Students recruited for athletics

<p>It seems students recruited to challenging prep schools primarily for their athletic ability have to repeat more courses, have more discipline problems, and are more likely to leave the school due to a desire to play only one sport. In sum, they dilute the academic environment.<br>
In addition, at prep schools where athletes are recruited, the scholar-athlete is likely to spend a lot more time on the bench.
Are there any challenging prep schools that don't admit any students primarily for their athletic ability? In other words, are there any challenging schools left that field teams solely with scholar-athletes?</p>

<p>Son started at St. Andrew’s in Delaware this fall. My observation is that very few are recruited for athletics, maybe one or two kids out of eighty-some admitted each year into a student body of 300. There are no post-graduates as the larger schools usually have, who often are filling rosters or have service academy goals (or both). SAS plays small private schools in Delaware (the DISC) and public schools; its teams are competitive and stress participation/life skills. They are not generally on a par with those in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (excepting crew and occasional outliers), where some recruiting and PGs are the norm, along with 200-500 more students per school. Metrics place SAS among the “challenging” boarding schools, say from #8 to #13 or so. Very much looks for the “scholar-athlete” (emphasis on first) who can contribute even more, like to a robust arts program.</p>

<p>This has been a contentious topic here on CC in the past with respect to recruiting for athletics in boarding schools. BS have tried to “recruit” athletes provided that they meet the academic standards of the school, Michigan State this is not. There have been instances of schools bending over backwards to get athletes only to be rejected by admissions in the end. The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of athletic scholars attending boarding schools. DA does not accept a bunch of dummies just to play lacrosse, they are good, smart and athletic kids. The ISL is adamant in their bylaws about recruiting students solely for their athletic prowess and not for academic standards. Has recruiting been done, yes, transgressions have transpired and a few exposed at a total cost of embarrassment for the school and sometimes coupled with penalties. In the end, I believe most, if not all good boarding schools will agree that it is not the stick or the ball in the hand but what’s between the ears that counts and if the kid can throw a strike too, than all the better.</p>

<p>Hockey, football, and lacrosse players should indeed have lowered admission thresholds to compensate for the lack of athletic ability of the scholarly students who dilute the sporting environment. </p>

<p>Seriously, BS is not D1.</p>

<p>There are schools that are well known to recruit athletes. These are not schools that are considered as the more academically inclined, no matter how many posts of the “hidden gem” thread there are. Mostly the top schools get their athletic power through pg’s. However, do not worry - if your child is truly a scholar athlete, he/she will get their chance to shine. May take a year or two on the jv or a third, though.</p>

<p>There are some top tier BS who do not accept any PGs, may be worth checking out if your child wants more play time with age matched peers St Paul’s is one, if I remember correctly.</p>

<p>“Recruited for athletics” has a technical meaning in admissions, which I don’t quite understand. I’m not sure how precise you are in your use of the word “recruit?” Do you mean, a student who would not have been admitted to the school, were he/she not a star athlete? Or, do you mean a student who is a stronger athlete than student?</p>

<p>I would recommend looking at smaller boarding schools, which don’t admit PGs.</p>

<p>I believe that the OP is making some very strong statements about recruited athletes - getting into more trouble and being poor students. Think that that is a bit of an exaggeration. </p>

<p>Our experience has been that the schools are looking for we’ll rounded kids. At a lot of schools the kids need to play a sport every season or manage a team, participate in the play, etc. these are not the best places for a kid uni-focused on a single sport. So while the schools do look for kids who may help out their teams, the kid needs to be able and willing to actively participate in all aspects of the school. Classes are rigorous and they must be able to handle the work. </p>

<p>As far as PGs go that is a fair point, but just because a school does not allow for PGs does not mean there will not be older kids in your grade. Repeating a grade is very common, and not just for aspiring college athletes. I have often been amazed at the size and maturity difference between a high school freshman at 14 and an 18-year old junior. If athletics are important then repeating or delaying your start may be something to consider. </p>

<p>Athletics at many of the schools are important to the school fabric and community. The teams are good - often surprisingly so for the size of the student body. But, this is because the student bodies are full of talented, achievement oriented kids. Don’t assume that the best athletes are dumb jocks. That is not typically the case.</p>

<p>At Andover, I know a lot or kids who are recruits. They generally are nice, smart kids who deserve to be there. Although I think that recruiting for athletics often makes the admissions process unfair, you made some kinda mean judgements about athletic recruits…</p>

<p>To Periwinkle:</p>

<p>By “recruited athlete” I meant:
1. A student who would not be admitted to the school except for the fact that they are a star athlete.
2. Any young person contacted by the school, or a representative thereof, because of their athletic ability.</p>

