The athletic scholarship – tool, wrecking ball, or training ground?

[This article is for students considering university options, or parents of those students.]

Both my wife and I were given the delightful gift of athletic talent from a young age. As we grew up, God was kind enough to us to surround us with wise folks who let us know that, just like any other asset, we ought to steward this gift and use it for the benefit of others and the Kingdom. Stewardship 101 really, but as a teenager who liked baseball, it was a lesson that took me many years to get my arms around.

My wife and I both received college scholarships: hers, a full athletic as a BA volleyball player; mine, an academic scholarship, which helped my stock to make the baseball team. Between the two of us we came out of higher education with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees with only $11k in student debt (and that was just living expenses for my wife during grad school). While it was happening, we didn’t fully understand the impact that scholarships would end up having on our lives.

Because of that not-overwhelming debt load, my wife and I have been able to take risks and pursue things that we simply would not have been able to otherwise. And it’s not like we have high paying jobs (teaching and youth ministry? Hardly). But with a kick in the pants from Dave Ramsey we were able to fast track our debt free journey. Through his plan, we created a plan and a budget that allowed us to viciously attack that student debt AND pay off a $15k car loan. Meanwhile, many of my friends were looking at decades worth of payments on massive student debt. (I’ll never forget my buddy venting: he’d shake his head and scream, “A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS….A HUNNNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!”… and trying to cover that with an entry level job. Oof. You could almost see the burden on his shoulders.)

Can everyone go get a full ride for sportsing harder than his or her friends? Probably not, so I want to tell you about the three ways that a scholarship can affect a life. (While I’m at it, I’ll give you a few pointers on the whole world of scholarships… it can be a foundation toward a lifetime of financial health.)

AS A TOOL:

An athletic scholarship represents a significant chunk of financial capital, and like any capital it can be used to produce all sorts of other capitals. In other words, in the right hands, one of these scholarships can be a tool that turns into a big ol’ pile of family-building assets.

My wife’s parents sat her down when she was in 8th grade and asked her to put her big girl pants on and make a decision that would affect the rest of her life. They told her that they loved watching her play volleyball but moving forward, if they were going to foot the bill for club volleyball, she was going to need a little vision to motivate her (like, a vision of a fat scholarship to a Div 1 school, perhaps). Even that early, these wise folks knew that an athletic scholarship could be a tool for a great college experience, a free teaching degree, and a jumpstart on a set of multigenerational family assets.

And they weren’t just trying to squeeze a few bucks out of their sweet daughter; they were leading her in a vision building and goal setting excercise. Their line of questioning was simple: “What do you want your life to look like when you’re 28?” “Is the path you’re on right now taking you there?” Sounds heavy for an 8 th grader, but it was a formative moment for my wife!

So it’s not just the money. An athletic scholarship can be a tool that allows you to:

• Maximize your growth with accountability from coaches, advisors, and teammates
• Minimize crippling student debt
• In some cases, put you in a spot where your financial aid is MORE than your costs (Get paid to go to college!!)
• Force you to cast a vision for your life from a relatively young age
• Develop personally because a lot will be asked of you, including conditioning at 6am.

We live in a vision-less culture, you see. Even when we have a vision we rarely take the time to truly break it down and reverse engineer how in the heck we’d ever get to where we want to be. An athletic scholarship CAN be a catalyst for all of this…but you have to know how to use it.

AS A WRECKING BALL:

But wait, a scholarship, or rather the pursuit of one, can blind you to reality.  Let me describe the pitfalls and give you some hot tips for avoiding them.

So scholarships are the way forward and they always lead young athletes into disciplined pursuit of family blessing that lasts for generations, right? Not so fast. The blind pursuit of an athletic scholarship (of anything really) can also rip through a young man’s life and future like a wrecking ball. When I was a high school dude, I considered sacrificing my preferred majors, distance from home, and financial freedom (incurring massive amounts of debt that I would have never otherwise considered) to pursue the dream of being a college athlete. I was in the top 10% of my class with a strong GPA and high test scores. Nonetheless, I seriously considered going to a junior college far away just so I could keep chasing the baseball dream…because Division-I opportunities weren’t coming my way. I had tunnel vision thinking that I would do absolutely anything to continue playing baseball until someone told me I couldn’t anymore.

There are a ton of dudes just like me who’re not exactly counting the cost of the debt as they grunt during their max out on the squat rack. Their next move is trying to craft just the right Snapchat message to get a date. Without wisdom, the chase for a college roster spot at any cost can cause a guy to:

• Hop into a $40k/year school but still feel like a baller because he’s getting a $10k discount
• Move 3,000 miles away and disconnect from family (even though deep down he hates that)
• Take extra years to complete the bachelor’s he really wants because his school didn’t offer it
• Blow thousands of dollars on camps and clinics, nutrition and gear that don’t ultimately help him
  fulfill his vision.

The financial impact of the college varsity dream has a massive ripple effect on the family – it can be a blessing or a destructive force that reaches into a few generations. I know now, because I’ve seen it. Long odds await every high school athlete of getting a shot at college glory. If there isn’t a larger vision behind the pursuit of sport (and that vision needs more meat on its bones than “I hope I get to go to school for free”) … well then, some hard conversations are in order. Aimlessly going about this can really wreck your future.

AS A TRAINING GROUND:

I’ve already alluded to it, but this whole process is a fantastic training ground! These things happen early in your life and can be a great place to prepare for a lifetime of wise stewardship. Here’s how I’d suggest that you use the entire process to shape a vision for your life. Do it the right way and the benefits will be MUCH bigger than the cash you do or don’t get for joining the State U water polo squad. The pursuit of college scholarships can help you by:

1. Putting yourself out there and dealing with failure

My wife now coaches HS volleyball. During her first year of coaching she had 2 seniors that were college caliber, wanted to play for the right reasons, but had zero offers and zero traction with collegiate coaches. With a little bit of training and motivation they were able to take action and get offers within six weeks. What was holding them back? Insecurity and fear. Sound familiar? It sure did to me.

I get it: it’s hard to put yourself out there. Rejection is inevitable, and it can be devastating to ask oneself, “Am I good enough?” Pushing through, and going at the recruiting process full throttle will force you to grow a pair. This will come in handy later, trust me.

2. Crafting a vision for your life

After going through this whole process on our own, our family realized that we were uniquely positioned to pass on a bit of what we learned. Regardless of scholarship results, we knew that the process of pursing a scholarship provides an opportunity for a young person to clarify a vision for their life, grow in their communication skills, and deepen relationships.

So we developed online training designed to equip high school athletes and their parents to think through the college recruiting process with wisdom. We call it “Visionary Athlete” because ultimately we are training families to think multi-generationally when it comes to big decisions like this. (PS – We totally ripped off the name from Rob Rienow, who is a stud). We encourage conversations between kids/parents around what they want life to be like when they’re 28 and reverse engineer that vision, while using their athletic ability as a tool to get there.

Sports are incredible, and the chase after a scholarship isn’t inherently good or bad. We just have to make sure that it serves as a tool that provides a training ground instead of being a wrecking ball to the family line.