Question for parents of athletes (friend, kids, baseball, sport)
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No one is saying that concussions can't happen in "daily life"
But maybe people should know what they are talking about before making random comments like "concussions don't happen very frequently in soccer and lacrosse"
Wow. You were able to interpret her post? I'm impressed.
My last two happened belaying a child at an old job, gave the child a boost past a hard spot and stood up under a metal bar a foot off the wall and sitting on bleachers....
Shall we all never sit on bleachers?
I don't believe you understand the concept of "risk".
My biggest sports freak was like that as a young child. He SO wanted to go to a major college on a big time basketball scholarship but making the C team in 8th grade kind of dashed his hopes but we did point out his grades were good enough to get into that school without the scholarship. His application went in and now the wait....
I can never quite understand parents who push their kids in sports in hopes of attaining an athletic scholarship. There are very few kids who play at the level necessary to obtain those. The ones who are potential NBA and NFL draft picks who are being scouted by major powerhouse universities, fine. But for the rest, wouldn't it make more sense for the kids to actually study hard and get high enough grades to get an academic scholarship, which ARE plentiful, and play sports for fun and physical fitness? The dozens of courses one must take to earn a bachelor's degree depend on brain power, not athletic ability.
I can never quite understand parents who push their kids in sports in hopes of attaining an athletic scholarship. There are very few kids who play at the level necessary to obtain those. The ones who are potential NBA and NFL draft picks who are being scouted by major powerhouse universities, fine. But for the rest, wouldn't it make more sense for the kids to actually study hard and get high enough grades to get an academic scholarship, which ARE plentiful, and play sports for fun and physical fitness? The dozens of courses one must take to earn a bachelor's degree depend on brain power, not athletic ability.
I don't know if you are suggesting that we pushed him into sports or not, but we most certainly did not. Yes, we signed him up for things when he was little to keep them active but he LOVES sports. He loves watching them, loves playing them. When he goes to college, depending on which one he picks, he, however, will be in the marching band, not playing a sport because he just doesn't have the natural athletic ability it takes. Academics are easy for him though, while he does his homework, he certainly never "studies" and is an A student with very high ACT scores. School is very easy for him. His sister, on the other hand, while still a good student, has to work at it and study a lot more. He wishes he had her athletic ability (she will be playing a sport in college on a scholarship), she wishes she had his natural ability in the classroom .
I don't know if you are suggesting that we pushed him into sports or not, but we most certainly did not. Yes, we signed him up for things when he was little to keep them active but he LOVES sports. He loves watching them, loves playing them. When he goes to college, depending on which one he picks, he, however, will be in the marching band, not playing a sport because he just doesn't have the natural athletic ability it takes. Academics are easy for him though, while he does his homework, he certainly never "studies" and is an A student with very high ACT scores. School is very easy for him. His sister, on the other hand, while still a good student, has to work at it and study a lot more. He wishes he had her athletic ability (she will be playing a sport in college on a scholarship), she wishes she had his natural ability in the classroom .
Kids who really love sports don't need to be pushed. They love every minute. My oldest and youngest have a lot of natural athletic ability. They are good at multiple sports and they live for it. That doesn't mean they are poor students though. I am confused about why the thought is that students must be one or the other. There are many students who are top athletes and students.
I wrestled at the Div III level and had dozens of friends who competed in various sports at the Div I, II, and III levels due to my participation in the olympic training camps.
I also had several good contacts with coaches through assisting with recruiting for my school. I also had a good friend (who unfortunately passed away) who was a top level Div I basketball scout who provided me an inside lesson on the Div I revenue program perspective.
Here is what I learned:
You should start thinking about scholarships by 8th grade. Attending camps is very important to the recruiting process; and your child will need to attend camps to get the attention of the coaches. This starts in the summer before 9th grade. Most (not all) scholarship athletes have clearly differentiated themselves as a cut above other athletes in their sport by their freshman year of high school.
The availability of scholarships is strongly connected to the number of competing schools. Yes, men's wrestling teams and women's gymnastics teams are more likely to be under their scholarship limit while women's soccer and men's football will be at their maxs. Ultimately though, sports with few programs overall (swimming, lacrosse, gymnastics, wrestling, etc) will have very few scholarships available nationwide compared to programs with large numbers of programs (football, basketball, soccer, baseball, softball).
There are much higher expectations for male athletes that they will walk-on and earn their scholarship. This does not apply to the elite male athletes, but you can still expect half the scholarship players on a team to have "earned" their scholarship through walk-on years. Women's programs are more likely to follow the philosophy of recruiting with scholarships, and hence offering scholarships to incoming freshmen.
Be aware of all the restrictions. NCAA severely restricts gifts (e.g. grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents etc will be barred from contributing the the scholarship athlete's education). Freshman athletes are essentially barred from working. Upperclassmen are capped at a max of $2,000 gross income from work per year. If the scholarship is less than a full scholarship (they often are), the limit is increased by the amount less than a full scholarship. There are also a large number of regulations on employers of athletes; most off-campus employers will pass over an athlete because of these regulations. For winter sports, in particular, the athlete will probably not be allowed to leave campus during breaks and be required to live on campus.
