<p>Can a recruited athlete decide not to play his/her sport? Would it violate something?</p>
<p>No-- there is no formal “recruited athlete” status at a boarding school. If a coach wrote on your behalf, you may feel a moral obligation to play and I would suspect that if you played well enough to be of interest to the coach you love the sport and would want to do so-- but as with a DIII college or the Ivy League the obligation to continue to participate lies only upon your conscience. There is no contractual obligation. People’s circumstances change and coaches understand.</p>
<p>However, If an applicant has no interest in participating and knows that now, but has lead that coach on merely to get the coach’s endorsement–well, such a person has bigger issues about which deal than the disappointment of the coach. Issues that will catch up with that person.</p>
<p>But that is very different than merely growing and finding new interests–especially at the secondary school level. That is part of the process of finding out who you are…</p>
<p>Intersting interesting. I’m not a recruited athlete, but I was curious. Choate’s coach called me awhile back (January) and asked for my USTA tennis ranking. I ultimately decided not to apply because I didn’t actually want to play tennis at boarding school. I’ve always wanted to row because there aren’t any rowing teams here.</p>