High school for the college-bound athlete?

[Mommy22alyns]

Be kind, this is my first venture here.  My ODD is only 12 and going into 7th grade, but you know we homeschoolers have to plan and think way ahead.

 

I'm asking for anyone who has a kid who pursued a college scholarship in sports.  What was their practice schedule like in high school?  How long did their school work take them? What did you use?  Is there anything that helped them manage their time appropriately, or did that just come with maturity?  How far in advance did you suspect/plan/know about the special circumstances?

 

ODD has been in gymnastics most of her life, but started competing late.  She's just now getting an amazing head coach with plenty of college and coaching connections, and he has already inquired specifically about her, after just seeing her briefly.  She has a high level of potential and they spoke about possibly taking advantage of the homeschooling in a couple of years and bringing her in for extra practice hours.  They consider her to be "very on track" for college gym.  This is not stars in the eyes, crazy gym parents, she has honest potential for a gymnastics scholarship in Div. I or II.

 

So basically, I want anyone's experiences.  Bonus if you have a gymnast - I'd love to know levels and ages if you do.  Any posts here or elsewhere, anyone's blogs, anything you can throw my way would be appreciated!  I'm just trying to get a peek at possibilities.  

 

I'm not getting ahead of myself.  Anything could happen, and it's still just a slim chance.  But I want to be prepared.  I very much like preparing.  :)

 

TIA!

[Lori D.]

Welcome to planning for high school! :)

 

No personal experience here with sports and high school/college sports eligibility, but the big thing will be to maintain college sports eligibility by following all NCAA regulations during high school. You can homeschool, but you must use approved curricula and outsourced class providers. You will also likely need to look into how to get your sports student out there for recruiters to see. The student must be eligible to do college sports in order to also be eligible for sports scholarships to colleges, so you have the potential of money for college riding on following through on all of the requirements laid out by NCAA.

 

NCAA FAQ for Homeschoolers

NCAA Eligibility for Homeschoolers -- checklist/article on Homeschool Success, high school homeschooling website by Barbara H of the WTM Board

 

Several families on this board have gone through this process before you, including Sue in St. Pete, Miss Marple, Margaret in CO, and Blue Hen. Hopefully others will also jump in with their experiences and wisdom. :) While you're waiting, you might take a look at post #5 of this pinned thread at the top of the high school board, as there are a number of linked threads all about the NCAA.

 

You have plenty of time ahead of you, as the majority of the "heavy lifting" for sports eligibility and recruiting is done in 11th and 12th grades, but it is a super idea to start researching now, so you have a solid plan in place for all aspects of what your unique sports-centered homeschool high school will look like to maintain college eligibility and still work for you as a family. BEST of luck as you work towards homeschooling high school with a strong sports student! :)  Warmly, Lori D.

[Corraleno]

My rising 11th grader is a nationally ranked fencer who has attracted attention from Div I schools. He started fencing 2.5 years ago at a small club, around 3 nights/wk. We moved last fall, partly so that he can train at a much larger club with much higher level coaching. He currently trains ~ 20 hrs/wk (M-F, generally 5-9 PM), year round, and does several intensive week-long clinics each year. His competition schedule for this year includes 6 nationals, 5 regionals, and probably 5-6 large local ones.

 

The daily training doesn't really affect his school work at all, since it's in the evenings. Scheduling school work around national competitions is more of an issue, especially with outside classes that have firm deadlines. (Trying to get a week's worth of Lukeion homework done in a couple of days, and take the quizz early, before flying cross-country for a competition, is no fun. Doing that for both Greek and Latin classes simultaneously was nuts!) TBH, I'm not sure how that's going to work with DE classes in another year or so; at the very least I think he would have to choose Tu/Thu classes, because he would be guaranteed to miss at least four, and possibly more, Mon/Fri classes each semester due to travel.

Be sure to read the NCAA threads that Lori linked — you definitely want to stay up to date on the various rules and regulations for homeschoolers (many of which are ridiculous and counter-intuitive), because you're going to need them to "approve" your course work in order for your DD to be eligible for Div I or II.

 

You're smart to plan ahead — according to this article, "Recruitment of the sophomore gymnast is now commonplace, with large numbers of scholarships being verbally offered – and accepted – during the junior year. Deciding what college to attend during one's senior year is no longer the norm."

[Sunshine State Sue]

My son is at a D2 college with a partial basketball scholarship and an academic scholarship as well.

 

What was their practice schedule like in high school? 