<p>The ISL, as mentioned, does not permit its member schools to recruit athletes. This rule has been vigorously enforced in the recent past. I don’t know how schools outside the ISL handle this issue, so I’ll leave it to parents of other schools to fill in the blanks if they wish. </p>

<p>On the other hand, I have the strong impression that many of the students at boarding schools are “sporty.” The schools all field multiple teams each season. If your child has athletic talent, it’s a good idea to contact coaches in sports he or she plays before your visit or interview. Even at schools which don’t recruit, athletic skills are considered in admission. </p>

<p>I would not worry about the students “diluting the academic environment.” The boarding schools encourage a “healthy mind in a healthy body” approach to life. The academic environment can be very intense. If you only want to follow academic pursuits, boarding schools might not be the right place for you. Students are required to take part in athletics or music/drama every season. There are mandatory assemblies. Colleges know that a student who flourishes at boarding school will also have extracurricular activities.</p>

<p>A winning season can lead other athletic students to a school. After all, they want to win. It can be difficult to play on varsity boys’ soccer, for example, because so many students play soccer. Both winning and losing reinforce themselves. If you don’t want any good athletes on your child’s school teams, you could look for schools with losing records. Google “name of prep school” “sport” “2011” “results.”</p>

Saw this thread and wasn’t sure if any parents or students could weigh in on this during the recent round of applications for Fall 2015?

I formerly taught and coached at a MAPL school (Lawrenceville, Hill, Mercersburg, Peddie, Hun, Blair). Many/all of these schools recruit PGs, in particular, to play a particular sport. But all student-athletes are deemed “admissible”, no matter what grade level they enter, or the level of impact they are supposed to have on a team. I know that coaches submitted to AO a list of applicants desirable for their sport, and expected only a percentage to be admitted. That does not speak to the many reasons why an individual might not have made it in. And, certainly, the many athletes at the top of the lists did not get admitted.

The situation at St. Andrew’s (DE) is still as I wrote above. A couple years later, though, one individual’s story stands out for speaking to an issue in the opening post. What happens if an athlete can’t perform academically at SAS? This athlete was one of the finest the school had had in many years, excelling in two sports through the end of V Form and is currently on an NCAA Div. I roster. Despite an intense amount of effort to help the student achieve academically, the school decided not to re-enroll this student for the senior year. I’m led to believe that even a star athlete has to meet an academic threshold, which is a general point the school annually stresses to every single student.

To repeat from my earlier post above about SAS: recruited athletes (of whom there are very few, meeting any definition of the term) do not take places on teams, at any level, from ordinary students. I have extensively described athletics at SAS, as have others, on the thread dedicated to the school.

Most applicants to boarding schools are 8th and 9th graders. Can a school really be recruiting someone this young? I imagine that exceptional skill on the field is noted in a letter and can serve as a “hook,” but I don’t think that there can really be any serious consideration to relaxing admissions standards for a spot on a JV team based on promise alone.

At my kid’s K-8 school the euphemism used is that certain schools will “did a little deeper down into the class” for someone with real athletic promise. Some schools do that and some do not. None of the kids are idiots but boys with medicare grades get into better schools than you would think if they are good lacrosse, football etc players

heartburner - I don’t know if boarding school admission standards are being relaxed, but I do have experience in girls lacrosse. COLLEGES are already recruiting 9th & 10th graders, so I think serious consideration is being given to athletic promise in middle schoolers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/sports/committing-to-play-for-a-college-then-starting-9th-grade.html?_r=0

@TheStig2‌ - Whoa. Interesting article. Maybe we should ask his coach to make some calls.

There are definitely recruiting kids in 8 th grade! My DS has been playing basketball for many years and many of the higher level kids are recruited to prep schools. If you look at the websites of the top players in our area they have the high school listed next to their name and most of them are prep schools. That being said, most of the schools talked about here are more known for being academically elite. There are many others that are known for athletics and many of their players in the big sports are recruited. Just think about it, if you are 6’6" in middle school and can play basketball then you will be a hot commodity, particularly if you can handle the academic workload of these schools.
I know it’s crazy, but the recruiting in the “bigger” sports starts far younger than that. I have seen fourth and fifth graders being intensely fought over at the AAU level with free tuition and other perks. Many of these kids have been groomed for their sports since early elementary school.

Yeah… There are some athletes here at Lawrenceville who are insane at their sport, but don’t do too well academically. But the majority of our athletes aren’t like that, they have a passion for learning and do reasonably well academically.

And as for the recruiting part… My middle school had two kids that were playing for the U-18 team USA soccer team. There was a lot of interest from colleges, and while they couldn’t contact the students, I remember overhearing my middle school coach telling the mom of one of the kids that there was a scout from college watching the game. It’s ridiculous.