Post by bealzabubba on Feb 28, 2019 20:06:39 GMT -5
Money is a challenge at any private institution, maybe I am getting too mushy but their is an intangible value to being part of something larger than yourself, competing for a common goal and cause. I couldn't put a monetary value on my time at a small private DIII. The experience of competing at an extremely high level for 4 years, the relationships along the way (friends, coaches, etc.), and the lessons I learned from that period of my life.
As someone who works and has to fight the stigmas/assumptions- those are the things that don't show up on a cost benefit analysis and I feel truly sorry for the people who will never understand that.
For myself, I'd really like him to play - I'm just ...concerned? While we've gotten enormous non-monetary value out of his experiences so far (teamwork, setting goals, working for those goals, achieving them), I don't think I'm alone in this, which is why I posted to this thread.
Ultimately, though, it's not really my call - it's going to be his. I view my function is to provide advice, and then let him decide. We will do all we can to help him reach his goals, and if playing stays on that list (at whatever level he might end up at), well, I'll move as much heaven and earth as I can to make it happen, even if I don't think it's the best money move.
But tons of stuff can change in the next three+ years for him, both positive and negative (loss of interest, injury, (ahem) girls, growth stalls / ends unexpectedly), so I really don't know how important it will end up being. It may be critical; it may be "I'm done." [I've personally seen sure fire freshman studs drop their sport by junior year - they don't want to play anymore, for whatever reason (lack of success, wants more of a social life, coach is a dick).]
Thanks to all for the rec's about other forms of subsidies (both as to private and NAIA), we'll start investigating that, as well.