Tag Archives: high school athlete

Switching Your High School Athlete To A New School

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The high school academic year is rapidly coming to a close. Is this the time to think about switching your high school student athlete to a different high school for the fall semester?

Student athletes who are switching to a new high school is mainly to gain more exposure from college programs and to be a part of a winning team.  Where I live in Cleveland, Ohio, the city has open enrollment so basically wherever you live in the city you can go to any high school that you want for that year.

In Cleveland, the powerhouse football program is Glenville High School. They have a track record of sending their football athletes to major college programs.

Many of the talented athletes in the city of Cleveland all tried to transfer to Glenville because of their successful track record of winning and gaining the attention of major college football programs. In the city or town where you live, there may be that one powerhouse athletic program that everyone wants to attend.

In some state associations there are rules that say if you transfer to a different high school, that you are ineligible athletically for one season.

When I was in high school, there were people in my family who felt that because I had talent as a basketball player that I should transfer to a different high school.  I attended Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia and at the time they were not known for athletics.  The thought was if I went to a different high school, it would improve my chances athletically and I would attract the attention of college programs.

I would have had to move to a different city within the area but I would’ve been leaving all the friends that I grew up with and, most importantly, I would’ve been leaving my school.  I did not transfer because Bayside was the school where all my friends and my teammates were.

Nowadays, parents of high school student athletes are often faced with this decision; should they allow their talented student athlete to transfer to a high school program that has a strong track record of athletic success?

About 12 to 15 years ago there were these brothers who play basketball in the greater Cleveland area.  These young men were extremely talented but they ended up playing for three different high school in four years.  It was all to improve their chances with college coaches.  These young men along with their father felt that if they went to a more competitive high school basketball program, then their athletic talents would rise up above everyone else.  When it was all said and done, both of the brothers ended up playing basketball on scholarship but it was at a mid-major level.  Was it really worth transferring to 2 or 3 times during a high school athletic career in the long run for those two brothers?

High school athletics has changed. The pressure for student athletes for exposure to college programs is so important that many of these athletes with their parent’s consent would transfer to a different high school if they truly believed it would help them get a scholarship.  I just think what does this say about the athlete the minute that things don’t go as planned? They were willing to jump to a different team leaving all their teammates behind for what they believed would have been a better opportunity.

I never left my high school because it would have been selfish to my teammates and classmates who all supported me and had my back during my high school athletic career.

It is an extremely hard decision if you believe transferring will improve your chances of a full athletic scholarship.

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The Destruction of the High School Student Athlete

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For a great deal of high school student athletes in this country, sports means everything to them.  Athletics is a means of freedom for many young people and without it; there may not be hope for the future and some of them will struggle throughout their lives.

In my lifetime, I have come across many high school and college athletes who did not get the maximum potential out of their athletic careers.  Without achieving a certain level of greatness, many of these athletes experience a lifetime of disappointment and frustration.

Throughout the history of sports, many athletic careers have been destroyed, not by what you may think is the obvious reason, a career ending injury or a crime that sent them to jail or prison. No, and athletic career can be destroyed by a jealous or despicable high school coach who feel that it’s necessary to sabotage the student athlete’s dream of athletic success.

It does happen all the time; the athletic success derailed by a high school coach, school administrator or some unknown individual out for revenge or just plain jealousy.

There are millions of stories of high school student athletes who were extremely talented, but who received absolutely no help or guidance from their high school coach.  Those student athletes’ careers ended at the high school level all because of a mean and evil high school coach.

This kind of thing also happens in college, where you’ll have some jackass college coach who will do whatever it takes to ruin that athlete’s career.

I’ve seen it happen; a college coach will sit a player on the bench never to play that player.  I’ve seen it with my own eyes while in college, where players are frustrated with the system or the coach and they just quit.  Being a student athlete in college and you quit playing your sport that you’ve worked your entire life to be apart of is extremely devastating to that athlete.

The fact that you were forced to quit is sometimes a life changing decision because as athletes, we are trained to never quit-to never give up.  Athletes are conditioned to give everything they’ve got to their sport no matter what.

For an athlete to make the decision to quit in college is a horrible decision to make and no athlete should ever be placed in that situation, but it does happen and surprisingly it does not matter how big or small the college or university.

Sometimes there really is no life after sports for most of these young athletes. The reason I say that is because so many athletes put everything they’ve got into being the best they can be athletically.  When you work to develop your athletic skills from a very early age all away through high school and into college sports, it’s very hard to quit.

The devastating part about athletics is how ugly it could be.  For all the joy athletics can bring there is often a side that we don’t hear about; how careers end, how players end up lost without athletics in their lives.

I’ve known many athletes who were very talented, who were the absolute best at basketball, a star in football and baseball but they seemed to be fish out of water when they could no longer play their sport.  I believe the reason is because of the passion athletes have developed over a long period time towards their sport.

After a period of athletic development, the passion for sports turns into love and sometimes love is hard to give up.

The destruction of the high school student athlete starts in high school, that’s when everything counts towards college.  When you enter your freshman year of high school your academics count towards college and everything you do is recorded on your transcript which is a permanent record.

If you do poorly academically or are persuaded to take classes that are not going to help you get into college then this could have a harmful affect on student athletes’ academic futures.

A sport, to an athlete, is like oxygen to the rest of the world; without it you will not live very long.  I think sports have that kind of affect on athletes. Sometimes if you’re doing well athletically, it’s like you have more oxygen, you feel unstoppable without it, you go through life in slow motion always searching for that burst of oxygen.

Final thoughts: When athletes train themselves for a long period of time to become athletes, it’s almost hard to think about doing anything else in their life.  Hearing the cheering of a large crowd at a basketball game is an incredible sound and feeling.  You know they’re cheering for you because of a great play you made or something outstanding you did.  Nowhere else in life are you going to run across that experience! Only athletics can do that for you.

I think that’s why you see so many former athletes who are coaches or who are involved in some type sport; it is just so they can stay close to the game.

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“911, What’s your emergency? “My High School Career is Over and I have No Colleges!”

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This situation happens to high school senior student athletes every year. Their high school career is over and they have no college offers at all.

No offers and you’re thinking to yourself, what when wrong? What did I miss? What did my coach do for me?  Did I go to enough camps, showcases? Did I get my tape out to college programs? Did I write to college programs? Did I email to college coaches? Did I make any phone calls to college coaches?

Did I return all the questionnaire that were sent to me from college programs? Did I do enough in the weight room or on the practice field? Did I play my best in every game? Did I take pay-offs? Was I coachable? Did I have the right attitude or was I a pain in the butt? Did I throw my money away with these worthless recruiting services? Why am I in this mess?

A large number of very good athletes are dealing with the fact that they are not going to college for their sport. Or they soon will be at some point.

I look at college sports and recruiting as a business and I know if you don’t get a scholarship then college can be very expense.  If you don’t take the business approach to the recruiting process then you’re not going to college! That’s how I see it!