Journalist, publisher, author Penny Hastings lives in Santa Rosa, California, and is the co-author of "How To Win A Sports Scholarship" and author of Sports For Her: A Reference Guide for Teenage Girls. She has written numerous articles for newspapers and magazines. She is the owner/publisher of Redwood Creek Publishing. www.winasportsscholarship.com
If you have athletic ability and good grades you are a candidate for a sports scholarship. You might be surprised to know that there are 34 sports played at the college level that are scholarship sports. You probably can't list them all!
Each of these 34 sports have scholarship possibilities, but not all colleges offer or award scholarships in every sport. The institutions themselves decide which sports to sponsor. Additionally, while many college sports programs offer teams for both genders, other sports are only available for men or women. Getting confused? Well, here's the list:
Archery Football Skiing, downhill
Badminton Golf Squash
Baseball Gymnastics Soccer
Basketball Handball Softball
Bowling Ice Hockey Swimming
Cheerleading Indoor Track Synchonized Swimming
Cross Country Lacrosse Tennis
Diving Riflery Track & Field
Equestrian Rodeo Volleyball
Fencing Rowing Water Polo
Field Hockey Rugby Wrestling
Skiing, x country
What is interesting is that many young people grow up thinking that college sports are about basketball or baseball or football. They see these sports on national television and or read about them in newspapers or on sports websites. The truth is there are so many other sports they can play. Some savvy young athletes look at the list and decide to change sports to one they might excel in at the college level.
An example is a high school runner. She was above average in her school and in the league. But, she became interested in pole-vaulting when it was still fairly new for high school females. She was recruited by several college coaches for her pole-vaulting skills, not her running. She went to a great college on a track scholarship in pole-vaulting.
Another young high school athlete was a skilled soccer player. She was highly rated but not one of the top 3 or 4 in her area. She switched to rowing in her junior year and excelled. She also received a scholarship... not in her earlier sport...but in rowing.
Being realistic is beneficial when thinking about playing a college sport. If a student-athlete experiences several sports along the way, including ones that don't get much attention in the press, but are college sports, nonetheless, he or she might find that fencing or riflery or rowing is a better fit than the media favorites...and they might pay scholarship dollars, too.
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