Athletic Scholarship for Tennis Players
There is a hot question for many tennis players and their parents. Imagine, your kid has played tennis for ten years from 8 years old; you invested some money in his tennis skills. Now, he (she) is a High School student, probably a sophomore or a junior. It is very clear for you that your player will not start playing pro tour after High School. So, you want to find a right college and get some return (athletic scholarship for a tennis player) on your tennis investment.
You have already known that if your kid is not blue chip or a five-star player, you need to make hard work to find a right college for him. The lower your kid’s level of play, the more efforts you need to make. I write here my thoughts about tennis players with two, three, and probably four star level of tennis.
Blue chips and five stars players usually have invitations from more than one college and they just need to make a right choice.
First, go online. There is a lot of website like http://www.collegetennisonline.com, http://www.collegeboard.com and so on. There you find information about a structure of college tennis, understand the difference among Divisions I, II and III, etc. Then make a list of colleges your kid wants to go. May be 40-50 is enough for start a process. It is important to make the list, because it allows you to work closely with each of the targeted colleges.
You also need to systematize all information that helps you in searching right college and create: athletic resume and cover letter, college selection list, tennis DVD and college evaluation list.
I don’t want to write here detailed instruction about the whole process. You can find out everything from the Internet.
Second. Hundreds, maybe thousands foreign tennis players play college tennis in the US. Think, if they were able to get scholarship while living and playing tennis overseas, you definitely can do it for your American kid.
The true is for some college tennis coaches the level of play is not the main reason for selecting a player to their tennis team. I personally know a half of dozens payers who got scholarship for Division II, and whose play’s level is like U16 TOP 50-150 of Southern California. Try to make a good contact with a coach, and if your kids’ SAT (ACT), GPA is at least on minimal level for the college, the coach will accept him. Tennis coaches look for team players; it is a very important factor when they consider a candidate.
Think twice before sending your kid to college on an athletic scholarship. He (she) will be supposed to train and play tennis 20+ hours a week. Does your kid have a capability to play tennis and study successfully at the same time? What is your kid going to do after college: find a job and work as a professional, or go to coach tennis with major in Political Science or Economics?
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