Are you and school right now and love playing sports? Are you a top team player and want to continue playing sports when you go to college or university? You may want to consider looking into college and university sports scholarships. Sports scholarships can be national or international, and can take you across the world. A sports scholarship is described as “An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport.”[1]

Sports scholarships are very common in America, with their highly fuelled sports culture. Players from all over the world can be offered scholarships to come and play for American teams, most commonly and most popularly, football and basketball. For Canadian students, sports scholarships can be awarded yearly, and can be renewable up to 4 years, which is the length of an undergraduate degree.[2] Canadian students may have many struggles trying to achieve a scholarship from the States. They must apply for visas, promote themselves, and take American college entry exams.[3] That is why a lot of applicants tend to have recruiting companies like athleticscholarships.net do the heavy groundwork for them.

In an article in Maclean’s Magazine brings up the fact that most Canadian students forego Canadian athletic scholarships because US scholarships provide more money, opportunity and media exposure.[4] Maclean’s states: “Canadian schools are currently forbidden from offering athletic scholarships that exceed tuition and student fees. The vast majority get much less than this. While tuition in most provinces is over $5,000 a year, the average Canadian sports scholarship is $1,060.”[5] Now that is a hard pill to swallow for most universities trying to encourage their home-grown and trained students to stick around. At times it seems like sports scholarships come down to one thing; money. Sports scholarships can launch careers, but education is always the most important thing to consider. If you are a student who is not excelling in academics but is excelling in sports, you may want to balance yourself out evenly before you make any big commitments to go over-seas for a sports scholarship.

CanScout[6], Canada’s leading sports recruitment agency (in Ontario), lists some very important facts about Recruiting:

• College coaches lack the resources to recruit and find athletes.
• If you are an excelling athlete in your high school, you should be receiving mailings from college coaches.
• “As soon as the NCAA rules allow college coaches to contact prospects, they will begin to call you”
• Ontario highs school athletes are being overlooked for international scholarships for their coaches lack knowledge of the recruitment process.

Although some things need to change within Canada for Canadian high school students to gain exposure and just reward, don’t overlook what might be in your own Canadian back yard. You might find that you are more comfortable playing sports in Canada than in the U.S., despite the temptation of money. Check out the article “OF KNIGHTS AND EXCALIBUR COLUMN: Canadian athletic scholarships have value too” by Kyle Dupont.[7] He talks about some misconceptions about Canadian sports scholarships that you might want to look at before you jump into our neighbour’s yard and play the field.

References:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_scholarship

[2] http://canada.usembassy.gov/educationusacanada/sports-scholarships.html

[3] http://www.athleticscholarships.net/canada-athletic-scholarships-america.htm

[4] http://www.macleans.ca/general/an-expensive-fix-to-a-non-existent-problem/

[5] http://www.macleans.ca/general/an-expensive-fix-to-a-non-existent-problem/

[6] http://www.canscout.ca/

[7] http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2013/01/02/of-knights-and-excalibur-column-canadian-athletic-scholarships-have-value-too