Why are athletic ECs so valued?

Parents Forum
181

<br>

<br>

<p>Which one? Harold Abrahams the Jewish guy? Aubrey Montague the narrator and steeple chaser? Eric Liddel the missionary? or Lord Lindsay the hurdle running nobleman?</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the era of the stalwart amateur who in his spare time wins the gold medal more or less effortlessly is long gone. Recall that Chariots of Fire portrays the 1920s. Plus the story as portrayed in the movie never really did exist. Some of the characters were real people, and the 1924 Olympic games really were in Paris, but the writers took great liberties and fictionalized huge portions of it to make a “better” story.</p>

182

<p>River; there’s a lot more to that. First; D3 schools don’t offer athletic scholarships. The 4-5% of high school athletes I’m talking about who go on to play college athletics, many are recruited. Scholarships are involved sometimes. That means first; only D1/2/NAIA schools. Not D3 schools.</p>

<p>Also, when you register with the NCAA clearinghouse; which is required; they validate your GPA and the classes you’ve taken. Also, MOST, not all, schools have an athletic application you fill out where they ask your gpa and sometimes SAT/ACT.</p>

183

<p>Christcorp, I’ve spent the last year doing this with my D. Of course, Ivy’s don’t give athletic scholarships either (like DIII), for the uninitiated.</p>

<p>I was worried that some parents, not familiar with athletic recruiting, reading your post, might think that they can sit back and wait for the recruiters to come calling, once their child has won a state championship. In many sports, and for many talented athletes who don’t play football or basketball, the family will have to do their homework and initiate contact to find the best fit for the child. I’ve seen lots of kids go to the only school that bothered to call them, thinking no one else would want them, when in reality, other coaches might have loved to know of an interested student/athlete. I’m not speaking of the very most elite athletes in each sport. I’m sure every college coach knows their names, but there is a whole second tier of recruitable athletes who need to take responsibility for their match.</p>

184

<p>

</p>

<p>Unfortunately :-)</p>

185

<p>River; agree with you 100%. Excellent post with info for a lot of parents. There is most definitely 4 types of High School athletes who go to college. 1) highly recognized athletes who are directly recruited. 2) Highly recognized athletes that are either in a non-noticed area; e.g. Montana, Wyoming, Dakotas; small town in big state like New York where you aren’t noticed. Or very low profile sports that are small and unique. These kids and parents definitely need to be proactive in contacting the schools. Most colleges have an online athletic questionnaire in the athletic department of the web page. Fill it out online with certain sports and academic stats and many times they will at least give you an email or call. 3) Walk-Ons. These are the students who aren’t the standout that some are and aren’t recruited, but could do well at the college level. These students and parents should definitely send emails and such to the coaches at the school they are interested in. Find out what their Walk-On policy is. 4) Athletes that have no interest, desire, or chance of playing sports at the college level. Obviously not an issue with them.</p>

<p>Thing about colleges and recruited athletes is that if it’s a D1/2/NAIA school where scholarships are offered, you need to be good and recruited. Once they give you that scholarship, they really can’t take it away unless you quit or become academically ineligible. These scholarships and such are limited by NCAA rules and the colleges usually have more interested athletes than they have scholarships. Very selective. I’ve seen a lot of walk-ons who made the team and still didn’t get a scholarship out of the deal.</p>

<p>The same can be said for scholarships for music, dance, art, and other activities. They are all very competitive. But, if you are one of the BEST in your activity, and are recognized where the schools know who you are, they will most times come after you and take care of many of the details.</p>

<p>A word of suggestion for the student and parents who fall into the category of very good in their activity but don’t have the press and attention and aren’t very well known; start networking!!! There is nothing wrong if your coach, director, principle, community leaders, senator, rep, etc… makes some phone calls with email follow ups to put a good word in for you. This is your future. There’s no shame in making contact. Can’t tell you how many athletes, musicians, artist, dancers, etc… were talked to by colleges because their coach, director, etc… called some of these schools and told them that they had a student worth looking at. Talk to you coach, director, instructor, etc… I’m not talking about letters of recommendation; I’m talking about them making a personal phone call and email to the coach, director, etc… of the college you are interested in.</p>

<p>Sorry; this has gotten off of the main topic of WHY sports are looked at so seriously. I think that answer has been given numerous times. Sorry for taking the thread off topic.</p>

186

<p>Great explication of the tiers of athletic “recruitability.” I think we’re still somewhat on topic, because truly, only a very few athletes have an edge in admissions, and many have to help create that edge.</p>

187

<p>Wow, I’m glad I didn’t see this thread last year when my son was applying to college. His only athletic EC was CYO (Church league) basketball. But he still ended up at a top-40 LAC.</p>

<p>I guess this should be making me feel better about my daughter, who is in 10th grade. She’s a good student but not as strong academically as her older brother - but she plays a varsity sport (played JV as a frosh, now Varsity hopefully for 3 years). As Bill Murray said in Caddyshack, “… so I got that goin’ for me.”</p>