It’s not uncommon for students to stop after a year or two because of injuries or more likely, less playing time than they’d like. Many coaches continue to improve the quality of their teams, making it hard for players to maintain playing time and roster spots. Sometimes, if as student goes abroad, just missing the off season training will bring them down a notch too far.
But I think that if you are a bona Fidel recruit, you’ll be expected to be on the team unless you are hurt.
After re-reading the original post, I think OP is asking if schools will do away with recruiting if students get in and then quit without ever playing.
No. Schools do know this has happened, and that many students won’t play all 4 years, but it is the system they want.
There were 9 freshmen who came in with my daughter. They all played the entire first year but one quit at the end of the year. A second started sophomore year but quit in the fall (no longer the superstar, lots of whining). Of the other seven, 6 were starters for the entire 4 years. The final one stayed on the team but rarely played (good attitude). Five of the seven graduated on time and two took an extra semester.
Over the next few years, the numbers held at about the same with freshmen classes of 6-9 and a few dropping out after a year or two. One quit because of injury (concussions) but most because of playing time or coaching issues.
My kids’ high school had many sports recruits to top tier schools without scholarships. A lot of them quit after a year or two because demand of schoolwork. It is why I always post “make sure you still like the school without the sport.”
I think it is more rare if there is scholarship involved.
I know of one story, recounted by a parent, who said his daughter used athletics solely for admissions purposes and never intended to play. I think this is an outlier, because it takes so much time, money and effort these days to be recruited. Gone are the days when a recruit can signup for one camp and expect to be recruited. It really is hard work. The equation doesn’t work with years worth of games, tournaments, showcases, tapes, practices, lifting, high school athletics, etc. With all of that work, the kids really do want to play. There are instances where the athlete didn’t make it through the first preseason, but one never knows the true reason for that – there could be several.
I agree. There’s no way there are a lot of kids working as hard as I see athletes working just to get into college. To be a recruited athlete, especially an athlete plus a great student, is insanely time consuming and exhausting. IMO almost all kids who do it love the sport and want to play. What happens when they get to college and experience the bench, or a nasty coach, or serious injury for the first time definitely changes the picture though.
It’s not an uncommon thing for a recruited athlete to quit the sport at some point in time, but I have no idea what the percentage is. One can look at the number of freshmen on the rosters Vs the seniors to get some idea.
I know of no personal situations where a recruited athlete quit before even joining the team, and Ive known quite a few High school and college athletes. Even in situations when the athlete was contemplating quitting the sport, sometimes at the very time when payoff by college admissions is in the picture, they’ve gotten a second wind when accepted by a college. They’ve all given it the “old college try”
But for those who are not on hefty scholarships, staying on the team is a whole other story. Injury, burn out. Schoolwork, finances come into play.
I know of one, at Georgetown. I don’t think it was the intent not to play when she accepted the spot, but in the olden days (2015 and prior), the players were being recruited and accepting the spots when they were sophomores in high school. Three years later when they are actually starting college, things are different. They are even different from the prior year when they signed the NLI and sent in their applications. Another season, more bumps and bruises, a different social scene.
My niece and nephew both could have played on D1 teams but decided even as high school kids they didn’t want to play at that level in college. I don’t think they trained any less in high school than their teammates who did go D1, and they certainly went to enough summer camps and tournaments, they just made the decision not to play in college (one did play club level at a D1 school) earlier than their friends.
I think there are kids who do pick sports to help them get into college, even specific colleges. There was an article published about the time my kids were born about the women’s golf scholarships that go unused. Hey, if your kid is looking for a sport, why not pick one that might lead to a scholarship! Squash over tennis? Lacrosse over soccer? Sign up for the ERG training at the local gym with the possibility of being a rower? Sure.
My kid plays SEC Div I basketball, high GPA, Econ major, Business minor, Psych minor. Lifting weights before the sun comes up, classes, study, practice, other ECs, study. She is the first to admit it is a tough grind, especially the nagging wear and tear on the body.
A couple of kids transferred, but to play basketball elsewhere. I don’t think any have just quit.
I tell her all this will prepare her well for the working world. I also tell her earning an MBA (a goal of hers after 4-5 years of work) will be like a vacation.
Whoever told you this really doesn’t understand these sports.
Having mentioned fencing and squash, very few schools would have the facilities for that. Perhaps only select new england boarding schools have squash courts and programs. Even those that do though start in 9th grade. If you start squash in 9th grade you will not ever reach the level to be competitive enough to play for an ivy. If you want to play for an Ivy or NESCAC you better be well in the top 50 in that nation. For a top Ivy, make that top 5. Not great odds?
The best players - who will play in college - start under 11 in clubs.
These kids are putting in 6 days a week of practice so it’s not a recruiting ploy. To keep that up they have to and do love the sport.
Further the top schools like Harvard are recruiting internationally and the US players actually aren’t competitive enough. There are few squash programs that have slots or preferences for recruiting and since there are only 9 members that score in a meet, then they often only get 2 preferences a year. That’s pretty thin odds for the 20 or so programs that can help with admission, don’t you think? So I suggest that you have been misled.
