Our S19 was into tennis in a major way from fifth grade through eighth grade. USTA circuit. Lessons six days a week. It was a given in our family that it would be his main EC in high school. Our high school consistently wins state. The tennis kids here are GOOD. The summer before ninth grade, he told us he was done. He said he missed soccer and the team experience. He hadn’t played soccer in three years. We found a team for him and tried to get him enough training to play in high school. While there were cuts for the freshman team, he still made it to the dismay of the parents whose kids have been playing club soccer since they could walk. I still hear comments about the “tennis kid” who made the soccer team.
He continued to play club soccer outside of school freshman year. Then…he decided he didn’t like it for all kinds of reasons and decided to run XC.
He ran XC and track last year and will continue junior year. Doesn’t love it but has made great friends and likes the feeling of competing against himself for a time. Kids evolve. There was really no way we could have forced him to keep playing tennis or soccer.
He has other interests that will now be considered his larger EC instead of a sport. He’s been taking art lessons since he was very young and now takes all of the honors art classes at the high school as well as continuing outside school. He will take AP Portfolio senior year and have a portfolio to share. He’s also the head photographer for the yearbook and part of the art section of his high school’s literary/art magazine. I will say, though, that these extra ECs in regards to art took some pushing on my part. And, it wasn’t until the end of sophomore year (like two months ago) that he really understood that just making art and taking classes maybe isn’t enough to show a big art presence on his transcript. I didn’t insist he find additional options but did remind him when it came time to interview for that yearbook position, woke him up in time, and drove him into school early to meet that teacher. And I did suggest the literary magazine too. Now that he’s doing both of those things, he’s glad he’s added them. But I do not think he would have decided to do them on his own.
All of this to say that you can’t force your kids to do something they don’t want to do. (Well, you could but that would be awful for both the parent and the child.) But, you can guide them and give them ideas.