High School vs. Club Sports

Oftentimes, kids who participate in club athletics will continue their athletic career into high school sports. However, kids’ high school experience with sports can be incredibly hit or miss. There are a lot of factors that can play into whether or not someone has a good experience.

Recently, a lot of kids have begun to veto participating in their high school athletic program or they will drop the sport halfway through their career.

For instance, Mary Kate Cavanaugh, a junior at Holy Family, is an incredible diver. Her freshman and sophomore year she placed second in the 3A state diving competition even beating out girls from 4A and 5A schools. She was incredibly close to gaining a state title both times, however, she is also a club diver which took precedence over her high school athletic career.

She competes competitively all over the nation and it became too much for her to balance her club diving as well as high school diving.

It became hard to give 100 percent to both her club team as well as her high school team so she decided to not compete in diving her junior year. She decided to take this season off in particular mostly because of college recruiting.

“I am now at a level where I am competing in bigger meets, in fact in December I am going to Winter Nationals,” she said.

Cavanaugh does plan to return to dive her senior year once college recruiting calms down a bit.

In MK’s case, she had a positive experience, she just could not give her all to both teams. However, in other cases, students may pull out of high school sports for multiple reasons. They just might not think the sport is fun anymore, or they are having issues with the team and coaches. In order to have a successful season there has to be mutual respect throughout the team. Without it, there will be a negative experience for everyone.

I think every athlete at some point has been tired of their sport, however I believe it is the extra factors on the team and in the environment around them that will make or break a students love for the sport.