College is something that many students aren’t ready for. With college applications, SAT’s, and daily stressers, some students start to think about ways to save up for college.
“I’m definitely going to go to college,” junior Mia Lawhon said. “But I really need to pay more attention to my junior year, about scholarships and colleges.”
Lawhon has participated in cross country since her freshman year, and track, which she started taking seriously in seventh grade.
Athletic scholarships are a great source of income to cover a great amount of costs for college, but are scholarships really as common and as useful as many think? Only around three percent of athletes receive athletic scholarships annually, or around 55-60 at creek, making scholarships competitive.
“Every freshman boy thinks that they’re all going to the NFL or NBA, and they realize over time that only a select few people do that,” counselor Tyler Fishels said.
Many athletes are all competing for a small number of scholarships available, and in reality, very few athletes are going to be given those opportunities.
Nowadays, the grants are very scarce but are still very beneficial to low and high income houses. There are a variety of scholarships that provide different aids.
“School’s expensive nowadays,” Athletics Director Jason Wilkins said. “They feed you, they have medical staff, you have extra help for school. It’s not just the scholarship money to get into school for free [but also the] large number of benefits.”
In many circumstances, a student’s grade may not meet certain school’s requirements, but athletics can help open up more opportunities to getting accepted into colleges that need athletes.
“Athletics can help you get into places, getting through doors that you wouldn’t be able to get through,” Wilkins said.
Many students, such as Lawhon, hope to go to school in another state, but aren’t necessarily influenced by scholarships to go to one school over another.
“I don’t want to pay $100,000 each year when I can easily get a good education at a school that ‘s only $70,000,” Lawhonn said.
There are many factors that go into trying to receive a scholarship, and depending on the sport, opportunities can be slim to none. In reality, some sports have more scholarships to give out than others.
“Most of the things that are not football or basketball don’t get the same scouting budget that universities do and a lot of time it’s kids advertising themselves to universities,” Fishels said.
Many athletes in sports that don’t prioritize scholarships have to advocate for themselves to get colleges to recognize them. For example, swimmers might send in their swim times to get noticed by colleges. Other sports can also find ways to get colleges to notice them. This way they can get their information out where normally a coach might do that instead in another sport.
Although some student athletes may be very passionate about sports, they don’t necessarily see a future.
“I don’t want my entire life to revolve around running,” Lawhon said.
Counselors have also noticed that many athletes don’t pursue their sports in college.
“I know a lot of guys quit after [college] because they realized they want their life over football, or sports in general,” Fishels said.
Even though Lawhon may not continue with running after high school, she has taken a lot out of her experiences and the memories she has made along the way.
“I feel like a lot of my really close friends come from doing sports,” Lawhon said.
For most people, the main goal of sports won’t be just for the hopes of scholarships, but being exposed to teamwork and building connections.
“I think the goal of high school sports is to learn the life lessons, build the friendships, the work ethics, all the things that those that get a scholarship that’s kind of life the cherry or the whipped cream on top,” said Wilkins.
