What’s one thing student athletes at WHHS try to achieve out of playing high school sports? Well playing in college and the process of trying to play in college can be a rough journey. Some sports you can just be naturally good at and others you have to really work hard for it. One of the hardest sports to play in college is football as well as basketball and a few others. But it’s not just being good at the sport, it’s being good with your time at school and also your good grades. Here are some steps that you should take in order to play the sport in college. Keep in mind divisions 1,2, and 3 will be included and this guide will have information from the NCAA(National Collegiate Athletic Association).

First things first to play division 1 you must find a sport to play in high school that you are good at and are comfortable playing in college, then ask your counselor for NCAA core courses as said by the NCAA themselves. Then you have to register with the NCAA eligibility center and submit your sat scores to the NCAA. When you’re in your final year of high school you need to finish your courses and take a test given by the NCAA and have your counselor submit your official transcript. For academic scores, the minimum requirement in each course must be at least a 2.0 GPA. Finally, when you find what college you want to play for you must enroll usually before or after August 1st. Also, if you want the coach to see your performance and earn a scholarship you need to send videos of you playing high school sports. Also, email coaches about them seeing your performance personally so they can follow up on you more. But you can always be a walk on and usually, college sports always have tryouts for people that either didn’t get the chance to earn a scholarship or just want to play division 1 sports.

For Division 2 it is slightly easier yet similar to playing for division 1. All of the academic requirements are the same for division 2 as division 1. It’s just that it is easier to play for and may not require much skill as division 1. Division 2 college sports teams still offer scholarships and accept walk-ons.  Division 3 colleges do not give out scholarships, but they do ask high school players to play for them. Although 75 percent of division 3 student-athletes receive some form of merit or need-based financial aid. If you are planning to attend a Division III school, you do not need to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center. Division III schools set their own admissions standards. Division 3 schools are said to be perfect for student that mainly want an education and do not plan being an athlete which is found to be perfect for WHHS students like Angelo Longo “I love to play football, but I don’t plan on going pro so I decided to play division 3 football at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and focus on my future career and get my degree.”

Lastly, If you want to be a walk on or sports team that are division 1 you should at least get some years in of playing a sport during high school or train at a facility that helps you get better at the sport. Some places like Parisi speed school and the NJ sports house can help you with being a better athlete for the sport you want to play. If you get accepted as a walk on and do well your later years at the school you may be offered a scholarship, mainly it’s because the school sees that your such a good athlete that they don’t want you to leave. And just like high school colleges allow you play 2 sports, but you may no have enough time to do other things. So if you’re planning on playing some sports in college then this is something you could use.