How do private high schools get so many good athletes?

Better coaching, equipment, etc.

I know my (public) high school recruits out of state for football and parents just happen to get a well-paying job involving the school

You are correct that private schools are not allowed to give athletic scholarships. According to NAIS rules they can't give academic based scholarships either. All scholarships must be need based.

Top athletes who meet the need based criteria are often given admission preference. Private schools tend to get the best rich athletes and the best poor athletes. They can also pull from multiple surrounding towns.

Wealthy parents can afford private school tuition. They can also afford to get their kids onto expensive travel teams and for specialized training and coaching.

Here's a perfect example:

https://www.imgacademy.com/sites/default/files/new2018-2019%20IMG%20ACADEMY%20FOOTBALL%20%28ACADEMY%20YEAR%29.pdf

That's right: $77,650 per year.

There are some kids who get recruited to private schools yet can't afford it. They can get financial aid. Doesn't matter what you call the scholarship when you get it due to your athletic abilities.

Be cautious in assuming that ALL private schools are good at athletics. This certainly is not the case.

Do public schools NOT recruit? How much is the tuition at the average public school? Who has that advantage?

apples to oranges wrote:

Be cautious in assuming that ALL private schools are good at athletics. This certainly is not the case.

Do public schools NOT recruit? How much is the tuition at the average public school? Who has that advantage?

It is silly to say private schools do not have the best athletic programs. They do. Check out this list of best high schools for sports. The top 10 are all private schools and 19 of the top 25 are private.

The middle class athletes get screwed by this.

This is a pretty weak HIGH SCHOOL List!

https://www.niche.com/k12/milwaukee-scholars-charter-school-milwaukee-wi/

It varies from state to state depending on how private schools are allowed to compete with public schools. In Ohio, public and private schools are all piled into the same conferences and compete against each other. The rules on recruiting students for private schools is pretty lax. So, the catholic schools like St. Ignatious, St. Edwards, etc. load up on the top athletes in the region in basketball and football. The athletes do not get scholarships for sports, but are generally given a free pass on academic standards and usually qualify for need based aid. So, it is a no brainer for a kid whose high school team is not that great to jump ship and go to a private school where they will be in contention for a state championship and get scouted by Div. I colleges.

In other states, there are punitive rules on transfers that keep private schools from stacking their teams. In some states, kids who change to a private school have to sit out a year before they can be eligible for the team. Otherwise, the school cannot participate in the state championships.

In other states, like Texas, the private schools have their own division and do not participate in the state championship with the public schools. Private schools still try to recruit athletes, but the lure of a private school program is not as big, especially if the athlete is already at a school with a strong program.

Children who come from ‘well off’ families are afforded private coaching/training. They are programmed into their sport early and given additional opportunity to excel.

With that said, football and basketball are different all together... not touching that subject considering the rules about scholarships and recruiting are blatantly violated!!

They absolutely do recruit, don't let people convince you otherwise. Need based scholarships, both athletic and academic, are draws. But even more than that, most affluent (and non-affluent) parents are desperate to give their kid an edge at any cost. Private school advertise - making promises to parents even though they often don't deliver- and frequently are the only palatable choice to parents who care. Instead of attempting to raise moderate minded kids with realistic expectations, parents these days push their kids to advance and dream big often well beyond their demonstrated abilities. Everyone is an olympian or a nobel laureate.

The insane drive to groom kids and is killing youth sports

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/income-inequality-explains-decline-youth-sports/574975/

skrrt wrote:

Better coaching, equipment, etc.

I know my (public) high school recruits out of state for football and parents just happen to get a well-paying job involving the school

I am not always so sure about the better coaching or that private schools are necessarily all that dominant in sports.

well..... wrote:

Wealthy parents can afford private school tuition. They can also afford to get their kids onto expensive travel teams and for specialized training and coaching.

That's right: $77,650 per year.

There are some kids who get recruited to private schools yet can't afford it. They can get financial aid. Doesn't matter what you call the scholarship when you get it due to your athletic abilities.

