How to manage sports scholar demands for elite athletes

[BigSmiles34]

My DS is in year 7 of an independent school in which he is a sports scholar (partially funded). He is also an academy footballer at a good club.

The school were aware of his ongoing football activities before starting the school, although he has started a new club since attending the school.

There were no policies, specific documents given when we accepted the scholarship, although I was aware that my DS would be involved in sport- presumably football and possibly others.

There are sometimes timetable clashes with school sports and academy training and I have been trying to manage that. The expectation is generally that my DS must prioritise school games and must always attend Saturday sport.

The academy that he is attending trains 3 times a week. 1 of the days is a “day release” from school where the boys do both education and football training.

The school has refused to give permission to “day release” - either part time or full time and have not been supportive or reasonable and only seem to be interested in my son’s contribution to school games.

I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place as my DS is very concerned that he is missing out by not attending his academy programme and feels powerless.

Any advice on how to approach this would be most helpful!

So this does mean the OPs son shouldn't be playing on the school team. Or am I misunderstanding.

In that case I am confused as to how OP’s DS would be allowed to play for the school anyway. Unless we are talking about other sports to which he isn’t contracted to an academy although I’d be surprised if an academy footballer would be allowed to play school (contact) rugby for example given the injury risk.

I have a DS who is a sport scholar at an independent school (year 11) and while he know many sports scholars at other school funnily enough none of them play football as their main sport - the reason being that Academy football is incompatible with school sport. There are a few schools that are an exception and are happy to work with the clubs (Whitgift or Bradfield come to mind) but the Academies become very demanding of the boys and it will only get worse as he gets older. I know a boy who was in the same position are your DS (at an academy but a sport scholar at a private school) and in the end he not only had to abandon the sport scholarship, he actually had to leave school at 16 in order to accommodate his career - luckily it all worked out for him as has a contract at a premiere league club but I remember it was a massive decision and quite a gamble. By the time he was 15 it wasn't just a case of matches clashing, the club wouldn't even let him play football on a Saturday for school if he has a club match on the a Sunday as he needed to be "rested". They also wouldn't let him play rugby as they didn't want him injuring himself! I guess these Academies invest quite a lot of time and money in these boys from quite an early age and they want their pound of flesh. By contrast playing Academy Rugby or County Cricket is quite light touch and exists quite happily alongside school sport. It sounds like your DS is still quite young so its probably too early for you to be able to tell whether or not his football career is going to pan out ....you also don't know whether or not he's going to hit senior school and be seduced by rugby (which tends to happen quite a lot). One thing I would say is that the school would probably be very happy to keep your DS as a sport scholar even if he didn't play academy football anymore - he's clearly athletically gifted and could probably help to bring them glory across many sports in school level competitions.

I think the lads can play for schools but defo not grassroots. But that's where academies may differ. I know Cat1 boys that do play and have played for primary school team. But all Man City boys go to one private school (fees paid) but part of that arrangement is that they can not represent the school.
Otherwise said school would be unbeatable and also matches would clash

Whether he is allowed to play rugby would be an academy decision.
Some don't allow skiing or skateboarding.

How does your DS feel about all this sport? It sounds like football is his passion but he is also expected to play rugby, cricket and hockey at school too? When does the poor kid ever get a break? And apart from that, surely so much sport (particularly rugby) must be increasing his risk of injury, preventing him from fulfilling his football obligations? It sounds as if the school are not going to budge on their stance and that there are two different issues - one being that they have given the scholarship in the expectation that while they will "support" the academy football they expect that school sport will come first; the second, that even if your DS isn't a sports scholar they may still refuse the day release. You mentioned that some of the work on his day release would be pre-prepared by the school - that's not an obligation on them and his teachers may feel they have enough to do without adding that on to their workload.

You say he's changed club, does this mean his commitments increased? Did you explicitly tell them about day release or lack of availability for school sports?

I think you may need to make decisions. I personally wouldn't be comfortable with any sports activity that requires frequent day release from school either - his education is so much more important at this stage, there's no guarantees with sports ever being a job!

Bear in mind, your son could be kicked out of the football academy at any time. If he's happy at this school this would be my priority, hobbies cone second

@gogohmm @RedHelenB
OP will be aware of that. Hence my comment that if he wants to continue at this Cat1 academy he'll need to do the day release. Whether we agree with day release or not, that's the reality of Cat1 academy football at age 11.

@Tiggernpoo makes a good point on training hours. The players are often asked to report exactly what hours they do. They don't want them over training. They may do 4-5 days at the academy in a year or two and be instructed to rest on the other days.
Something else to ask OP

@unfortunateevents my son had only ever played football, tennis leisurely with the family and a bit of tag rugby at his primary school before starting this school. He is also ran with his athletics club. He was assessed for football and tennis when and then offered the scholarship. He does not particular like rugby. Has already had his head studded quite badly. He is a very fast runner and all round athletic. As he does not get to choose what sports he participates in, it is difficult for him as they have been selecting him for all the teams. They have many teams but he is always in the top group/ “A Team”. I do worry about injuries.

The academy does set work but have said that many schools like to send over their work that they would have typically done that day. The academy teachers work closely with the schools sending over progress reports, targets for attainment grades etc. I do not see how my DS could possibly be disadvantaged in terms of education, especially since the academy class has less children than his school class and more 1-2-1 opportunities.

