Should parents be taking the necessary steps to prepare middle school student athletes for high school athletics and recruiting?
In my opinion, parents should take action during the middle school years for these student athletes. I believe one of the most important things is to have a strong academic background while still in middle school. When the student athlete reaches their freshman year of high school they need to be totally matured and prepared for academic life as a high school freshman.
Academics along with athletic skills are critical in the overall development of a middle school student athlete. Remember, if you do not have strong academic skills from middle school and through high school you will become invisible to college coaches.
All student athletes, regardless of the sport, who are still in middle school love playing the sports that their involved in and it is no secret that these athletes will play their sport year round during the summers and every day if possible. This is how athletes become very good athletes; by playing their sport on a consistent level. This is how you improve, how you get better every day. Sometimes athletes with superior skills will overlook academics thinking it’s not a big deal to pick up a book and study or to be the top student in their class.
If a middle school student athlete has goals of being the best athlete that they can possibly be, then they also should have the same goals for inside the classroom.
The summers are an excellent time for athletic and academic development because this is the time of year where young up and coming athletes generally have a lot of time on their hands. During the very hot summer days, student athletes could spend time either at the library or on the computer practicing up on their academic skills. Practicing up on academic skills should become a habit just like going to the basketball court and shooting jump shots, working on dribbling and passing skills, and overall teamwork skills.
There is a long list of student athletes who did not take academics seriously, believing that somehow their superior athletic ability would make up for any academic short-comings. This is totally untrue.
Final thoughts: every athlete is going to be involved in some kind of summer camp or will play in different tournaments because that’s when regular athletes develop into good athletes and ultimately into great athletes but never overlook the importance of academics. That, along with superior athletic ability, is how you’re going to get into college.
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