Positioning the Elementary School Age Student-Athlete for Success

I get it. You want to prepare your kid to compete at the D1 College level in one of the top programs. With the NIL money being doled out you may also have visions of your son/daughter getting paid handsomely to play in college. He/she plays AAU, travel ball, has a trainer, goes to camps, etc... Great, you're passionate in supporting your kid's pursuit of excellence, so let's consider a few things that may be helpful in regard to the big picture.

I've had the privilege of coaching and teaching for over 40 years. I've had an athlete that I steered through middle and high school, and who went from #1 in the nation in high school, to #1in college, to #1 at the Olympic Trials, and into the finals in the Olympics, all by the age of 21. She parlayed her athletic success into great opportunities and a great career beyond her competing years. As a side note, this young lady grew up in a single mom household along with a sibling. I've also had those, though far less decorated, that went onto lower collegiate levels that were most appropriate for them. This blog is meant to help others toward what is best for them.

Fundamental Aspects

First of all, I hugely endorse parents doing their due diligence to search out opportunities for their kid to develop fundamentals under the tutelage of a good coach. The conditioning aspect should be age-appropriate, you want there to be competition that will be challenging, but attention should also be paid to work ethic, attitude, willingness to be coached, and various other intangibles that are important to have in place.

Yes, the elementary years can help provide a great foundation for athletic success in later years, but let's skip middle school, high school, and college for a moment and plan going backwards. The professional leagues find talent at all levels of college. Professional sports leagues (such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS) use multi-layered scouting networks, centralized data platforms, and official pre-draft events to track talent across all levels of college sports (NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA, and Junior Colleges). So if you can "do the do" there is a good chance they can find you.

So much for the pros, let's look at the college level. In this present climate, many D1 schools actively recruit athletes from lower-level colleges that have performed well in hopes that they may transfer to their school. This being the case, along with what I pointed out in the previous paragraph, it makes sense to try to go to a college that is a good athletic fit, regardless of the level. Meaning, the coaches genuinely have a positive outlook for the athlete, and that with hard work, there is a realistic chance of getting significant playing time at some point. Coaches, however, are in the business of trying to recruit talent to improve the team, so there is no way around having to perform well. That brings us back to fundamental skills, a willingness to work hard, and the various other attributes that make a positive impression on the coaches.

Another important point about college selection. Ideally the student-athlete is an excellent student that is able to get into a school that not only has a good-great athletic program for the athlete's sport, but that is also a school that has a reputation for holding their athletes to a high academic standard as well. This is not to say that a student can't get a great education at a lot of schools, but what is a fact is that some schools are a lot easier to get into than others. Since a primary objective is to be able to get on the field, court, etc..., it stands to reason that many may consider it a smart move to go to a school where you won't have to compete for playing time with great athletes that are non-students. Of course there are the Ivy League schools, but on the D1 level, schools like Notre Dame, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Northwestern are examples of schools with reputations of being elite academic institutions that are not easy to get into. It doesn't take a whole lot of research to identify schools at the various levels with great reputations for academics. You just have to go further to cross reference those names with which schools would also be a great athletic fit.

This brings us to what actually is the focal point of this blog. The importance of giving academics its due attention from early on. Having a good work ethic must also extend to academics, and some of that passion exhibited by parents in supporting the athletic side, needs to be directed toward holding their kid accountable for doing homework, for being focused in class, etc... If tutoring is needed, then roll up the sleeves and find a good tutoring situation. Over twenty of my forty plus years in education was spent at the elementary level, and we offered tutoring that was free to the participants. The money to pay the teachers was provided by the government. I'm a Physical Education teacher and coach of several sports but I also tutored math multiple summers to make extra money.

I countless times would tell my elementary students that if they wouldn't consistently do the comparatively little bit of homework they were given at that level then they would be fighting an uphill battle going forward as the demands would be greater at the middle school and high school levels.

Our Son's Journey

Our son was an "A" student through elementary and was awarded the "Exemplary Student" award before leaving elementary. He also was a standout in each sport that he played. Admittedly, my wife during the middle and high school years did the heavy lifting in holding our son accountable academically, while I focused on the athletic part. His strong academics first paid off in that it earned him a large scholarship to a private high school that competed in what was ranked as the second toughest high school football conference in the nation. He made second team All-Conference his senior season. His academics also paid off in that colleges could offer generous academic scholarship money to combine with the football money they were offering. This gave us affordable options and allowed us to choose a D2 school that was a great fit. FYI - The academic portion of the scholarship package was significantly larger than the football portion.

Our son had a very good college football career. He was a starter for about 3/4 of the time, and he continued to being a good student. He had to continue performing well in his classes to continue getting all of the academic scholarship money and he succeeded. He considered trying to play football abroad after graduating but he began working a good job in his field almost immediately after graduation. He continued on to earn his grad degree, which led to a better job in his field. He loves his job as a therapist. In this age of Zooms and Google Meets, he also is able to do a part-time virtual counseling gig. He's happily married, has a son, and goals for his professional future.