The endearing quality of amateur athletics was always that it embraced the one quality that differentiated it from other athletics: its amateurism. It was always possible to find a Hoosiers type of story, you know, that storybook magic about the undersized boys from the undersized town going much farther in the end of the year tournament than anyone would have expected. In the past, hometown schools were embraced by generations of those who had attended that same school, bleeding whatever colors that school called on them to bleed. In recent years, that same sentimental feeling has become a bit of an afterthought, behind one factor that more and more adults and children both seem to be entwined by: college scholarships. As the price of college has skyrocketed, parents, guardians, and even some coaches have subscribed their children to rigorous behavior in order to achieve the thing that too many people think of when it comes to reducing college prices, an athletic scholarship. If a parent sees early on that their child has the makings of some athletic talent, many times they attempt to push the child very strongly into their athletic endeavors in the hopes of getting a scholarship. The kid is then too often under the belief that they are good enough to participate in college athletics. How reasonable is the idea of getting a scholarship? How reasonable is the idea of keeping that scholarship? Finally, how reasonable is the idea that one would be better off attempting to get an athletic scholarship as opposed to academic? These things all need to be examined in greater detail, but first one other thing needs to be examined in depth: where did the world of underdogs like those in Hoosiers go, and why has the world of amateur athletics become what it has?

It actually was a concept with good intent that started to bring the world of Hoosiers to an end. Back when that particular movie was set, Indiana 40 or 50 years ago, there was no such thing as classification based on school size. This meant that the biggest school in the area might end up playing the smallest when it became playoff time, and it was obvious that the bigger school usually had the advantage. Because of this, state athletic bodies began dividing their schools into different classification levels based on school enrollment. Some named them after letters, some after numbers, some with a combination of the two; regardless, one unintended consequence of this was the disappearance of a story like Hoosiers, the loveable underdogs. No longer could the local or state tournament include a matchup of schools that could be compared to David and Goliath. There would be no more meeting up in the state title game with a school ten times the size of yours. It was an effort made to allow for more winners, and in the place of the Hoosiers miracle stories came instead a negative: the misleading of parents and children about the true talent of their children and themselves.
You see, by creating multiple levels of athletics, the athletic governing bodies were also creating more winners. The more teams given an opportunity to win, the more parents think their own kid is good enough to play at the next level, and the kid starts to think the same thing. It is sort of an indirect corollary, but let me elaborate. Back before the dividing of school sizes, you would basically end up with one champion in a sport in each section, and one champion overall in the state. Your team had to be very good to get to either of those peaks. Once school sizes were divided, many teams were given the opportunity to win. In this case, the teams winning are pretty good, but not necessarily great. State champions? Sure, they are still great. But a team that wins sectionals or whatever the local playoff system is doesn’t necessarily have to be great, although parents or kids may think differently. As a parent, your kid just delivered his school to a trophy, and your kid is also one of the best few players on the team. Many teenagers think the same way. If they can win a trophy at this level, surely they can play at the next, right? That is the logic that runs through too many heads nowadays, and a lot of it is the result of the division by school sizes, a fair idea by itself, but an obviously dangerous idea once it grows.

There is also another factor in this push for scholarships nowadays, and that is the ballooning of college costs. According to a Bloomberg report, over the last 30 years or so, college prices have grown by 500%! The overall inflation of products from then until now is only 121%. Adding ten years onto that study, college prices have actually inflated by 1121%! From 2008 to 2010 alone, the Associated Press states that prices of college tuition increased overall by 15%. Clearly, it would be hard to argue that fact that college prices are up. If you were someone who was going to be sending your kids off to college in the next ten to fifteen years, it looks like a scary landscape. As an adult concerned about your money, you might begin to look for ways to diminish the cost you are paying for sending a child to college. One way this can be done is through athletic scholarships. The problem is twofold: athletic scholarships are just not that easy to get, and there are certainly safer and better ways to lower the cost of college tuition.