During the HS basketball season, practice was 2hrs/day 5-6 days/wk.  Practice was cancelled for a game.  He also weight lifted 1.5hrs/day 4 days/wk year round.  During the spring/summer AAU season, practice was 2hrs/day 3 days/wk with games all over the weekend.

 

How long did their school work take them?

Ds was a bright, quick, and not so thorough student.  Also, he procrastinated (imo).  He rarely had trouble fitting in his schoolwork.

 

What did you use?

We used a combination of mostly CC classes, some online classes, some public school classes, and a few homeschool classes.  We were limited to classes that met before about 1pm which was when basketball practice could start.  At that time, PS ended at 1pm on Wednesdays.

 

Is there anything that helped them manage their time appropriately, or did that just come with maturity?

Academically, ds was not overly challenged in HS, so he didn't really have much trouble with managing his time.  He earned 69 CC credits with a 4.0 GPA.  He spent way too many hours (imo) playing video games.  The good news is that college changed that.  Maturity arrived after his 2.8 GPA first semester.  To be clear, I was perfectly happy with a 2.8 since he needs to maintain 2.5+ for his academic scholarship.  But, apparently, he was not happy with that GPA.  Second semester cumulative GPA was 3.25.  Dh asked what made the difference, and ds basically said he stopped procrastinating.

 

How far in advance did you suspect/plan/know about the special circumstances?

Between 8th and 9th grade is when we suspected that ds had the potential to play college basketball.  We started researching/planning then.  Though that sounds like we had some clue, we did not.  We mostly bumbled along in the right direction.

 

If you are interested in online classes at all, you should know that there are synchronous and asynchronous classes.  Synchronous classes meet on set days/times.  Asynchronous classes have no set days/times.  They each have advantages and disadvantages, but the asynchronous classes offer more scheduling flexibility.

 

I sent you a PM.  If you are interested, I can send you my NCAA documents and ds's brochure/website that we used to market him to colleges. 

 

Good luck!

[LMV]

Be kind, this is my first venture here.  My ODD is only 12 and going into 7th grade, but you know we homeschoolers have to plan and think way ahead.

 

I'm asking for anyone who has a kid who pursued a college scholarship in sports.  What was their practice schedule like in high school?  How long did their school work take them? What did you use?  Is there anything that helped them manage their time appropriately, or did that just come with maturity?  How far in advance did you suspect/plan/know about the special circumstances?

 

ODD has been in gymnastics most of her life, but started competing late.  She's just now getting an amazing head coach with plenty of college and coaching connections, and he has already inquired specifically about her, after just seeing her briefly.  She has a high level of potential and they spoke about possibly taking advantage of the homeschooling in a couple of years and bringing her in for extra practice hours.  They consider her to be "very on track" for college gym.  This is not stars in the eyes, crazy gym parents, she has honest potential for a gymnastics scholarship in Div. I or II.

 

So basically, I want anyone's experiences.  Bonus if you have a gymnast - I'd love to know levels and ages if you do.  Any posts here or elsewhere, anyone's blogs, anything you can throw my way would be appreciated!  I'm just trying to get a peek at possibilities.  

 

I'm not getting ahead of myself.  Anything could happen, and it's still just a slim chance.  But I want to be prepared.  I very much like preparing.   :)

 

TIA!

 

DD19 just finished up her sophomore year of college.  She is playing her sport (not gymnastics) at the D1 level and essentially attending a top 20 university for free. [Ok, technically she is paying taxes on the taxable portion of her scholarship so it isn't really completely free.]  In her case, we used a hybrid approach with our local high school for some AP coursework that was good, DE for 200/300/400 level math/science courses at a local four year university, some home courses that were really very independent and some home courses that DH and I put together.  She also took advantage of the opportunity to do bench research in biochemistry/molecular biology for the last three years of high school.  Her transcript and educationally related extracurriculars looked (and truly were) very rigorous.  We certainly did not sacrifice academics for sport in any way but we did allow her to schedule her time for school work around her sports practices and music obligations and allowed her to work towards mastery but not necessarily produce a lot of output for the sake of producing output.  In fairness the same could be said for the AP courses taught on her high school campus, and the DE courses she took at the university.  As far as NCAA clearinghouse we lucked out in some respects because all of the AP courses at her high school had gone through the NCAA approval process and she met most of her "cores" that way.  Most of her DE courses were not really needed for graduation requirements so they weren't really scrutinized (and it was my impression that if they had been needed to meet the bare minimum graduation requirements then they would not have eligible for transfer credit but that may have changed or may change again before Rebecca is ready for college).  As it was she did accept some credit for APs and some credit for courses she had completed at our university.  Her advisor helped her decide what to accept and what to waive because her university has a limit for how much can be awarded for AP/transfer work combined and she had more on paper than that.  For that reason they were selective in what she took and based it on setting her up to get into courses she wanted.

