<p>We have the same problem at our school. One kid dropped out on the morning of a big competition. The team only learned when they were already in the car and someone called the kid.
I don’t see any point in bribing a kid or trying to motivate him by promising better results on SATs or ACT. I’m not even sure that math competitions are necessary to excel on standardized tests.<br>
Your kid might want to join a team that is not school-based. The team might get together to do math for the fun of it (there are some cool recreational math problems that are easily available through the internet). Or your kid could do these math problems on his own, at home.</p>