high schools in England!!!</p>

<p>Hey guys i am currently 15 years old and i plan to play D1 soccer. I am a sophmore whis is studying a year up and has taken 1 A.P. course. I currently hold a 3.4 and a 3.7 weighted. I play for one of the best teams in the country (Ranked top 100) out of 3,500 teams in my country. We have played teams within the top ten and beaten them. We play in college showcases and many premier elite tournaments. We are currently playin the Region 1 North East leauge and National Premier Leauge. We will probobaly play Region 1 Premier leauge next year. For high school i dominated the JV game. I will play varsity my junior and senior years. But i will be 15 and most kids are sophmores at that age. The reason why i didnt play varsity when i was 14 was becasue my team is the best team in New york state who won back to back state titles. Very competitve soccer school whos varsity coach played in the MLS for an abandoned team before. I know 2 years varsity soccer will look very bad but i will be 15 so i hope that d1 schools take that into consideration. I am currently looking at Stony Brook, University of Kentucky, Rutgers, Michigan State (unlikey to play soccer here), and Penn State (Unlikey to play soccer here). What do you think? What other colleges with the same academic and soccer caliber that i have presented above that i can attend? Thanks for your help!</p>

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<p>I don’t think it is.
The O/P never said he played football at his high school.</p>

<p>There are “club” football teams in England.
The BAFA has youth and junior leagues:</p>

<p>[Bafa.org.uk</a> – British American Football](<a href=“http://www.bafa.org.uk/]Bafa.org.uk”>http://www.bafa.org.uk/)</p>

<p>There have been (large and/or fast) UK youths in the past who have played U.S. college football.</p>

<p>The O/P, BTW, never mentioned whether they were American or not.<br>
Not that it makes much of a difference.
Just notating.</p>

<p>Fenway–makes a good point</p>

<p>I played basketball 1979-81 at the University of Cincinnati where majored in business, I know how the engineering students struggled without sports or fraternity etc… so, understanding the demand of sports and what extra time I put in just so I could be a red jersey or white jersey player in practice. Being an athlete at the D1 level in a competitive sport is a job.</p>

<p>my daughter fences at National Championship contender(current NCAA champion) and it’s a job,school is important also, but sometime you’re sheer competitive nature gets in the way of all that so I say keep that in check and remember the real reason why you are in school…</p>