Had this conversation, the other day with a Father. Often times, student-athletes play multiple Sports in mid to smaller schools. Others do, at larger schools and some can play at a high/competitive level in 1,2 or 3 sports. Others, can excel in one and play roles only in the other.

 

Should a player decide to focus on that sport he/she, excel at and perhaps not play one or more, while in High School. Should a player play all he/she can, then focus on improving in their excel sport, during any off time they may have.

 

Thoughts and your opinions....

If the kids goal is to get a free education and possibly make a living one day from playing a sport,they should pick the one he/she excels at and devote all of their free time to it.

 

If the kid is in it to be a part of a team, stay in shape, the enjoyment of competing, then play them all and have fun.

 

Thats the way I see it.

 

I could have focused on nothing but baseball when I was younger and had a free ride to college. I always excelled at baseball. I had no desire to play college athletics of any type though so I played baseball, basketball and football through high school and had a blast:thumb:

I played as many sports as possible.

 

In high school, I played 3 sports for a year before picking 2.

 

Even playing 2 sports in high school involves year-round dedication.

 

As long as it does not interfere with your academics, I say play as many as you can.

I played as many sports as possible.

 

In high school, I played 3 sports for a year before picking 2.

 

Even playing 2 sports in high school involves year-round dedication.

 

As long as it does not interfere with your academics, I say play as many as you can.

 

 

 

Do you feel you could of been better at one sport, had you focused more on one?

 

Not sure if I asked that correctly, but I hope you know what I mean.

I would highly recommend against directing kids toward one sport only, if for no other reason than it's extremely unlikely they will get a full scholarship in any sport. Only the best of the best in the state get full scholarships, and usually full scholarships are only given out in basketball and football (revenue sports), and that's only at the big D-I schools. Smaller schools, such as the Lindsay Wilsons and Campbellsvilles of the world have choice few full scholarships to award.

 

The dirty little secret about college athletics is that too many parents invest all this money taking their kids around to camps and traveling team tournaments with the idea their kid is going to get a free ride to college, and they're shocked, frustrated and disappointed when it doesn't happen or the kid only gets a partial scholarship.

 

S3, I know you are keenly aware of this and are a good judge of talent, but a lot of other parents who might read this are not, and should be warned ahead of time against putting all their kids' eggs in one basket too soon.

I would highly recommend against directing kids toward one sport only, if for no other reason than it's extremely unlikely they will get a full scholarship in any sport. Only the best of the best in the state get full scholarships, and usually full scholarships are only given out in basketball and football (revenue sports), and that's only at the big D-I schools. Smaller schools, such as the Lindsay Wilsons and Campbellsvilles of the world have choice few full scholarships to award.

 

The dirty little secret about college athletics is that too many parents invest all this money taking their kids around to camps and traveling team tournaments with the idea their kid is going to get a free ride to college, and they're shocked, frustrated and disappointed when it doesn't happen or the kid only gets a partial scholarship.

 

S3, I know you are keenly aware of this and are a good judge of talent, but a lot of other parents who might read this are not, and should be warned ahead of time against putting all their kids' eggs in one basket too soon.

 

 

 

 

:thumb:Good post JS.

With the growth of AAU and other travelling teams is even possible to find time to play more than one sport now?

 

I think its time to wise up and stop treating high school as an athlete factory. Play every sport you can and have a great time. If it does turn out that you show enough promise to get some attention, go the one sport route your JR and SR years if thats your goal.

I would highly recommend against directing kids toward one sport only, if for no other reason than it's extremely unlikely they will get a full scholarship in any sport. Only the best of the best in the state get full scholarships, and usually full scholarships are only given out in basketball and football (revenue sports), and that's only at the big D-I schools. Smaller schools, such as the Lindsay Wilsons and Campbellsvilles of the world have choice few full scholarships to award.

 

The dirty little secret about college athletics is that too many parents invest all this money taking their kids around to camps and traveling team tournaments with the idea their kid is going to get a free ride to college, and they're shocked, frustrated and disappointed when it doesn't happen or the kid only gets a partial scholarship.

 

S3, I know you are keenly aware of this and are a good judge of talent, but a lot of other parents who might read this are not, and should be warned ahead of time against putting all their kids' eggs in one basket too soon.

Agree Jim and the disparity in total number of scholarship available, per Sport would alarm many if they don't know.

 

DI - Baseball =11.7

DI - Football (1A) = 85

DI - Football (1AA) = 63

 

Cross Country, Track/Field and Hockey, get more than Baseball does. I will disagree, regarding the Camps to this extent. If your son/daughter has talent and ability, make sure they are being exposed to the college coaches, at the Division they are capable of playing. In other-words, if you only go to DI Baseball camps but your son is DII, DIII then you're going to be disappointed.

 

If a child chooses not to play other sports, encourage them to work at the one they are passionate about. If your child chooses to play multiple sports, make sure they have enough recovery time or their body can break down physically and affect them, in another sport.

