Which HS Sport To Consider?

[jyl]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I'm sorry but I missed where he is attending school?

Not a team sport and the point is moot if he is in the PNW but my nephew took surfing in high school.

Another vote for Lacrosse... I hear there are scholarships available for Lacrosse players.

However take that with a grain of salt... I'm about as athletic as a sloth... now bowling, there is a sport! You can eat, drink (alcohol), back in the day you could even smoke... and participate!

Portland OR - no surfing . . .

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Another vote for Lacrosse... I hear there are scholarships available for Lacrosse players.

I would consider lacrosse a skill sport. Unless your kid is some sort of athletic phenom, it is unlikely that he would be able to pick up the sport as a highschool freshman and be good enough to earn a collegiate athletic scholarship, particularly coming from PDX. But if he wanted a fun team sport, it's fantastic. There are enough positions on the field that as long as you are either big, or fast, or quick, there will be a place for you to play.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Noah930

I would consider lacrosse a skill sport. Unless your kid is some sort of athletic phenom, it is unlikely that he would be able to pick up the sport as a highschool freshman and be good enough to earn a collegiate athletic scholarship, particularly coming from PDX. But if he wanted a fun team sport, it's fantastic. There are enough positions on the field that as long as you are either big, or fast, or quick, there will be a place for you to play.

My step daughter in HS did ballet, soccer, XC, and Lacrosse... obviously she is VERY athletic and maybe it is a girl thing but we heard it was super easy to get Lacrosse scholarships for a young lady. Again point is moot because she dropped sports (except for running on her own) to spend all her time on studies.

[jyl]

So, just out of curiosity on sports scholarships - do they require the college student to play the sport all four years? Suppose in your soph year of college, you decide you don't actually like track or football or lacrosse or whatever you got a scholarship for?

[Noah930]

People are going to call me sexist, but IMO it's easier to get a scholarship for women's lax than men's. I think it'll be challenging (though not impossible) for a newbie to pick up lax as a HS freshman and in 3 years develop the skills to become recruited at a D1 school. I confess that I don't know if D3 schools offer scholarships for lax. FWIW, the Ivy League offers no athletic scholarships.

If you stop playing a sport for which you've gotten a scholarship, I think the school does stop paying your way. They'll take the money they would have given to you, and spend it on another kid who's actually playing the sport.

I can't speak for other sports, and different sports require different amounts of time for training, but I would consider playing a sport in college equivalent (time wise) to carrying a part-time to full-time job. There's a reason the NCAA limits teams to 20 hours of practice per week (not including conditioning and captain-led drills pre-practice). Add in that time, watching game films, pre-practice stretching, post-practice running, and travel for away games, and it's an easy 40 hours per week.

[Noah930]

My humble opinion is that your kid should pick a sport he likes to play. He's a kid in HS, for pete's sake. Forget the college ramifications. Sports are still fun in college, but I found that with each successive level of competition, the game gets a little less fun and a little more serious.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by jyl

So, just out of curiosity on sports scholarships - do they require the college student to play the sport all four years? Suppose in your soph year of college, you decide you don't actually like track or football or lacrosse or whatever you got a scholarship for?

Scholarships are awarded on a yearly basis, not for four years.

If you decide not to play, or the coaches decide they don't want you to play, no scholarship.

If you are injured and unable to play again, you will likely lose your free ride the next year.

[Noah930]

Slightly off topic, but to follow on the concept of "free" rides, there are the service academies, as well. West Point, Annapolis, and Air Force. Obviously they all have post-grad commitments, but your education is well-respected and it's "free."

[jyl]

Yeah, I'm not seriously thinking athletic scholarship. But I was curious how they work.

My humble opinion is that your kid should pick a sport he likes to play. He's a kid in HS, for pete's sake. Forget the college ramifications. Sports are still fun in college, but I found that with each successive level of competition, the game gets a little less fun and a little more serious.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Better off assuming that your son won't receive an athletic scholarship. Nothing to do with him, the odds are simply against him in a big way.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Slightly off topic, but to follow on the concept of "free" rides, there are the service academies, as well. West Point, Annapolis, and Air Force. Obviously they all have post-grad commitments, but your education is well-respected and it's "free."

Don't forget ROTC, Coast Guard Academy. My son is on an Army ROTC ride at VMI, the only school he wanted to attend.

They really have to want to serve, however. Not for everyone.

[nostatic]

I happened into water polo and in retrospect it was the perfect sport for me. I'd played a lot of the traditional sports as a younger kid but by high school I wasn't really interested in the BS that went with them. I was doing a lot of surfing and had been around water all my life, so a buddy talked me into it. Brutal, but fun sport. I actually refused to do competitive swimming - most of the players were swimmers first, polo players second. I am a particle sport guy, so swimming was just a means to an end. I was probably the slowest player in the pool, but if you have half a brain, understand the flow of the game, and have good hands, you can excel. I was offered a college scholarship at a small liberal arts school but ended up not going.

