Sports scholarships & LD – mutually exclusive?

Posted on 01. Oct, 2010 by Joan Azarva in Articles

This is the scenario: Your teen with a learning disability has a history of struggling in school, but, boy, is she one heck of a tennis player.

Now she’s being offered scholarships by various colleges trying to recruit her.

Wow, will that lighten your financial load….but is it best for your daughter?

I used to have a blanket answer to this – NO. I would explain to parents that once a school recruits your child, they own their time. Expect long practices, home games, and, worse yet, away games for which your child will miss classes. MISS CLASSES? That’s precisely what we DON’T want for our kids. They have a hard enough time with the work if they’ve attended class. How much harder will it be if they miss it?

That was the advice I always gave parents. School comes first. Unless your child is destined to be a professional athlete, sports should be put on the back burner. Play intramural sports. Then, I interviewed Jonathan Mooney.

Jonathan Mooney, nationally-known author and dyslexic, didn’t learn to read until he was twelve. He was, however, an exceptional soccer player. In his senior year, he was recruited by Loyola Marymount University in California. While Jonathan did poorly in school, he did want to attend college, and he saw this as a golden opportunity to get his “foot in the door” of a quality university that otherwise would have been off limits to him.

I cringed when I heard this. I asked, “OK, then what happened?”

Much to my surprise, Jonathan said that soccer changed his life. While he did have little time for his work, he also had little time to waste. His days were extremely structured, and he knew he had a small window during which he had to get things done. He’s the type who work best under structure, and perhaps pressure, and for the first time he loved school. He wasn’t going to mess this up. Jonathan rose to the occasion and earned high enough grades to transfer to Brown University after two years. Yes, it meant giving up soccer, but he had learned how to be a student.

How does this story end? Mooney graduated from Brown as an English literature major with a 4.0!

Since then, I’ve spoken to parents who’ve said they think their teens would also do well with the imposed structure that college sports provides.

Bottom line? You have to know your kid. A sports scholarship can save you a bundle, but only if it results in your teen getting an education. If your child cracks under pressure, think long and hard before taking the money. If you have a “Jonathan Mooney” on your hands, it might all work out for the best.

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Tags: college sports and LD, LD, sports recruiting