"I had no idea what I was doing.
Stanzi was our oldest kid, and we’d originally tried swimming as a sort of side-interest. Literally, at the park one day, we looked over and saw a swim team practicing, and Stanzi in her little tiny 5 year-old voice proclaimed “I want to try that!”. Why not? We’d tried a LOT of other sports, and she’d been between just OK and not so great at each one. Gymnastics, soccer, dance, and others. At this point, we were ready to just move on and declare athletics a bust. This notion seemed confirmed when our shy, introverted girl shrunk into a corner of the pool each time her (very kind) swim coach talked to her at practice. Honestly, we thought swimming was just another fun diversion that would last a season and then pass, until we were walking out of the end-of-the-season barbecue with a “Beginner of the Year” trophy and a daughter in tears, who was crying because the summer swim season had ended.
We shrugged, and quickly found a year-round club team to swim with, so our girl could continue swimming. Honestly, it was another 4-5 years before we thought much about her actual performance in the sport. Sure, in typical sport-parent fashion we would show up, video every race and make sure she had all the snacks and equipment she needed, but we had no visions of her being anything special in the sport. Suddenly, at around 12 years old, we found ourselves with a kid who was breaking the childhood records of Olympic swimmers. She was suddenly turning in times that college swimmers aspired to. We had no idea what we were in for, and no clue what to do about it. College swimming hadn’t really crossed our minds at this point.
Fortunately, we ended up with a club swim team that was owned by a college coach who understood the world we were about to enter. He let us know that we should start thinking about college recruiting, right as she started her freshman year of high school. As Stanzi rose through the national ranks, eventually sweeping her events at Junior National Championships and entering her senior year as the 4th-ranked national recruit in her class, we taught ourselves more about the recruiting process, academic eligibility and how to communicate with colleges.
Unfortunately, we were dazzled by the dog-and-pony show of some of the bigger schools and big name coaches, and ended up choosing a school that had the best swim program in our minds, but ended up being a less than stellar match for what our daughter needed to be successful. In the end, it didn’t go well and Stanzi ended up transferring to another program. We felt like we’d failed at the recruiting process, and that we’d failed our daughter. It wasn’t until much later that we realized how much we just didn’t know at the time.
Picking a college for an athlete – whether they are a top recruit or not – is about so much more than finding the best athletic program for them. After it’s all said and done, college is about getting them ready for adulthood and a career, and the vast majority of college athletes don’t go on to professional athletics of any kind. So as parents, our job is to help our student athletes find a college or university that will help get them ready for the real life that comes after college and college athletics. There’s so much more to making a good decision than picking the best athletic program or even the program that offers the best financial deal. NCAA rules are complicated, and not made for the average high schooler or parent to navigate.
Our family has managed to find our way through – each of our kids (through #4 - we still have three to go) has found a collegiate program that seemed a fit for them. Of those first four, two have transferred before their sophomore year, and one other swam for a year and then retired. Only one of the four has swam at the same school for all four years. The numbers sound like a disaster, but it’s pretty representative of the numbers at large. Tracking some of the other athletes that swam with my kids through their own college journeys, the number of students who transfer after their first year is surprisingly high. I think this reality underscores the importance of choosing a school and program that is a good match in the general sense – not just a school that seems like a good athletic opportunity. This is a confusing journey, and there’s a lot to learn between amateurism requirements, academic eligibility, recruiting timelines, and negotiating scholarships with coaches. If I could go back and do it all again, I know I’d be grateful to have someone to talk to – someone who could help guide our family’s thinking with insider perspectives and a way to discern what was really best for our athletes.
Elevate Athletics is the product of this journey for Stanzi. It exists because she doesn’t want to see other student athletes go through the missteps that we had along the way. The support that she provides can absolutely help young athletes improve their chances of getting financial aid for athletics. More importantly, though, Elevate can help students find the right college for them, so they can be successful in their journey." - Bill Moseley
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