<p>q1spa (and others): if your child will be a d-1 athlete and is choosing between a variety of schools that he would be equally happy at, then I would encourage him to choose the one closest to home. The athletes get precious little time off and the closer they are, the easier it is for them to come home for just a night here and there. They really need a break when they can get it.</p>
<p>I think this is a really good point. My son’s freshman year, he came home for a few days at Thanksgiving, the Christmas break, and then when he went back in January, didn’t come home at all until June. Spring is the season, and the team went all the way to the Final Four Championship weekend. He isn’t so far away that we can’t get up to see most games (another consideration for parents), but it was too far for him to be making trips home.</p>
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Guess once again it depends on the individual.
My D is 90 minutes away and she’s been home only a handful of times in the last four years. When she does get home, what does she do? Make sure family members have a pulse, eat, sleep and then catch up with all her school mates and paint the town! Maybe I’ve raised her to be too independent. sarcasm off.</p>
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<p>That isn’t the case at my school. I don’t know how well it works with baseball, football, or men’s basketball but the sports I have been at seem to work with class schedules pretty well. I have to do observation hours in order to get into the athletic training program. One week I was with softball and they had different rosters for different days of the week! By telling the coach or one of the players what day it was, they were able to determine if everyone who was supposed to be there was! Now, gameday things would have been different of course. Another one: one of the women’s basketball players had 3 tests the day they were supposed to leave for the conference tournament. I’m pretty sure the coach pushed back the leaving time so she could take those tests! One last one: A gymnast had two tests the day they were supposed to leave for a competition. The day before there was a study session planned during practice. She came in early, did her stuff, and left to go to the study session.</p>
<p>The last example might have something to do with why the Southeast Missouri State Gymhawks were the “Academic National Champions” last year. That is calculated by average GPA. Team GPA of a 3.741! I was looking at some of their bios in the gymnastics room and these are wimpy majors either. A few graphic arts, several exercise science with pre-physical therapy, a couple pre-med. These girls are SMART and they’re not only smart, but also nationally ranked as gymnasts too:)</p>
<p>Definitely each school is different; as are the kids. My daughter goes to school 50 miles away. About a 40 minute drive. She’s a junior now, and we’re lucky to see her at Christmas, spring break, and summer. Of course, sometimes we could that direction and stop in and say high.</p>
<p>As far as the schools go, that’s definitely individual. My son’s high school required all sports practices, unless you were dying, or you didn’t play come Friday night football. Soccer was pretty much the same. If he had a test on a travel day, the teachers either let him take the test the day before or the day after if it was an all day travel day and he was going to miss the class. Basically a lot of common sense. </p>
<p>He averaged about 20 hours a week of practice with about another 5 hours a week in the weight room. Off season was 10 hours a week in the weight room. This was the commitment you made if you wanted to play. If you didn’t commit, you weren’t kicked off the team or anything, but your playing time could very well be affected. Obviously each sport is different. Sports that revolve around plays and certain people being in certain place, such as football or basketball, required a much more disciplined practice schedule. Soccer, track, swimming, and some others were more flexible. At least in our school. Of the 3 colleges I have direct experience with, the same held true. Sports like Football and Basketball had a very demanding schedule. Some of the others worked around the student’s schedule a little better.</p>
<p>Re: “Colleges want well rounded students. Even 2 identical students applying to Harvard with the exact same GPA and members of the same clubs and volunteering with the same agencies; if competing against each other; one will have a better chance if they also do athletics. It just makes them more well rounded.”</p>
<p>LOL – this is precisely what happened to my son’s friends. Example: lifelong friend/classmate/teammate who is headed to Harvard next year. Sure he has a 4+ GPA with every AP possible in his college prep private school, plus “decent” (for Harvard) SAT scores around 1400, but he knows he got in ED bc he’s a recruited athlete – it’s Harvard and they had other choices with better numbers and ECs. Compare also his friend who is going to Georgetown next year, with athletic scholarship that coach “guaranteed informally” would be renewed annually – no way he could have gotten in otherwise with his B+ GPA in a non-AP curriculum and SATs around 1100. </p>
<p>But these are the exceptions, folks, and as above posters far more eloquently explain, they have and will continue to “pay” for the opportunity. To them, it’s all worth it so far. But they are the also the exceptions in feeling that way.</p>
<p>Not sure about other D1 sports (but I think it’s the same–I know it is for lacrosse), in gymnastics the NCAA limits practice/game time to a maximum of 20 hrs. per week. The coaches are very careful of not going over the 20 hrs. for fear of incurring a violation.</p>
<p>To be sure, most coaches (the good ones anyway) comply with limits on practice hours. But those hours typically encompass only field practices with coaches, not “captain’s practices” (no coaches, “voluntarily” scheduled by players), athletic training/rehab, chalkboard, film, strength, agility, speed or other workout sessions. And those times are also scheduled for players, so the academics/social life have to accommodate these hours as well.</p>
<p>Yea not sure about other sports, but for gymnastics the 20 hrs. includes all that other stuff—captain’s practices, training, weights, rehab, PT, agility, conditioning, sports psych, nutritionist, etc. It seems like there’s very little time to actually be in the gym IMO.</p>