It's a very busy life being a student, extracurricular participant, school sport athlete, as well as an outside of school club sport athlete. More than some can even imagine. I hear people complain about having a 3 hour choir rehearsal and not having time for homework. Try driving 45 minutes to Iowa City 3-4 times a week after a full day of school, AND school sport practice, and trying to balance homework at the same time. Talk about late school nights. This is without mentioning makeup work for days we go to out of state tournaments, taking 4 hour plane rides and getting back on a Sunday night at midnight, and being forced to wake up for yet another long Monday at school. Don't get me wrong, this is my life and I live for these 3-4 day tournaments, hotel "parties", the most random food places you will ever find, and hot guy stalking with my team, who also happen to be some of my bestfriends. I wouldn't trade them for a boring night with 6 hours after school to do homework, hang with friends, or veg out on the couch still getting 8-9 hours of sleep. Who would like that anyways?
What is the difference between a club sport and a school sport you might ask? Well, in my case I'm on a club volleyball team, the Iowa Rockets. We have clinics and specialty practices off season, and tryouts, and tournaments during the school year and summer, making this an almost year-round sport when we include school volleyball. To get on the team you must attend tryouts where you will be evaluated by many coaches from around Iowa, and put on either the (ascending order) Gold, Black, or R(top) team (my team:)). The higher level team you make, the more competitive tournaments you will attend, which also means more college exposure in hopes of getting a athletic scholarship. Almost every tournament we attend on the R team is sponsored by a volleyball brand (ex. Asics, Mizuno, etc.), usually held at the convention center in whichever state we land in that weekend.
You walk into the convention center and are in a huge building with an average of about 70 volleyball courts, give or take. Don't even get me started on the concession booths... mmm. College coaches are allowed at most of these events to come scout teams and girls they are interested in for a potential college player. It's pretty nerve-wracking when it's game point of the championship and you see the coach of the biggest volleyball college in the country watching you with a clipboard of notes, and a pen in hand, ready to "dock you points" on any mistake you make.
If the colleges like what they see, they start by sending you a questionairre, which is just to basically get your information in case they would like to contact you in the future. On September 3rd of your junior year is when coaches can call and/or email you freely, and you can arrange official visits to schools of interest.
All of this is a great experience and I don't know what I would do without my club sports.
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