A few years ago while still coaching NCAA D1 volleyball, I sat down with a fellow college coach who had been in the collegiate coaching arena for decades. I asked him, “when you are recruiting a family to play for your program, do you ever feel bad that the family might be stretching itself beyond its financial means just to play the sport? After all, we know if they are receiving any academic or athletic money, parental careers, and more.”
His response, “Not really…I just give them the financial folder and tell them to talk about it as a family.”
This response didn’t quite sit right with me. I had the hardest time thinking that this young woman is taking on in some instances 6 figures of debt to get a generic degree she can get from a school at a much lower price point with the same degree value. Isn’t this part of the “good fit” talk? At the heart of it… I thought it was our responsibility as coaches to lookout for our athletes.
After all, we preach total athlete in our programs. You must take care of your mind, body, and spirit when you are a part of this team and we will help you do so while you’re here to the best of our ability… “Once a (mascot), always a (mascot)!”
Yet for those who have had to endure student loan payments, there is almost nothing more crushing for a bright eyed bushy tailed new graduate’s mind, body and spirit than making $300-$800 monthly student loan payments with an entry level job (if they are fortunate to get one within the 6 month grace period) in this economy that will take the typical person years and often decades to get out from…delaying homeownership, marriage, children and more. You know…life!
For many, parents gift a college education to their recruit. Some can only help a little. If you come from my background (and many do), my family could not afford to help with one cent.
I worked a job part time during high school while balancing sports and music, top ten in my class, worked full time in each of the 3 summers/internship in between college years at a top ranked company, got the highest academic money with grades, got numerous local scholarships, became an RA, coached club, and got some money through a men's volleyball scholarship. I still graduated with debt the size of a VERY NICE home downpayment for my degrees.
“But David, you didn’t need to go to that school, you should have made a different decision!”
Saying statements like this are short sighted and demands you step out of your own experiences. If you take a moment to remember the choices you made in your life that would have been different with even a little hindsight, whether it is debt, divorce, relationships, career upheaval, and more, you can start to empathize with a generation of emerging young adults that didn’t have the tools to make these decisions, especially when earning a degree has been fastened by baby boomer thought leaders as a tool for prosperity and only recently is it’s utility coming into question in a new and rapidly evolving job market and frankly, this new phase of history. AI is pretty cool right?
The irony is the people who demand this sharpened hindsight of teenagers are the same ones asking their employees how to convert their .doc into a PDF. If you know, you know.
I didn’t have anyone in my life to step in and help me ask questions to clarify my priorities. For the young men and women that have parents that take on this role, that is a form of wealth in the same way love and accountability are stores of wealth. These are riches in life and should be treasured as such.
I am not proposing college coaches are the stop gaps and should be the ones asking, “hey, can you really afford this?” That is not quite right. It is still up to the family.
However, what I am saying is that each year there are large amounts of men and women that graduate with their degrees, time in collegiate sports, and a mountain of debt that they cannot comprehend the reality of until after college graduation because:
- They have never held a full-time job (or job period) and watched taxes come out of their paycheck
- They were told it would “just work out” somehow
- Sunk cost mentality “I have already put this much into volleyball; I must keep going!”
- Had no guidance at all explaining how money works
- They plan on marrying someone rich (it’s not the most foolproof plan but hey, respect)
Remember, it is unsavory to reply to this and say, “well my debt was worth it! I wouldn’t trade anything for those memories I made.” That’s you, not everyone feels that way. College athletics, debt implications, and university life are bigger than your one experience.
And, to show you I value those memories near and dear, I included a picture of me holding a book of letters and mementos from former players that mean so much to me I have collected over the years…this picture was the day in 2023 I paid off my debt. Woo! Dave Ramsey can’t comprehend the beans and rice I have eaten for a decade to do this while coaching women’s college volleyball at an average salary of less than a McDonalds worker.
I did the best I could with what I knew at the time to position myself for success. And that’s all you can ask of yourself to show grace and compassion toward the younger version of yourself. These are the things we would tell our athletes if we care about their mentality, confidence, and development (and hopefully ourselves.)
One of the most frequent responses I get from parents that have taken an assessment to participate in Recruiting Class about their fears for their kiddos during the recruiting process is, “they will find a program they love but it will burden them with student debt.” That is real. That is raw and real.
Why is debt a silent killer in this arena? Unless you’re Robert Kiyosaki or Grant Cardone, no one goes around bragging about how much debt they have. It is not socially acceptable or comfortable, especially for young adults. So, when many student-athletes graduate and walk across the stage with their diploma, the debt chains are invisible, and many are only just looking at the sobering reality in front of them and the sacrifices they will have to make to pay the government.
Summary – debt is mostly* bad, lots of student-athletes graduate with it and it hampers them for a long time, and it doesn’t get talked about until after the student-athlete is not the program’s responsibility anymore.
I commit to making Recruiting Class a community that praises and supports holistic decision making as a family and empowering student-athletes to own their process when considering college volleyball. It’s your journey, make it yours. https://www.skool.com/recruiting-class/about