Full scholarships are not full scholarships, especially for certain majors. Full scholarships will cover tuition, but they rarely provide enough for books and do not cover lab and materials fees. They also generally do not provide enough to cover room and provide nothing for board. (Instead, the athlete gets access to the training table for meals; but if they are unable to make the strictly regulated hours of training table, they have to buy their own meals.)
Scholarships are year to year. If you get hurt your freshman year, you lose your scholarship and your coach has to approve a transfer to another school. If your program is discontinued by the school, you might lose the remainder of your scholarship or all but one year. If your school has a coaching change, the incoming coach can decide to end your scholarship and often does for average athletes. So, be careful of program stability and program competitiveness. Being the best athlete at an average program is a much more stable scholarship than being an average athlete at the best program.
There are other very important perks besides the scholarship. I mentioned the training table, which is available to all athletes. You also get priority registration before all other students. This means you get the classes you want, and can easily cut a year or more off the time required to graduate. While some professors have negative views of athletes, far more view athletics favorably and are likely to give you extra help and leniency in deadlines. At most schools, additional free tutors are available to athletes; you get free access to some of the best students in the school as study partners. At the same time, your schedule will still conflict with your classes. So, pick your professors carefully or else you will find yourself failing a class purely because of schedule conflicts (coaches are great resources on who doesn't like the program and who is a friend of the program).
There is a built-in social life between the athletes. At the same time, most athletes have a poor social life because the only people they know is their own teammates and they have to avoid certain social situations to protect team reputation. They can be the most popular people on campus that no one actually parties with. Most athletes date other athletes. This can be a warning for female athletes though; whenever you hear about a male athlete assaulting, especially sexually assaulting, another student, that other student is almost always a female athlete.
But there is one more extremely important perk for academically and athletically talented athletes. The NCAA postgraduate scholarship is easily the best graduate scholarship program in the country. If you can come out of a Div I program with high academic achievement and solid athletic achievement, you stand a good chance to go fully funded to the graduate program of your choice too.
You don't necessarily have to go to camps. With my sport, in my area it would be completely useless. I live where the creme-de-la-creme of that sport is known to live and play. All you have to do in order to impress scouts is play for the right travel team and go to the right high school. Seriously, watch college softball. You'll notice that a huge majority of the girls come from just this one county, and you will often notice the same high schools multiple times. UCLA almost always has at least one girl from one high school in the city I grew up in, and it isn't a huge city. So, you really need to know how recruiting for your sport AND your area works.
Kids who really love sports don't need to be pushed. They love every minute. My oldest and youngest have a lot of natural athletic ability. They are good at multiple sports and they live for it. That doesn't mean they are poor students though. I am confused about why the thought is that students must be one or the other. There are many students who are top athletes and students.
I never said that they had to be one or the other . I have 2 top students, one is a gifted athlete, the other one, not so much but he loves sports. I also disagree that kids that love sports don't need to be given the occasional sport or "live for the sport", nor do they love every minute of the sport. There are plenty of ups and downs at all levels of sports.
You don't necessarily have to go to camps. With my sport, in my area it would be completely useless. I live where the creme-de-la-creme of that sport is known to live and play. All you have to do in order to impress scouts is play for the right travel team and go to the right high school. Seriously, watch college softball. You'll notice that a huge majority of the girls come from just this one county, and you will often notice the same high schools multiple times. UCLA almost always has at least one girl from one high school in the city I grew up in, and it isn't a huge city. So, you really need to know how recruiting for your sport AND your area works.
I think I know exactly where you are talking about (I grew up in Escondido, CA). Those are rare exceptions; and those southern california traveling softball teams are very similar to the concept of sports camps.
Soccer is another area where travelling teams are more effective than camps. Certain basketball teams are that way too; but really they are just the equivalent of year long camps. I have heard lacrosse and swimming are also similar with the influence of private clubs.
Still though, if you want the attention of a specific coach at a specific school, or want an easy way to learn about a program from the inside, go to their camp.
You don't necessarily have to go to camps. With my sport, in my area it would be completely useless. I live where the creme-de-la-creme of that sport is known to live and play. All you have to do in order to impress scouts is play for the right travel team and go to the right high school. Seriously, watch college softball. You'll notice that a huge majority of the girls come from just this one county, and you will often notice the same high schools multiple times. UCLA almost always has at least one girl from one high school in the city I grew up in, and it isn't a huge city. So, you really need to know how recruiting for your sport AND your area works.
Very true. That area is wired to find the best kids playing sports. There are currently two NFL quarterbacks playing from there and there's a great chance there will be one more next year. Of the three two went to the same high school and all three went to the same university. Which is local.
Great players in all sports get noticed quickly and the system to shepherd them through school has been in place for decades. High schools (public and private) were recruiting kids to play for them when l was in school and that was a reeeealy long time ago.
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. I have 2 top students, one is a gifted athlete, the other one, not so much but he loves sports. I also disagree that kids that love sports don't need to be given the occasional sport or "live for the sport", nor do they love every minute of the sport. There are plenty of ups and downs at all levels of sports.