The level of commitment that these athletes have to make is incredible. If they aren’t enjoying the sport anymore or find it hard to make the tradeoff there is no shame in stopping (I do agree that at least one year is warranted). Remember that to reach this level, they have been full on committed for many years and started far younger.
For example, I had two nephews at an Ivy, and one did stop his (non revenue) sport after his junior year as he realized he wasn’t going to make the national team. Instead of doing 3 a day workouts, he enjoyed his senior year with his girlfriend and focused on getting a job. His brother finished all four years…
Priorities change. Circumstances change. Abilities change.
I just had dinner the other night with the mothers of some of S19’s friends. One committed freshman year of h.s. to a top 10 D1 lacrosse program. He’s not even in season yet but two months into school and he hates it, especially the coach. Texting his mom nonstop complaining. She finally had to tell him to stop texting her about it. She laid out what his options are. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up trying to transfer to another team/school as we have several other top ranked D1 teams right here in MD. I could possibly even see him quitting, transferring and just playing club at a different school. In his case, he didn’t use the sport as a means to getting into the school and if he quits, I doubt he will stay there. Several of S19’s other former teammates are on D1 lax teams but so far, I haven’t heard how it’s going for them.
S19 is playing a different sport in college and so far, it’s going well, but it’s a lot of work. Most of his friends are not on the team and I know he is looking forward to the off season when he doesn’t have as much commitment or travel and can hang out with his friends. At this point though I don’t see him quitting.
I can’t think offhand of any kids I know who used sports as a means of getting into a competitive school and then quitting. I do know a couple of kids who used sports as a way to get into service academies, and don’t care at all if they never set foot on the field, but they didn’t quit after getting there. Sports practices and requirements sometimes gets them out of some of the dreaded military/etc. obligations so they prefer to be on a team even if they never play!
Service academies have hard requirements to participate in a certain amount of athletics every year, whether it be varsity, club or intramural. The SAs may not care as much if a kid doesn’t show up for varsity as your typical D1 program since coaches don’t get Tips like normal schools and they understand the strains on student athletes are not like what’s found anywhere else. Sorry to digress, carry on.
There is a bit of fallout. I think it reflects badly on the athlete’s previous club/coach. Can the club coach be trusted when the next possible recruit comes calling? And if there are siblings in the same sport, forget it.
In our sport it happens. but I think the college coaches are on the lookout for it. Does the kid love the sport so much that it is part of their DNA? Or are they just looking for the stepping stone?
By “tips”are you saying service academy coaches don’t have any influence on admissions when it comes to athletes they are recruiting? Because if so, that is not exactly true. At least with certain athletes they really want. Obviously they aren’t giving up scholarship money that could’ve gone to another player, but they are certainly taking a spot (I.e. the “ blue chip” athletes) the coach could’ve used to recruit someone else.
Aren’t you an international student? If you’re recruited for a sport I’d read the rules very carefully. Does anything (finances, housing,…) change if you drop your sport?
I understand from your other threads that you hope to get a job after college and stay in the US. Don’t choose a college, especially one that’s a financial reach, with the assumption that you can move here after graduation. It’s safer financially to plan on having to return home.
Being a part of the community at a school that is a veritable factory of athletes for Ivy/NESCAC focused sports (hockey, lacrosse, crew, squash, water polo), it has always been astonishing to me how short the college careers of those top tier recruits seem to be. I’m sure there are lots of reasons for why that happens, but it is a curious dynamic.
At SAs they get tips, but there are a host of other strains on athletes that cause student athletes to drop back to simply being students. It’s not just being away from home, getting injured or grades, but it’s also handling the intentionally stressful life as a first year academy plebe and the significantly harder academic loads. An SA is not college as most college students would recognize it and the SA coaches know that they’re not going to get the same retention that other programs expect.
Another forum which focuses on Track and Field/Cross Country posted a poll asking what percentage of freshman runners end up running senior year. The typical results for D-1 were a 50-75% attrition rate, i.e. only 25-50% ran all four years. Attrition was lower in D-3 but not by much. Not sure if this is typical of other sports, but it sure is sobering.
RockySoil-that is an interesting stat.
I don’t have any knowledge for teams as a whole but had a D/S that was a top D1 T&F recruit. They did not participate all 4-years. This was primarilly do to injuries & surgery, which are fairly common.
Which is why, as others have also stated, pick the school based on the best education and fit for the student and family. Playing a sport in college can certainly be an important factor, especially if that is getting you into a top academic school, but unless you are a top tier D1 scholarship athlete, in my opinion, sports should be secondary to the other factors.
You apparently don’t have any real knowledge in this area. The fencers that are recruited to Ivies are the best in the country/world. It requires 5-6 hrs of training 6 days a week, traveling nationally and international to tournaments 2x a month during season making it extremely difficult to maintain the competitive grades necessary to be a recruit in a non revenue sport. Typically only the top 10 in their graduating class have a shot at recruitment, and none of them fenced for their high schools. Elite fencing occurs at the club level.