Now at age 52 I'm back in the pool doing laps for exercise. One thing about football and track/cc - that time playing during HS/college can come back to haunt you later in life. I know a few college FB players that went on to have long-term physical problems (mostly knees and back).

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Don't forget ROTC, Coast Guard Academy. My son is on an Army ROTC ride at VMI, the only school he wanted to attend.

They really have to want to serve, however. Not for everyone.

My daughter was considering Navy ROTC. We have a close family friend who served Navy (on an aircraft carrier, I think), and is now going to college w/ some sort of military benefit. She had a good experience with it. In the end, my daughter ended up choosing a college that we can easily afford so the ROTC became somewhat moot.

Water polo seems really brutal! The girls wear double swimsuits and are covered with bruises and claw marks . . .

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by jyl

Water polo seems really brutal! The girls wear double swimsuits and are covered with bruises and claw marks . . .

We used to make fun of the football guys when they talked about how tough they had it. Our workouts were way harder (try swimming head-up butterfly laps wearing full sweats over your speedo) and the only protection you have are plastic ear guards on a nylon cap. Demanding game but very fun and requires a full skill set - eye-hand coordination, strategy, and strength/stamina. The bruises heal. Joint injuries from other sports, much less so.

[jyl]

Want to hear a funny story?

Tonight he was attending a play at my daughter's high school. Then he remembered he had homework to do tonight. I received his text, asking me to pick him up. I responded that I was at the pub, on my second pint, and would not drive unless it was an emergency, so "take the bus." (For your information, I rode my bike to the pub.)

He ran home. In jeans and Vans type shoes. It is about 3.5 miles, and he's not even breathing hard. Okay, maybe he walked the last bit, but I was tracking his iPhone (Find My iPhone is great) and he made it home fast enough that I thought he was on the bus.

I think I'm going to recommend he start cross-country in the fall.

[ZAMIRZ]

I swam throughout middle and high school at the insistence of my dad, which is probably the single most valuable thing he encouraged me to do. My high school had a lousy program, so I was able to excel and swim on varsity from 9th grade. When I have access to a pool I get back into the swing of things and get up to about 1.5 miles a day in.

Great for the mind and body, a byproduct of swimming that is rarely mentioned is that since you're essentially on your own with nobody able to talk to you, it's nice to be able to check out of reality for that time and just concentrate on stroke, power and rhythm. My mind always feels much sharper when I'm done swimming, which I am nearly positive is a result of that checkout period.

Finally, if you're swimming through puberty, I feel it really helps you stay lean as you begin to grow older. I'm going to be 30 this year, and there's at least a few people from every other sport in h.s. that has gotten fat, but not so for the swimmers. All the people I swam with are either lean, or if they're girls, still have a smoking hot body...another great advantage to being a swimmer

[Rusty914s]

Cross country is great but Whiled puppy has it right, odds are against him.

[Joe Bob]

While track and X-Country is considered team sports, they aren't really. I did both for four years in HS and College. Great experience.

Unless he has a prior skill set in other sports he will be a bench warmer.

[jyl]

Saturday afternoon I got a call from my son. Want to meet at Skyline Burger for lunch? I drive out there, wondering what he's doing way out on the other side of town, 9-10 miles from our house?

Turns out he put his iPhone, earbuds, a book, and some water in a daypack and went running. He ran about 4-5 miles on city streets from our house through to the other side of downtown, then cut into Forest Park and took trails the remaining 4-5 miles. But he didn't have enough cash for lunch . . . so I bought him lunch, lectured him on his eating habits (french fries dunked in strawberry milkshake?), and on Sunday we went to the running store and they fitted him for some Brooks trainers. $100 shoes! but I think even 15 y/o knees can't like running in Vans. Later that day he took a short run, 2 miles, and now he says they are his new favorite shoes, even if they are really garish (his opinion).

He's going to try out for cross-country in the fall. I don't know if he is fast, but he appears to have adequate endurance.

Edit: They put him in these Brooks, said he has moderate pronation of the left foot so needs some support - whatever that means . . .
http://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/adrenaline-gts-14-mens-running-shoes/1101581D081.070.html#start=13

[JavaBrewer]

CC sounds like an excellent choice John. That is a non-cut sport - kids who show up get to run. CC is also one of the more mentally challenging sports - many say the mental aspect is harder than the physical. Do some research on proper training techniques, there's more to it than just racking up large miles. Also be smart about how many miles he starts running per week. Too much too soon (TMTS) will result in injury. I ran CC in community college and had to watch from the sidelines as the season wrapped. Muscles build much faster than the supporting architecture.

Good luck!