College Athletics: Finding the Right Fit at the Next Level

College athletic participation can be the most rewarding, memorable, and fulfilling experience if the school and team are the right fit.

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Everyone grows up in their own unique way. However, participation in sports is commonly held consistently throughout a new adolescent's entrance into the world. I am a huge advocate for adolescents participating in team sports as it spurs significant benefits:

1. Consistent and meaningful practice leads to performance (& personal) growth

2. Opportunities to experience highs and cope with lows (in a less detrimental way)

3. Cultivating friendships and often long-time childhood friends through a mutual interest

4. A common and continuous goal is to improve to strengthen the team's chances of succeeding

Sports are commonly fulfilling, competitive, and exciting activities for both athletes and spectators. However, as athletes grind to improve year over year, they often conclude their career before their peak athletic period of 20-30 years old, depending on the sport (National Institute of Health). The majority reach this inflection as they reach high school graduation. On the other hand, a small percentage—see statistics below—of extremely gifted and/or hard-working athletes delay this inflection point.

Source: National Collegiate Athletics Association

Beginning my college journey, I pursued college basketball at the Division III level for less than a year. Due to the disruption of COVID-19 on the overall economy, the restrictions with practice and games, and a change in mindset, I decided to step away. Here is some advice I have for a talented high schooler contemplating a college athletics career:

1. Do it: The opportunity to represent your school, and meet and play with others from all around the country with similar goals, is rewarding.

   
   

2. Create A LOT of highlight reels: Websites like Hudl automatically create some reels for athletes—X threes made, X charges taken, X assists, to name a few. These are essential because many coaches will search for recruits on Google. You will not receive an offer solely from 'highlights' since it is selected clips, but it spurs interest.

   
   

3. Don't be afraid to reach out: It is hard to get recognition,n considering hundreds of thousands of high schoolers play each sport. I sent well-written emails around the country, such as a few schools in Florida. (I played in New England) and received much interest and positive feedback at the Division II level.

   
   

4. The school matters: Prioritize grades as much as athletics in high school to maximize your chances of attending a great school. Or else you may not respect and admire the others around you, leading to a pessimistic mindset. It is important you feel as if you are surrounded and competing with people smarter or better than you (just until you overtake them, of course).

   
   

5. Identify your goals outside of the sport: Unless you are LeBron James or someone similar, playing sports will now allow you to be financially free and support a family for your whole life. Statistically, NCAA participants range from a mere 0.8%-9.9% in converting professionally in their respective sport (dominated by Division I athletes). Identify a career path that you are passionate about and learn as much as you can in your minimal free time. Network: have a few 20-minute calls every week—professionals LOVE sports. Create a LinkedIn account and simply search for any sport, and you will be astonished by the number of successful business people who pursued each sport.

   
   

6. Only commit if you are genuinely committed: It is crucial that you respect and admire the coaches as well as your soon-to-be teammates. Get to know them and gauge if they have similar aspirations, motivations, and commitment. The people you spend the most time with have a huge influence on your moods, how you view the world, and the expectations you have of yourself. You will be spending the majority of your time with your teammates from practice to film, workouts, lunch and dinner, and even the same common space.

Case Study: Myself

In high school, I excelled in sports—basketball and football—earning several all-state honors and awards while attending a small public school of ~400 people. The competition was minimal at school due to the lack of 'extra hours' and many gifted students flunking out or dissipative with a coached environment.

Outside of high school, I was fortunate enough to participate in AAU Basketball tournaments across New England, which spurred most of my college scout interest (shoutout to my parents and friends' parents for giving up their weekends to drive the team and support). Towards the end of my junior year, I had tentative offers and interest from several Division III schools and a couple of mid-major Division I schools. Then the pandemic struck.

The pandemic abruptly ended a significant amount of recruiting and deterred the traditional path. The NCAA voted to give every athlete an extra year of eligibility, which dispersed effects into other recruiting classes. Now, coaches seek candidates to pursue a prep year at a top school (~$70k for the best schools) and redshirt the first year on campus—a two-year commitment to join the program. This is not something I could afford nor wanted to do.

I was content but, unfortunately, not satisfied with the offers at hand, but at times, you have to just play the hand you dealt.

"It's not about the cards you're dealt, but how you play the hand." -Randy Pausch

Disclaimer: The following is solely my opinion and not anyone else's at the university/team. By the way, I am extremely optimistic in every facet of life.

I committed to play basketball at a small university (~4,500 undergrads) in Boston. The university is generally respected; however, it was not the right place to pursue my high finance career aspirations. These are the reasons I decided to transfer:

1. Bad Timing: As I arrived on campus, the pandemic created an unprecedented, isolated environment. Basketball practice fluctuated on and off, and the season was canceled. Despite that, the pandemic was an opportunity to differentiate oneself in two ways: 1) Physically: Extra time and plenty of resources on campus to design a weight training campaign, nutritional diet, and practice basketball at one of the hundreds of courts in Boston; 2) Mentally: With changing consumer and social preferences, and new technology, like Zoom, DocuSign, and others, this was an opportunity to be at the forefront of learning new concepts.

   
   

2. Lack of student involvement: I joined the sole finance club and acted as lead analyst and was hopeful to serve as the next President from nominations. As much as I have faith in myself, I should not have been teaching others as a first-semester freshman as my knowledge was limited.

   
   

3. Absence of Mentorship: Team bonding activities seemed to be receptive, but fun for the most part. However, a late-night conversation with a teammate a few months after graduation struck me the most. The conversation went similar to the following:

"So tell me, what are your exciting plans after graduation... Have you done any internships?" to which the response was, "Who knows, school is a joke. I haven't learned or done anything here."

To conclude my thoughts, pursuing college sports at the next level is certainly a differentiator. It will consume your life, but it has significant benefits. Even though I played college basketball for less than a year, I continue to keep the sport close to me and connect with many others through the experience. However, I would be ecstatic if my future children were passionate enough about a sport to pursue it in college. Anyway, I suggest making an extremely thoughtful decision when moving through the process. This is most likely where you will be for the next four to five years.

Please reach out if you have any more detailed questions, as this is just general advice.

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Other Appendices: NCAA to Professional