@gogohmm although my son’s club has changed, he still has the same football commitments. At the time of accepting the scholarship, he was not at this club and I did not have the details of day release, even though I know all academy boys do it and so this was not discussed.

As mentioned before, my son is also very academic, hence getting into this school. Education is of course important, however, I believe that kids will work best when they are happy and football makes him happy. He has been doing this since age 4 and not simply a kicking a ball on a Saturday. Training and playing at a high level and is gifted. The only time I would say enough to football is when he says he no longer wants to play.

The academy does set work but have said that many schools like to send over their work that they would have typically done that day. The academy teachers work closely with the schools sending over progress reports, targets for attainment grades etc. I do not see how my DS could possibly be disadvantaged in terms of education, especially since the academy class has less children than his school class and more 1-2-1 opportunities.

Because they're not covering the same content at the same time.

@snowtrees yes you are right, the academy did request a full schedule of my DS’s sports schedule to ensure he was not being overworked. The schedule is constantly changing at school due to football, rugby and hockey fixtures.

Yes @BigSmiles34 worth asking what the schedule looks like for U13/14/15
It may end up incompatible with school sports as he could end up trying to train and play every day.

I have name changed for this post.

I don't have much insight to offer the OP, but I wanted to chime in with my daughter's experience. She is gifted in hockey and was selected for developmental training at age 10. We applied for a sports scholarship at a private school near us going into seniors, which she got. Accepting that scholarship was one of the biggest mistakes we made. The demands made by the school got more and more as the years progressed. Like PP, she was chosen for all the sports in the A team, and was sometimes made to play in sports that she didn't particularly have any aptitude for (swimming for example). I did expect the school to make demands on hockey, but I never expected the onslaught of all these sports.

As she got better in her club and squad, the clashes with school got worse and worse, and we were in conflict with them all the time. We tried our best to balance everything, but my daughter was exhausted from all the demands. It was the club and squad matches and training that she enjoyed, because she got a load of benefit from it. From the school, she only got a lot of hassle from the sports head, who loved pointing out how little she pulled her weight (untrue!). Her academics were tanking because she was so tired, and because she had no free time whatsoever.

Finally we gave back the scholarship. The school, of course, kept her on. But the demands from the sports department got no less. We declined most of them, but I later found out that my daughter used to hide from the sports teachers, which makes me so sad now.

The final straw was when the school put her on a team two days before the start of her GCSE. I said no way, and got a very snarky email back with an implied threat that they would be the ones writing the references to universities when the time came. I was so shocked! We had already made the decision to move her for sixth form but that email still pops up in my head on bad days.

I wish we'd never accepted the blasted thing. Her experience of the school might have been a whole load better

@SycamoreMore I am so sorry to hear this. It is really sad that children can be treated this way. To have to carry out activities repeatedly against your will or without choice is counterproductive for the child.

@snowtrees I believe that day release is the right approach for a cat 1 academy. If my DS is to repeatedly miss this training then he will be disadvantaged and may not develop at the rate expected by the club.

Good idea. I will ask the academy for the schedule for the U13s, U14s and U15s to see what this looks like. That will help me with the conversations with the school.

Wow I'm very surprised. I'd be ringing up other private schools and explaining and asking if they can accommodate his requirements.

More valid points! And as they hit teens they need & want just chill out time & time to be teens

DS's friend had a football academy place. He's also a gifted all rounder. He eventually walked away from the academy in his mid teens because of the 'only football' rule. His family enjoyed skiing, he is a great cricketer etc. and he wanted to continue with all those sports too.

The academy system wants the boys to put all their eggs in one basket too early. There is a lot of research that says better sportsmen play more than one sport as children. Use different muscle sets, hand/eye etc. Andy Murray was with Rangers football team up to 15. His brother had a golf handicap of 3 at the same age.

@EwwSprouts you are right and most coaches will tell you that too. But the boys academy system is so fixed in its views currently it won't change for the OP. Too much money and high stakes involved. Kids being scouted at 3/4 and unofficially signed... into development centres and U5 teams. It's not the only sport like that. Elite youth tennis is a massive number of hours and gymnastics tops the lot.

@EwwSprouts for many less advantaged boys the academy system opens up private schools and prospect of wealth they can only dream of otherwise. Boys from middle class families who have wealth of other opportunities on offer are often more likely to drop away.

It’s very unlikely your son will play professional football, even if on an academy. It’s even more unlikely he will be a star on high salary. The number of years he can play professional football is limited, and he would need a second career. A good education gives him a better chance for a satisfying, well paid, and long career.

The private school which granted him the sports scholarship will expect he trains and plays for the school first and foremost. They won’t grant day release which will be detrimental to his education. He can’t have both, so he will have to drop the academy if he wants to wants to stay in the school.
Scouting boys at 3 or 4 seems ridiculous. How can they know which children are talented so young?

I too think you should have done more research before committing to this school and its scholarship. My child is academically scholarship worthy but we turned down those schools when we realised their sports are prioritised and her outside of school sports commitment, which is her true passion, would come a distant second (which they didn’t shy away from advising). We chose a school with strong academics, which was affordable without a scholarship, and ensured releases would be provided. That may be what you need to consider too. Good luck for the meeting and I hope it works out for your son.