Age Old Question...

[Cod]

Today I was doing some speed and tempo work on the track and a guy around 18 or so comes up to me and says, "You look like a person dedicated to training and your sports." Then he said, "Since you're that way, I wanted to ask a question. Is it possible for an athlete to play ball in college without every playing in high school?". So after talking for awhile, I came to find out that he was talking about college baseball and hasn't played organized since little league (about 6-7 years ago). I just told him that if he was dedicated enough and put in hard work, anything is possible.

Now, the whole point of that story was this: Is it possible for someone to play any sport in college without playing highschool? I really don't know how to answer it, so I was hoping some people around here could help me clarify an answer to this question in case its ever asked again. Because I notice we get the same question around these forums a lot.

Any help is appreciated.

[th3 gr34t3st]

it depends on how athletic the person is and to some degree if they've played any other sports. i've heard of guys who can make D1 college football teams just because they're super fast. these guys have never played organized football in their lives but the coaches are hoping they can teach them how to run routes and catch. i would say yes it is possible with dedication but incredibly hard.

[PunisherHCK]

Thats a real hard question. i suppose it would depend on the person. if the person worked out on his own all those years and kept in shape and had the talent in lil league sports then ya he might have a shot. he would have to really impress the coaches during tryouts. it also depends on talent and desire. the body is an amazing machine coupled with desire and you have a decent chance.

[dmill]

Depends on what you're definition of "college" sports are. I play college basketball at an NAIA school, and have noticed that many players on our JV team never played in high school. These guys are technically playing "college" ball, but on an NAIA JV team. There are also small colleges that play in the NCCAA(National Christian College Athletic Association), that get any players they can, whether they played in high school or not. As for playing at the D1 level, you probably need to play in high school no matter what sport, unless you're an athletic freak of nature.

[Person]

Donovan Bailey started running track at 26 and Linford Christie started at 24. Both had great ability, no doubt, but were late bloomers nonetheless.

What about various crew athletes? Some of the people going to the Olympics for crew this year never even heard of the sport until college, let alone compete in it. Many other sports are in the same circumstance (bobsledding, skulling, etc.).