The rate of athletes transferring
colleges is growing every year. I get a lot of questions from recruits and
parents about what their options are and many times, athletes have no choice
but to lose a year of eligibility.
This article is for athletes and parents
of athletes who are trying to identify the right school. Hopefully you will
gain some insight as to why athletes are transferring so much, and offer some
hope to avoid these problems by doing a little more homework when deciding on a
college.
You are choosing a school not a
sports team
As an athlete you have the added
pressure of deciding on a team and coach you want to play for as well as a
university. With so much time going into finding an opportunity to play sports,
it is easy to forget you need to be considering the school as well. A lot
of athletes who are upset with the school they are at is because they didn’t
take enough time to get to know the school first. They spent all of their time
focused on the athletics associated with the school, they didn’t realize they
wouldn’t like living on the campus, in that town or taking classes there.
The solution is to visit a campus
and talk to regular students, not just other athletes. Find out where students
typically live and what the town is like. See if you can sit in on classes and
maybe talk to a professor who teaches a subject you are interested. Yes, you
are probably going to have to be seen walking on campus with your parents, but
that perceived embarrassment is a small price to pay compared to transferring
and losing a year of eligibility.
You will have things you don’t like
Too many times athletes are
transferring or leaving because they don’t like something that is more or less
just part of leaving home and going to college. Despite what you see on ESPN,
athletes don’t all live in luxury dorms and have access to all you can eat
gourmet food. Gross dorm rooms, smelly roommates, loud neighbors, bad
professors, and less than five star training facilities are the norm for a lot
of colleges. Sometimes even more serious things can happen like break-ins or
things getting stolen. Remember, sometimes bad things happen in life and
college is life. By no means should you stay in a dangerous situation, but
don’t think that leaving a school will fix something like a less than perfect
living situation.
As a parent, before your athlete
decides to leave a school, make sure you think long and hard about the real
reason they are leaving. I’ve seen a lot of athletes leave schools because they
just had difficulty adjusting to life away from home. At some point your
athlete is going to have a bad day, week or down month, and many times that is
part of the adjustment. Ultimately, it is going to be your call on what type of
situation is acceptable or not, but several times athletes I’ve talked with
simply needed to stick it out a couple more weeks and ended up having a great
college experience.
If you are going to leave, you need
the coach on your side
My final piece of advice regarding
transfers is, if you are committed to leaving the school, you are
going to want the coach on your side. Understand that if you are going to leave
the program unexpectedly and not give them any warning, they are going to do a
little as possible to help you. If you are on the team and especially if you
are a scholarship athlete, the coach is committed to keeping you with the team.
Talk to them about the problems you are having, show them you are willing to
try and make it work. If you still want to leave after trying to make it work,
the coach is going to be much more willing to help.
Leaving a school is a very difficult
process and having the difficult conversations with coaches is a hard thing to
do, but that’s what adulthood is about. No coach expects every athlete to stay
with their program 100% of the time, but they do expect you to talk to them if
you are having a problem.
Hopefully this will give some
perspective on the problems you are facing or help you make the right choice
when choosing a college
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