Athletic scholarships are fought for amongst all the high school athletes in the country, a figure recently shown to be seven million. Only 2% of these will ever fit onto a college roster, and an even smaller 1% will get a full ride to a Division 1 school. These ratios can vary slightly between sports, but basically there is a one-in-100 chance that an athlete’s full college tuition is paid for through athletics. On the other hand, the majority of students receive either merit-based scholarships or financial aid at all but the best schools. So now, maybe the argument becomes that someone would rather take on the 1% chance of full payment rather than get maybe a fifth to a half of their tuition paid for if they are a good student. Think again. The majority of athletes at even Division 1 schools are not there on full rides. Schools are allotted a certain amount of scholarships for each sport. Men’s basketball and football are the two most profitable sports for almost all schools, and therefore usually use all the scholarships they are allotted. However, did you know that someone can receive any percentage of an athletic scholarship a coach wants to give? Through my sister I’ve encountered many psycho softball parents (and even some psycho softball players) who are bent on getting their daughter into college on a full ride, so we will use softball for this example. Division 1 softball programs are allotted 12 scholarships to give out for softball. Most teams want double that many players for various reasons. The only way to get the best girls to come there is to offer them close to a full ride, so other girls might get a tenth of their tuition paid for through softball. Now doesn’t that fifth or more of tuition paid for because of academics sound better? The most scary thing about these athletic scholarships is, unless otherwise stated, there is no guarantee. You could get into a college based only on athletics, suffer a career ending injury, and the scholarship can be immediately rescinded. If you had spent your whole childhood driving around trying to become a better athlete so you could go to college, wouldn’t it have just made more sense to spend that time studying up and being a good student? It is a lot tougher to suffer a career ending injury to your brain than it is to many parts of your body. It is also a lot tougher for schools to rescind money they give you as aid or merit academically than it is for athletic scholarships, and at the very least there are platforms that must be met that you know about beforehand. A young baseball player who graduated from Bishop Kearney just two years ago, Ryan Key, received a more-than-half scholarship to pitch at Division 2 Gannon University. Just a few outings into his freshman year, the coach decided it was a mistake that he ever received that scholarship, and because of a bit of early poor play, Ryan was coming back to Rochester to play for Fisher, no athletic money involved.

What’s my point? My point is that grades need to come first. If it’s really necessary to lower the cost of college tuition, aim to do that in the classroom! Yeah, it’s fun to be good at a sport, and if you want to work hard to do that, don’t leave behind your education. It’s a joint lesson that needs to be learned by the child and the parent. Scholarships are hard to come by, and they are a flimsy thing to be standing on once they’ve been attained. I’ve seen parents take kids out of school for up to a week to bring them across the country to play in a tournament that maybe will get a coach to notice them. There are kids that are driven around like that a few times a year! Maybe, if every year they spent those few extra weeks in the classroom instead of playing a sport across the country, they would receive a fantastic aid or academic merit package from a college. Different situations have different people at the forefront. Really, it starts with any kid who wants to get into a good school at a reasonable cost. You and I all want that. Do it in the classroom!
I am not in any way attempting to argue against the purpose of sports. I love sports just as much as anyone, and am very committed to having a good high school baseball career. However, I know the odds of playing at the next level are slim, and I make sure to put school first in any situation where I’m choosing between school and sports. Honestly, everyone has to realize that the majority of people that have success in this country do it through their academics. Sports have their place, but no push for scholarship is needed. So many things can happen to ruin an athletic career. Parents and kids both, work together to make sure the children of today have a firm academic backbone on which to stand. It doesn’t bother me in the least to let someone have fun out on the court or field. However, whenever there becomes an overwhelming push for scholarship money, it has gone too far. My sister has played with probably over a hundred softball players in her life, and played against many more. There are two girls I’ve seen in that time that I’ve thought to myself, “They have D1 talent.” Why then, do countless more parents almost force their girls to play on travel teams that go all over the place? A lot of players in travel sports love it and the experience, but a number of parents that is way too large almost coerce their children to compete for a cause that is chronically cracked. Any child that lets their parent do that needs to step up and do better. Enjoy your time in the game. However, at the end of the day, the safest backbone that one can have is their academics. Scholarships for sports should come about as a bonus, not as something that is one’s only goal. Next time you’re out on the field, remember: “I’m here to have fun.” And oh yeah, next time you’re in the classroom, remember: “This is where the bread is won.”