I believe kids should be able to play whatever they want to. High School and before should be a lot of fun for kids. If a kid wants to play 3 sports and has the work ethic to do it thats great. If a kid just wants to play one and focus on that sport year around that is great also.

My son played two sports till his soph. year. It was his choice to only play one after that. The coach of the sport that he stopped playing wanted him to continue to play but he wanted to concentrate on one sport, AND he wanted some time off. His thinking was that both sports were too time consuming and he had other interests including work (his choice). Now as he is entering his Senior year, I think that he has not regreted his decision but looks back and sees that he had just as much fun playing one. The Really funny part is he chose the sport that he not as good in, but he really just enjoyed it more.

 

The point of that longwinded story is that kids normally make the choices that are right for THEM although the parents may or may not really agree.

My son played two sports till his soph. year. It was his choice to only play one after that. The coach of the sport that he stopped playing wanted him to continue to play but he wanted to concentrate on one sport, AND he wanted some time off. His thinking was that both sports were too time consuming and he had other interests including work (his choice). Now as he is entering his Senior year, I think that he has not regreted his decision but looks back and sees that he had just as much fun playing one. The Really funny part is he chose the sport that he not as good in, but he really just enjoyed it more.

 

The point of that longwinded story is that kids normally make the choices that are right for THEM although the parents may or may not really agree.

 

I absolutely love this line. :thumb:

 

Far too many parents try to steer their kids one way or another with fanciful visions of full college scholarships dancing in their heads, and only end up burning the kid out on everything in the process.

Pretty much agree with most post here. Except, I think a D1 or high caliber athlete can still play multiple sports and not hurt their scholarship chances. Brian Brohm was a stud at Football and Baseball (he was drafted), and very good at Basketball. Tim Couch nearly averaged 40 points in BBall, and was runnerup Mr Basketball. Sure, a player may not add that 5 or 10 pounds of muscle, but now days they have the schollarship locked up in 8th grade anyway. :laugh:

 

My kid is very good at Field Hockey and okay at Lacrosse. I talked with a woman who hooks kids up with FH schollies, and she said focus on grades first and skills second. I thought that was just a line, but in the past month we found out a local private school girl in Louisville lost her D1 schollie because her GPA dropped below 3.0, the minimum required. I think this is a girl thing, high GPA's required.

 

I'm old school though. They just had a BBall guy on local radio talking about this. He interviewed AAU coaches this past season, and asked them a question about their players. "How many of your players have ever played ball without having an adult, a coach, a parent or a recruiter in the gym?" The answer from all was ZERO!! It's sad that kids just don't get together to shoot hoops, or throw the ball in the back yard anymore.

I would highly recommend against directing kids toward one sport only, if for no other reason than it's extremely unlikely they will get a full scholarship in any sport. Only the best of the best in the state get full scholarships, and usually full scholarships are only given out in basketball and football (revenue sports), and that's only at the big D-I schools. Smaller schools, such as the Lindsay Wilsons and Campbellsvilles of the world have choice few full scholarships to award.

 

The dirty little secret about college athletics is that too many parents invest all this money taking their kids around to camps and traveling team tournaments with the idea their kid is going to get a free ride to college, and they're shocked, frustrated and disappointed when it doesn't happen or the kid only gets a partial scholarship.

 

S3, I know you are keenly aware of this and are a good judge of talent, but a lot of other parents who might read this are not, and should be warned ahead of time against putting all their kids' eggs in one basket too soon.

 

I completely and totally agree...

 

Hm, that was easier than I thought it was going to be...

My son played two sports till his soph. year. It was his choice to only play one after that. The coach of the sport that he stopped playing wanted him to continue to play but he wanted to concentrate on one sport, AND he wanted some time off. His thinking was that both sports were too time consuming and he had other interests including work (his choice). Now as he is entering his Senior year, I think that he has not regreted his decision but looks back and sees that he had just as much fun playing one. The Really funny part is he chose the sport that he not as good in, but he really just enjoyed it more.

 

The point of that longwinded story is that kids normally make the choices that are right for THEM although the parents may or may not really agree.

 

You are correct. When they no longer find the joy for the practices just let them be.

I am all for a kid to play every sport they can and that they want to. A kid only goes around high school once so if he wants to play multiple sports the he (or she) should. That would be up to the kid and his parents.

One thing that I cannot stand is for a coach of one sport to tell a kid not to play anything but his (coaches) sport :mad:. I know of this to have happened in the past at one school in paticular and I am sure that it happens elsewhere. I beleive that any coach that would do that and keep a kid from playing other sports for his own selfish reasons should not be in coaching.

This is even more true at small schools imo. Should a coach "suggest" to the kid that in his opinion that the kid had real chance at the next level in that one sport, then o.k., leave it at that and let the kid decide and do not suggest anything else.

 

Like I said, should the kid want to play multiple sports and he or she has the ability and can handle the academics along with it then it should be up to them and the parents (to allow it).