Finally, we are in the home stretch for competitive little kid sports in my household. Going to California this weekend for a USA Water Polo event, Texas in April, then back to California in June and July.
Then maybe water polo in college? Depends on where she gets accepted but a couple schools have indicated spots on the varsity teams if admitted. Miserable stuff, just send your kids to KU or K-State and do not try to get recruited in an obscure sport or go to a school with competitive admissions.
Ha, I know at least 3-4 dudes from college that played football right out of high school, but ended up at KSU after a year. Just couldn't give up the dream which I totally get, but they were apparently pretty jealous of their HS buds partying and hanging out while they were back to being a nobody on a college team.
my daughter only considered schools that she would consider w/o polo. Although some she eliminated when she realized there wouldn't be a spot for her on the team and/or they brought on girls she hated. (I mean these girls are awful)
My son was in a fairly similar position, but in men's soccer. There are clearly more men's soccer programs than women's water polo programs, but it's still pretty tough.
For context, despite being an incredibly deep area for soccer talent, Texas has only four D1 men's soccer schools, and three of them are places most kids I know don't want to go (Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, and UT Rio Grande Valley, with SMU being the "good one"). The D2 and D3 options in Texas and the surrounding states are slim as well. The Venn diagram of schools with the right academics, geography, and athletics that fit your kid can be very small. Coaches that my kid was contacting were more or less not getting back to him, and schools that reached out to him were schools that he had no interest in for one reason or another.
As of 6 months ago, I thought my kid was going to end up at a big public school, as he had pretty much given up on the recruiting process. But before a a national showcase that he attended last October he contacted one school that he was interested in attending, just to see. They had a coach come out to watch him, and he liked what he saw, and things went really fast from there.
My kid got admitted, started talking to one of the assistants regularly, went on a visit where he stayed with some of the players and went to a camp, and then got an offer.
He knows a fair number of guys that have gone on to play college soccer, some have hated it, and some have loved it. I'm clearly hoping he falls into the latter category.