My daughter is a high school athlete. She swims and plays lacrosse. She is also an outstanding student, a member of her school's student council, National Honor Society, DECA and ski club. Yes, we have a busy schedule.
I love that she is an athlete. I never played a sport in my life. In my home, growing up, there was absolutely no emphasis on sports or physical fitness in general. (More about that some other day, I'm sure). I am so proud of the work she puts in to succeeding on a team and I am so happy to see the joy it often brings her.
I know my daughter is not a superstar athlete. I know she loves playing lacrosse. She loves it enough to play most of the year and to give up many weekends to attend tournaments, clinic and training. I'm happy that we have the time and resources to allow her to do this. I have absolutely no clue as to whether or not she is good enough to play at the college level. I assume it would depend on where she chooses to go to college. Herein lies a problem.
Thankfully, there is no such thing as professional women's lacrosse so neither I, nor any of the lacrosse parents I've met, need to concern ourselves with our daughters' futures to that extent. There is, however, a disconcerting push for college recruitment. My daughter is in 10th grade. She is sure that she wants to go to college, somewhere for something. That's the extent of it. Yet, there is a tremendous amout of pressure to have our video ready, know which coaches we want to see, contact schools about the summer tournaments we are playing in, prepare her NCAA resume', go to camp, join the "best" club team, train harder, play more, and chant Division I in our sleep. Whew! Please refer to the first sentence of this paragraph.
And according to some people, we are getting a late start here in 10th grade. Apparently I should have had her training year 'round for the past 4 or 5 years and attending national tournaments so she would be "seen". I hear a lot of people say that these crazy parents are trying to relive their glory days through their kids or that they are using their kids' athletic success as a mark of their own success. There probably are parents like that, but mostly, I think they are parents who want their kids to be happy. It is so easy to be sold on the idea that you are giving your child an advantage by spending thousands of dollars a year (really, thousands) because you want your child to succeed and there is NO ONE who will tell you they won't. There is NO ONE who will walk up to you and say, "Your child's time as a student athlete will end after high school."
So, bucking what seems to be the trend, I am working to help my daughter focus on identiying what she might like to study in college, and finding a school that is the best fit for her with that major. We don't have a video, or an NCAA resume'. We haven't contacted any coaches. If she finds a school she likes that has a lacrosse team, maybe we will. Some people would tell me I'm doing her a disservice. I hope I'm teaching her to aim for the bigger prize.
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