Homeschooling can be daunting and can affect children in different ways, depending on what the child’s interests are. You need to ensure your child can still do what they love and have the career they want after homeschooling but can homeschooled children play college sports if they want to be athletes?
Homeschooled children can play college sports and can even get an athletic scholarship for college if they meet the requirements needed. You should register your child with the NCAA or NAIA centers as soon as homeschooling begins. They will help you understand the necessary requirements.
This article will clarify everything you must know about your homeschooled child’s eligibility to play college sports and how to make your child more desirable to the college and coaches of their choice.
Can Homeschooled Children Play Sports In College?
Homeschooling is fast becoming a popular way to educate children. Homeschooling offers many benefits to both the children and the parents. It provides the children with good-quality education and one-on-one attention, while it allows the parents to avoid the dreaded school runs twice a day.
However, homeschooling has its downsides that can affect children to different extents, depending on their interests. One area homeschooling can affect is sports, which can be a huge cause for concern for children who love playing them and want a career in this field.
While homeschooled children still have opportunities to play sports at various sports clubs in your area, you might wonder how homeschooling can affect their sporting career when they move on to college. So, can homeschooled children play college sports?
Homeschooled athletes can play college sports if they meet the requirements set by each state. Each state has different regulations that the child must meet to qualify for eligibility in college sports and college sports recruitment.
How To Apply For College Sports
Each state has its own regulations that the homeschooled child must conform to for them to play college sports. Depending on the sport or the division the child wants to play in, the parents need to register the child with the NAIA Eligibility Center or the NCAA Eligibility Center while they are still in school.
These two centers will help guide the parents and child in what courses the child should be taking and what grades they need in those courses to qualify for college sports later. The important thing with this is to register early to get your child on track from the beginning.
You must remember that not all homeschooling curriculums will meet the requirements for college sports, so you need to speak to these two centers to ensure you pick the right curriculum for your child.
This will help the parents ensure their child meets the core requirements and help the child plan their high school coursework carefully to ensure they can play college sports later.
Once the core requirements are in place, the child’s grades are where they need to be, and the child is registered with one or both centers, they will be set up for a normal college sporting experience.
This means they can be recruited the same way other kids who were schooled traditionally and homeschooled athletes can still benefit from athletic scholarships if they do well in their sport.
How To Make The Student More Desirable For College Sports
So, once the child has been registered and is on the right track with their coursework, they can do a few things to help make them more desirable to college sports recruiters and coaches. These things are relatively easy to be involved in and will help the child excel in their sporting careers.
Let’s go through how you can help your child be more desirable to recruiters and coaches of college sports to ensure they can chase their dreams.
Get Them Involved In A Sports Club Early
The child should be registered and actively playing club sports as soon as they start homeschooling. So, when researching which curriculum they should be doing, you should also begin researching what sports clubs are in your area and what sports they offer.
Then once your child begins their homeschooling curriculum, you can take them to the sports club and get them involved in their chosen sport immediately. This means your child can participate in the local sports event and sometimes even the national sporting events that the club participates in.
This will ensure your child receives the experience they need in their chosen sport and can help them improve their skills. These are two things that recruiters and college coaches look for.
Have Their Coach Write A Motivation Letter
When you finally get to the stage where your child is applying for college, and they haven’t received an athletic scholarship yet, you can still help get your child noticed by the college coaches by having your child’s club coach write a motivational letter to the college coach.
This will help explain to the college coach how well your child has done in club sports and how much they have improved over the years while playing under their guidance.
This letter can bring any special skills your child has to the college coaches’ attention which could make the coach more likely to pick your child for their chosen sport.
Ensure All Courses Taken Meet NCAA Requirements
You must ensure that all your child’s coursework meets the NCAA or NAIA requirements from the beginning of their homeschooling career. This will make your child more desirable to the college as their coursework and grades meet the standards they are looking for.
You shouldn’t start your child in one curriculum and then change the curriculum later, as this will affect their eligibility to play college sports. You must stick to the NCAA or NAIA-recommended curriculums from the beginning. This will make your child more desirable to the college and the coaches.
Help Ensure The Student Gets Good Grades
For your child to play college sports, they need good grades, especially from grade nine and up. These are the grades the colleges will look at when your child applies and will influence their ability to play sports in their chosen college.
The NCAA and NAIA will give you the grade requirements your child must meet to be eligible to play college sports. You should help your child reach these grades and give them extra lessons, if necessary, to ensure they reach them. This will make your child more desirable to the college and the coaches.
Conclusion
Homeschooled children can play college sports if they meet the requirements stipulated by the NCAA or the NAIA, depending on the sport and division your child wants to play in college. If you register your child with one of these centers, they will help direct you and your child through the requirements and how to help your child build their sporting career to be eligible for college sports. Good luck!