Preparing high school athletes for college by not playing high school?

I'd really like to see opinions different than my own here, but any will be welcome.

This relates to non-traditional sports. Not talking football or basketball, or baseball. Really talking about soccer and volleyball.

Friend of mine has a daughter who is an elite level volleyball player. She is a freshman, starting on the varsity on the # 4 ranked team in the state. She has played one year of "club" or travel volleyball, at my repeated insistence that they needed to do that, and his father has thanked me ten times, if he has thanked me once, for the encouragement. One day she'll play SEC or better.

Anyway, he told me about one of his daughter's teammates that quit the team Monday. She is a starter, and regularly played the entire rotation; pretty rare in days of specialization. She was in the newspaper often, leading the team in digs or hits. But apparently, her position, which had her as backup setter to her primary position, was not what she wanted to play. So she quit the team to work with a full-time volleyball coach that coaches her in club.

I was surprised by this, and abandoning classmates/teammates, and your school, and told my friend that. He has a good friend who is a major club coach and coaches at one of the other high schools. He told him that his team lost their best hitter this year for the same reason, and lost one the year before. He gave three other examples of players locally who had left their team to do the same thing.

In soccer, some players will have to choose between playing high school and playing year 'round travel ball. In the younger years, some players play year 'round travel ball, or "competitive" soccer. When they arrive in high school, they'll have a choice.

All that having been said--

If it's your daughter or son, do you pull them out of high school teams and have them do something independently?

For me, the answer is simple. I do not want to deprive them of high school memories. I played on a high school varsity team, and although we weren't great, I have fond memories of things that happened that will last me forever. Granted, I did not play in college, and maybe the college memories would have been even better, but I don't think so. I see them as different memories.

Unless you are going to play professionally, and unless you are 100% sure that leaving your high school team will enhance your chances of doing so, I think you are destroying precious memories your child would have forever by having them deny their classmates and teammates of playing with them, practicing with them, etc.

I may be on an island here, I don't know. Some of you may have elected to go the independent, non-school route. If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I know you would like to see different opinions, but is there room on your island for one more?

Well, I don't want to color anyone's opinion, Dan, but absolutely, there's room on the island. I feel sure some others will have different opinions, though, and I want to hear their thoughts, too. I'm not looking for a debate on it, just want to hear what their mindset is if they support the other side.

I suppose I would leave it up to the kid. Not all kids relish the high school experience and are more focused on individual accomplishments. Personally, I wouldn't trade my high school years for anything.

Wow...
I took both of my kids out of a public schools a couple of years and placed them in a private school. I couldn't send either of them to a large, more sports oriented school because we live more than an hour away for Louisville, which would be St X, Trinity or CAL. It was a hard decision because my son is an athletic freak, can do things I could never doand I'd love to have seen him flourish in that kind of program.
Both of my kids have become big fish in the smaller pond their school, both in a sporting sense and socially too. I'm glad every day we made that decision for the reasons mentioned in your inital post Darrell. You can take the opportunity away to make memories like that. Their time is limited to 4 years to make them and there is no going back if you miss it.
I went to a small private school too. We weren't particularly good in any sport other than baseball where we kicked ass and took names even against big public schools. My teammates and I are still the best of friends after nearly 30 years. Being in that environment with them, on that team for 4 years is the reason why. You steal your kids ability to have that kind of memory and it becomes a selfish decision on someone's part.
I want my kids to gain friends, relationships that last for their lives from high school, and college similar to what I have now.
I get wanting your kids to get better at the given sport, getting a scholarship etc, but they miss out on the best part of all if the decision is taken to leave team sports. Just my .02.

Darrell, I believe you can blame most, if not all of this, on college coaches in Futbol and Volleyball. The talent for these sports at the high school level is so spread out it is hard to go to enough games to see all the players you potentially need on a squad. If you are a college soccer or Volleyball coach you have a limited budget. The easiest (and smartest) thing to do is go see travel squads or go to the Olympic Development tournaments. There in one weekend you can evaluate enough players to fill a squad. And the expenses for such an effort are very limited fitting within most college athletics budgets. Now, there are a lot of other reasons, but that is the fundamental reason the HS players in these sports opt to go the club route. Blame the athletics associations for not allowing players to play both HS and club ball in the same season. Those issues could be worked out if either side would give an inch.

The same thing occurs with HS Basketball and Football, yet you don't see athletics associations outlaw play in club or AAU teams in those sports. It's mostly because the seasons do not overlap. But my observation is that you see far more college football and bball coaches at AAU and 7on7 events than you do HS basketball and football games.

A solution? Yes, revamp the athletics association rules to where you allow HS teams to stay together in the off season and play in off season tournaments. Kids in football and bball are going to play year round whether it is for a HS team or not. If you don't provide for spring football practice or summer 7 on 7 kids will go to organizations that provide that experience. KHSAA and the AHSAA are the two most ridiculous organizations I know. They make the NCAA appear proactive and progressive.