 

DD15 is a gymnast.  She has now regrouped after nationals and is gearing up for what will be her fifth year of L10 if all goes well. We really kiboshed early recruiting with her and we fully accept that may have financial consequences if all the scholarships are gone but it didn't for her older sister (albeit in a different sport) and the reality is that early verbals are just that verbals. They are not binding in any way on the part of the college coach or the individual athlete and they don't always result in signed or even issued NLIs.  The thing that is a little harder with gymnastics (in contrast to our older daughter's sport) is that many of the better college teams at the D1 level are at schools that just aren't great academic fit schools. Ultimately, as parents, we would much rather pay full cost for an education at a good academic fit school than have her attend somewhere that is not as good an option because she can get a scholarship there. There is also the issue that she has some real interest in several Ivys so if she chose to go there then a scholarship would be completely off the table because they can't offer that.  

 

As far as gymnastic specific stuff: Our HC likes to have his potential D1 college bound girls ready for L10 by the fall of their freshman year.  That gives them a year to adapt to L10 and a year to ideally qualify for nationals which then sets them up for taking advantage of that interest going into the junior year (which is when he still recommends that girls make their bigger push for recruitment).  Training hours have gotten more individualized over the time we have been at this gym.  In general L9/L10 kids are doing around twenty plus hours/week.  Our daughter has never done more than eighteen and she was doing between twelve and fifteen when she did L9 and most of her first two years of L10.  Those hours are lower than what our HC initially would have preferred but over the, now six, years he has worked with DD15 he has come to realize and respect that this is what works for her.  I think this has also inspired him to become a bit more individualized with some of her teammates as well.  Hours is actually one of the factors that kind of pushed DD15 down the college bound path as opposed to attempting elite.  She actually could have a pretty decent bar set under the current FIG code but she would never survive camp at the ranch just from a training hours standpoint.  When she was younger I think camp at the ranch would have been an emotional nightmare as well but she has really grown in that area and at this point we would let her give it a try if she didn't have the physical limitations she does. So college gymnastics it will be. 

[LMV]

 

 

You're smart to plan ahead — according to this article, "Recruitment of the sophomore gymnast is now commonplace, with large numbers of scholarships being verbally offered – and accepted – during the junior year. Deciding what college to attend during one's senior year is no longer the norm."

 

Oh, yes, there have recently been a bunch of early verbals from 8th and 9th grade female gymnasts.  I'm sure some of these girls will actually end up at least signing a NLI for the school they "verbaled" with.  A few more will end up signing a NLI for a different school (either because they worked a better offer, or because their early verbal school worked a better offer and no longer had a place for them so they had to find somewhere else to be). Sadly, some of these girls will not be offered NLIs by their early verbal schools, or any schools; either because they are no longer in any position to conceivably make a lineup, are in no academic position to attend/or get through clearinghouse, are no longer eligible for NCAA (which may not be super sad if they have a strong endorsement stream that can certainly fund their college and may be an overall better situation) or have likely had a career ending injury.  I think it is fine to prepare for early recruitment if your kid is ready on other fronts but at the same time remember that nothing is truly binding until they sign their NLI in their senior year (and even then remember that athletic scholarships are one year renewable agreements).  

[Lori D.]

Just in case you're not yet familiar with some of the high school and sports abbreviations used in the terrific responses you're getting here:

 

FIG Code = Federation Internationale de Gymnastique Code of Points rulebook for scoring gymnasts in competition

NLI = National Letter of Intent = binding agreement between a college and a student athlete

NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Association

DI, DII (D2) = Division 1, Division 2 = levels of collegiate athletics

 

AP = Advanced Placement

Classes/tests for high school students working at advanced level; a high score (4 or 5) on the AP test is often awarded college credit, or access to honors programs, to the incoming freshman by a university

 

CC = Community College

DE = Dual Enrollment

While still a high school student, taking college level classes at a university or community college and receiving dual credit -- the one time you get to "double dip" and the classes count for both high school credit AND college credit. The grades are a permanent part of the student's college GPA and transcript. Some states/school districts have special dual enrollment programs that allow high school students to take 1-2 classes of dual enrollment per semester for free or at a reduced tuition rate.