Since your son is interested in attending our school (and he's a great HS quarterback) we're only going to charge you $10k per year, and we're going to make sure that you qualify for $10k grant in financial aid, but this is in no way an athletic scholarship. It is simply need based. .................................................. (We need a good QB.)

ataglance wrote:

well..... wrote:

Wealthy parents can afford private school tuition. They can also afford to get their kids onto expensive travel teams and for specialized training and coaching.

That's right: $77,650 per year.

There are some kids who get recruited to private schools yet can't afford it. They can get financial aid. Doesn't matter what you call the scholarship when you get it due to your athletic abilities.

Since your son is interested in attending our school (and he's a great HS quarterback) we're only going to charge you $10k per year, and we're going to make sure that you qualify for $10k grant in financial aid, but this is in no way an athletic scholarship. It is simply need based. .................................................. (We need a good QB.)

and I can do the same thing without evening wasting time talking about those financial things

Private schools are killing our public education system. Rich kids should not get a better education.

Private schools have significantly less red tape to deal with than public schools. It should come as zero surprise that private schools dominate when it comes to...everything. Literally everything. I went to a private school for K-6, then public for 7-12. What a mistake my parents made sending me to public school. Public schools on the whole are trash. They are full of good people, don't get me wrong. From the students to the teachers, admin, custodians, etc. they are all great people with great potential just like at a private school, but they are so bogged down by rules and a bloated system that they simply can not keep up with private education.

If you have the money and don't send your kid to a private school you should be ashamed of yourself.

well..... wrote:

Wealthy parents can afford private school tuition. They can also afford to get their kids onto expensive travel teams and for specialized training and coaching.

Here's a perfect example:

https://www.imgacademy.com/sites/default/files/new2018-2019%20IMG%20ACADEMY%20FOOTBALL%20%28ACADEMY%20YEAR%29.pdf

That's right: $77,650 per year.

There are some kids who get recruited to private schools yet can't afford it. They can get financial aid. Doesn't matter what you call the scholarship when you get it due to your athletic abilities.

I don’t get it. Parents send their kids to these schools to get better athletics coaching and training in the hopes that their kids will get a college scholarship, but spend more per year than they would on college tuition in the first place.

And for all the special coaching and training, they’re not even good. Here are their school distance records according to athletic.net:

Girls

1600- 5:09

3200- 11:26

5k XC- 19:44

Boys

1600- 4:21

3200- 9:54

5k XC- 16:58

Yall make it sound like a bad thing wrote:

If you have the money and don't send your kid to a private school you should be ashamed of yourself.

Quite the opposite actually. By sending your child to private school you are pushing your child ahead at the expense of other children. Private school are not in line with the common good.

Private schools have way better athletes because the top 5-10% of the US population in income is evolving to become its own species. They have more focus, have had better nutrition their whole lives, had the best acccess to coaching and made better health decisions. Also, they are likely the offspring of private schooled parents. At the schools here in New England there are NO Fat kids at all in the exclusive private schools. The kids are usually required to do 3 sports, no cuts, so all kids are forced to figure out what sport they are good at. They have top coaches and top facilities, strength coaches, etc.

Opposed to public school where they dont have to do any sports if they dont want to.

Seriously though, the top 5% of income households are evolving to be a super human species.

pubtards wrote:

Yall make it sound like a bad thing wrote:

If you have the money and don't send your kid to a private school you should be ashamed of yourself.

Quite the opposite actually. By sending your child to private school you are pushing your child ahead at the expense of other children. Private school are not in line with the common good.

Thats true but you have to pay to get great opportunities for your kids. It does cost the other kids but the public system is failing them on so many levels. I know a lot of parents who think their kid will do just fine sending them to public school. They might do just fine, but their odds of doing just fine are a lot lower than a top private school. Good private schools kick your kids ass so hard with workload, sports, and 14 hour programmed days that your kid will never adjust to being average.

For me personally its way more important for my kids to go to private high school and public college than the other way around.

I go to a private school and no one is recruited. Our school doesn’t have any extra money to throw around. I do know of a private school in particular that was offering a kid on my team a half ride. He didn’t even have amazing times, he was like 10:10 as a sophomore, but my school doesn’t recruit.

I get that some school might, but we are really good in our division and have 5 consecutive xc state team titles, but it is just through a good team atmosphere and a solid coach. This developes guys well and usually kids that are put into private schools have to work hard academically and that translates to sports.