Although it is very important for high school athletes to prepare mentally and physically for college athletics, it is often their ACADEMICS that keep them from achieving their goals for college and playing as freshman.
In order to be eligible to play as a freshman at an NCAA D-I or D-II university student-athletes must meet certain academic eligibility requirements set by the NCAA.
In many cases, student-athletes don’t find out until their senior year that they are not on track to meet the eligibility requirements and will not be eligible to play as a freshman in college. This situation could be avoided if proper steps are taken as early as 9th grade to track the academic progress of a student-athlete. In July, 2010, Dynamite Sports launched the first FREE web-based NCAA Eligibility Calculator in the country. Currently over 2000 high school counselors and coaches nationwide are using it. I strongly recommend that you check with your guidance counselor to make sure they are using this great tool (they can view the demo and setup a FREE account by clicking on the NCAA Eligibility Calculator icon at the top of our homepage). The calculator has the appearance of a virtual academic locker room. The counselor can setup an “Academic Profile” for student-athletes as early as 9th grade and by inputting their grades by either semester, trimester, or block scheduling, they can track the core GPA, make sure the “Sliding Scale of Eligibility” is met, and even take into account the extra credit grade values of “weighted courses”. Families will receive a secure login to the calculator and will have 24-hour access to view and/or print their student-athletes’ “Eligibility Status Report”.
It is imperative that all prospective college-bound athletes have their academic progress monitored and evaluated several times each year. By doing this, potential eligibility problems can be avoided.
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