Scholarships @ grade 9?

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Roscoe62

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My son attends a private school. He is an excellent lacrosse player, as are several of his friends.
One of these friends told him he received a scholarship to attend west point, but, he is currently a freshman.
My son wants to attend the Air Force academy. But thinks he will be able to bypass the nomination and appointment process.
His friend HAS to be lying, right?
 
Don’t know about “lying.” Perhaps dreamy? Or wishful? He’s young, so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

The SAs do not grant athletic scholarships. A candidate is not considered by an SA’s admissions committee until he/she begins the application process, which can’t start until late junior year. An athlete, no matter how good, cannot bypass the nomination or appointment process.

Many others will weigh in shortly, I’m sure, but those are the basic facts.
 
Lacrosse is very big at SAs. USNA and USMA sit in lacrosse hot beds. Lacrosse is a growing sport. As mentioned there are no athletic scholarships. SAs do not participate in the National Letter of Intent program the NCAA has. Every candidate has to apply regardless of athletic recruit or not. They must be 3Q; scholastically, physically, medically qualified. So they will have a DoDMERB physical, take the CFA, submit the application. They also must get a nomination. Not sure what the coach said, but he can’t promise anything without a thousand caveats to that statement that include all the items above (which are way more difficult to complete then many think). The young man who said that promise was made, still has a long way to go. If he decides USMA is for him, he won’t get to skip to the process.
 
Scholarships aren't a thing USMA or service academies in general give out; they have no tuition. So yeah, your son's friend is lying. So much so that its not even remotely plausible.

As for your son, tell him that he can't "bypass" any requirement. Even children of Medal of Honor recipients have to apply for a nomination and get an appointment to get in.
 
^^ I agree and high schools are just starting for the year, so to have been recruited while still in 8th grade seems implausible. Perhaps he met/talked with a coach while touring WP this summer or interacted with someone via email. You can search older threads and find lots of examples discussing what being 'recruited' by one of the SA's really means. Being recruited is no guarantee of an appointment and does NOT enable you to 'line jump' the other admissions requirements.
 
I wouldn't jump to lying necessarily. My kids are soccer players and both got D1 soccer scholarships. On their teams, there are definitely kids even in 8th grade that had verbal offers for full rides. Many in 9th grade did and almost all did by 10th grade. Those verbal offers weren't jokes and all turned into formal offers as juniors in HS. The schools I am talking about are in the ACC and SEC so not tiny schools. Of course, verbal offers can be changed at any time by a school or by the athlete, so there aren't guarantees. The academies are trying to compete with those same schools for players and I wouldn't be surprised if they had a limited number of verbals that have more caveats than normal schools, but let the athlete know there is a spot for them if they meet certain criteria. The OP did say the lacrosse player is excellent. If the player is national level, then I could see this happening.
 
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Agree with billyb. Probably made an offer that if the young man keeps on the right track, gets great grades in STEM, passes a physical and stays on the right track he can come to USMA and play lacrosse. Verbal offers hold no weight in reality, but they happen a lot. There are just a lot more caveats to gettin into a SA. And as a new 9th grader he probably doesn’t understand how big those caveats are to knock out.
 
+1 to NavyHoops. BTW - she is the authority here on USNA athletes and recruitment, having been one. Can you guess which sport she played? :D I mention this so you can tell your son that you know someone who.... and she said....
 
After dominating the lacrosse field at West Point, he gets to join the other Army with Judy Benjamin - the one with condo's, private rooms, and drapes so the sun doesn't wake him up at the crack of dawn.

N.B. Anyone born in this century may not understand the reference - you will have to drive over to the video store and rent a VHS copy of Private Benjamin. ;)
 
@jl123: Let me help you out. I posted this on the “SLE—Dirty?” Thread:

Judy Benjamin: I think they sent me to the wrong place.

Capt. Doreen Lewis: Uh-huh.

Judy Benjamin: See, I did join the army, but I joined a *different* army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms.

…

Judy Benjamin: To be truthful with you, I can't sleep in a room with 20 strangers.

Capt. Doreen Lewis: Oh dear.

Judy Benjamin: And I mean look at this place. The army couldn't afford drapes? I'll be up at the crack of dawn here!

…

Judy Benjamin: Have you seen the bathroom?

Capt. Doreen Lewis: Do you think that the latrine... do you think that it's unsanitary?

Judy Benjamin: It's disgusting! There are *urinals* in there!

…

Pvt. Wanda Winter: Just keep marching, Benjamin.

Judy Benjamin: My name is Judy! J-U-D-Y Judy and I'd like somebody to call me by my name! Oh, okay I took my life in my own hands, I made a mistake fine I'm sorry! I'll never do it again! I wanna wear my sandals... I wannago out to lunch. I wanna be NORMAL again!
Click to expand...
 
Is this the same movie with the line, “No one puts Judy in a corner”?
 
jl123 said:
After dominating the lacrosse field at West Point, he gets to join the other Army with Judy Benjamin - the one with condo's, private rooms, and drapes so the sun doesn't wake him up at the crack of dawn.

N.B. Anyone born in this century may not understand the reference - you will have to drive over to the video store and rent a VHS copy of Private Benjamin. ;)
Click to expand...
The worse part is that I saw in the movie theater. Fun movie, just showing my age. Its funny to see Armand Assante playing Goldie Hawn's boyfriend. Must of been an early film for him and nothing resembling the roles he later took on. Actually I saw it recently and now that I am little more knowledgable about ranks, it funny how the movies play fast and loose with it. Eileen Brennan played a Captain although she seemed highly involved in basic training. Now she was 48 years old at the time, but even assuming she played 10 years younger, wouldnt she be too old to be a Captain?
 
Humey said:
Now she was 48 years old at the time, but even assuming she played 10 years younger, wouldnt she be too old to be a Captain?
Click to expand...
Mustang Officers (up from Enlisted) can be a good deal older than the average Service Academy or ROTC officer
 
billyb said:
I wouldn't jump to lying necessarily. My kids are soccer players and both got D1 soccer scholarships. On their teams, there are definitely kids even in 8th grade that had verbal offers for full rides.
Click to expand...

Full athletic grant in aid for soccer? I thought that only happened in football and basketball.
 
It's definitely not normal, but if you are a top 20 player in the country going to a college that is top 5 in the country in the sport then it happens. I have personally known 10 local kids in the last 4 years that have received full rides for soccer. My point for this thread is that if the player the OP is talking about really is a top lax player nationally then I wouldn't be surprised if he received a verbal offer from an academy in 9th grade.
 
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