Email of the Day: Changing Schools Too Many Times
These emails are part of an exchange between me and a parent who contacted me looking for advice on having his child change prep schools. This same parent opted not to hire me a year ago when the child last switched schools. This is the child’s third school in four years (one public, one parochial, […]
Smart College Recruitment
The email below is my response to a parent who called asking for help with college recruitment. Her daughter, a junior who just reclassified, already has 3 full D2 offers. Mom is getting contacted regularly by colleges and has no idea how to respond. She was never an athlete herself and by her own admission […]
Parent Blogs: Club Teams, Poaching and Communication
I think it’s important for families to be able to share and learn from the experiences of other families. This section of blogs gives parents the opportunity to share experiences that I think could be valuable to others. Examples like this one are used regularly in my workshops. They’re intended for discussion and study. If […]
Parent Blogs: Club Team Hipocracy
I think it’s important for families to be able to share and learn from the experiences of other families. This section of blogs gives parents the opportunity to share experiences that I think could be valuable to others. The email below is from the father of a 9th grade athlete to the coach of his […]
Overwhelmed by the Recruiting Process? Put Education First.
I returned recently from a major east coast summer basketball camp where I had a lengthy discussion about the recruiting process with the mother of a talented junior. Her son is a good student who already holds offers from D1 schools, none of them big-time. A single mom with two kids who never went to college and never played sports, she told me […]
Quote of the Day: Reapplying for College Financial Aid
I didn’t know you have to reapply for financial aid every year. – This from a mother whose son received about $20,000 of financial aid last year as a college freshman and had a very good academic and athletic experience. Now, this high school principal with a master’s degree is scrambling to convince the […]
Quote of the Day – Steve Kerr on AAU Problems
Even if today’s players are incredibly gifted, they grow up in a basketball environment that can only be called counterproductive. AAU basketball has replaced high school ball as the dominant form of development in the teen years. I coached my son’s AAU team for three years; it’s a genuinely weird subculture. Like everywhere else, you […]
Quote of the Day – Teen Self-Restraint
Exercising self-restraint in today’s teen culture is downright un-American. Teens are immersed in a popular culture that preaches that self-control is the one remaining sin in a world which has otherwise been washed free of guilt and responsibility. – Dr. Leonard Sax in his book, The Collapse of Parenting.
Quote of the Day – Who Makes the School Choice?
I think you should treat kids like grown-ups. I think you should expect them to be mature and to behave, and I think that’s what it means to treat someone like a grown-up, although….It’s not about the abdication of authority. …it’s common now in this country to find … the parent functions as educational consultant. […]
“My Kid Can Play at That Level”
We all compare ourselves to others. It’s human nature. Most of us also want to play at the highest possible level, whether it’s adults in the workplace (“I can do a better job than that guy”) or athletes competing for recruitment and scholarships. The phrase “I can play at that level” or “my kid can play at that level” […]