 

[Mommy22alyns]

Thanks for all the info so far!  Yes, the super-early verbals for gymnastics scare the pants off me because that is not going to be Rebecca.  I've been clenching my teeth this whole time, wondering if she'd even make it to L10 in time for anything at all, but this coach knows what he's doing, and if he doesn't think Rebecca's too old, then I guess I'll be going with that!  She has been doing about 18 hours as a training-optional.  I have no idea if anything will change schedule-wise with the new coach, or what could possibly happen later.  LMV, your daughter must be an incredible gymnast!

[snowbeltmom]

Welcome to planning for high school! :)

 

No personal experience here with sports and high school/college sports eligibility, but the big thing will be to maintain college sports eligibility by following all NCAA regulations during high school. You can homeschool, but you must use approved curricula and outsourced class providers. You will also likely need to look into how to get your sports student out there for recruiters to see. The student must be eligible to do college sports in order to also be eligible for sports scholarships to colleges, so you have the potential of money for college riding on following through on all of the requirements laid out by NCAA.

 

.

 

The bolded is not true for homeschoolers.  You must use curricula that is at least at a high school level, but if the textbook is not on the NCAA approved list, that does not mean you cannot use it, thankfully, as the last thing I would want is the NCAA dictating my textbook choices!

 

When I spoke with the NCAA a few years ago about this issue, the AoPS  textbooks my kids use for math were not on the NCAA approved  list.  I was assured that not being on the list did not mean that the the textbooks would not be approved, but I might have to submit a table of contents page in that situation.

 

Also, while the NCAA does have an approved list of online academic providers, many of the top-notch academic providers for the homeschooling community do not have the time to jump through the NCAA paperwork hoops to get their stamp of approval.  You can bypass this stupid NCAA requirement and maintain your high academic standards by listing yourself as the teacher of record on the worksheets.

 

Also, I made the mistake the first time through this process by registering my oldest with the NCAA clearinghouse the beginning of his junior year.  My son ended up going the Div III route and the NCAA would not refund my money, even though they had done absolutely nothing but send an email with an ID clearinghouse number.

 

My rising junior is getting questionnaires from college coaches.  While he has been asked on many of the forms to list his NCAA clearinghouse ID, leaving it blank has not been a problem.  I don't plan to register him until the last possible moment.

 

[clementine]

The NCAA wasn't as scary as I made it out be. Intimidating? Yes. But, not too hard to manage. I am very glad that dd#2 isn't in a recruiting sport though ;) .

[Mommy22alyns]

The NCAA wasn't as scary as I made it out be. Intimidating? Yes. But, not too hard to manage. I am very glad that dd#2 isn't in a recruiting sport though ;) .

 

 

Huge sigh of relief!  But yes, I am completely happy that YDD isn't going to need that much work.  :D

[Mommy22alyns]

The bolded is not true for homeschoolers.  You must use curricula that is at least at a high school level, but if the textbook is not on the NCAA approved list, that does not mean you cannot use it, thankfully, as the last thing I would want is the NCAA dictating my textbook choices!

 

When I spoke with the NCAA a few years ago about this issue, the AoPS  textbooks my kids use for math were not on the NCAA approved  list.  I was assured that not being on the list did not mean that the the textbooks would not be approved, but I might have to submit a table of contents page in that situation.

 

Also, while the NCAA does have an approved list of online academic providers, many of the top-notch academic providers for the homeschooling community do not have the time to jump through the NCAA paperwork hoops to get their stamp of approval.  You can bypass this stupid NCAA requirement and maintain your high academic standards by listing yourself as the teacher of record on the worksheets.

 

Also, I made the mistake the first time through this process by registering my oldest with the NCAA clearinghouse the beginning of his junior year.  My son ended up going the Div III route and the NCAA would not refund my money, even though they had done absolutely nothing but send an email with an ID clearinghouse number.

 

My rising junior is getting questionnaires from college coaches.  While he has been asked on many of the forms to list his NCAA clearinghouse ID, leaving it blank has not been a problem.  I don't plan to register him until the last possible moment.

 

 

Okay, so at the beginning of the junior year is too early to register?  What is the last possible moment?  Can you explain this a little more, please?

[MysteryJen]

We registered at the beginning of junior year. We did have some coaches who wanted the ID on every email. Due to her times and the volume of email traffic that started that summer, we were pretty sure she was going the D1 route.

[snowbeltmom]

Okay, so at the beginning of the junior year is too early to register?  What is the last possible moment?  Can you explain this a little more, please?

 

You don't have to register until your child decides to commit to a Div I or Div II school and the coach requests that the NCAA begin the clearinghouse process.