College soccer and flight training

DC10FlyBy

DC10FlyBy

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, it's my Senior year in High School, and I'm looking to play college soccer. I don't plan on getting a degree in aviation, and will more than likely get my training at an FBO. I was just wondering if you guys think it will be too much to be flying and playing college soccer at the same time. Is it realistically possible, or too much?
 
DC10FlyBy said:
Hey guys, it's my Senior year in High School, and I'm looking to play college soccer. I don't plan on getting a degree in aviation, and will more than likely get my training at an FBO. I was just wondering if you guys think it will be too much to be flying and playing college soccer at the same time. Is it realistically possible, or too much?
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Sounds fun. Do it.
 
DC10FlyBy said:
Hey guys, it's my Senior year in High School, and I'm looking to play college soccer. I don't plan on getting a degree in aviation, and will more than likely get my training at an FBO. I was just wondering if you guys think it will be too much to be flying and playing college soccer at the same time. Is it realistically possible, or too much?
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Depends on how fast you want to progress through flight training. I think you'll be fine.
 
If you are not flying anything else may slow down your flying career. But years from now you won't remember that it took you an extra month to finish your flying, but you will definately remember your soccer playing in college. So given a choice play sports. You will also learn more from it about life than any subject in college.
 
Blackhawk said:
If you are not flying anything else may slow down your flying career. But years from now you won't remember that it took you an extra month to finish your flying, but you will definately remember your soccer playing in college. So given a choice play sports. You will also learn more from it about life than any subject in college.
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:yeahthat:

You'll make more friends on the team than you will at the flight school and definitely learn a bunch of life lessons. I wish I had accepted an offer to play lacrosse up here, but nothing I can do about it now...
 
Are you thinking from a safety standpoint? That you may be too fatigued to fly safe or be distracted when thinking about the game?

That is the only factor I can think of off the top. I don't see a problem unless there is some medical issue which warrants concern. I knew one guy who lettered in 6 sports. Others who lettered in 4 sports and worked to become Eagle scouts. What you propose is very doable. You'd probably enjoy it immensely.
 
I was on a crew team in college, for a division III school (that's pretty low tier / not too competitive)

To give you an idea of practice & work out schedules, it consisted of about:

2-3 hour morning practice
1-2 hours in the gym at night
during the week

weekend:
Friday night - travel
Saturday - race (all day event) then travel, usually home by 6-7pm
Sunday - light work out in the gym

Besides school, there wan't a whole lot of time for much else. And, the free time I had became pretty valuable.

I think flying in college is possible while on a sports team, but it will definitely cut into your commitment (if you want to keep up your grades)

My recommendation is to hold off on flying for a semester or so before you try to integrate flying so that you can see what type of time you can put into flying.
 
I have buddies that played all sorts of sports while flight training. One guy who was on the swim team actually graduated a year early. I marched in the band and was in just about every aviation organization we had at the university. It made for busy days, but I really enjoyed the experience.

College isn't just about getting the education. It's about experiences and memeries gained. So do what makes you happy.
 
I currently have a student who is in soccer and is training at our FBO towards his private.

He currently is putting flying 2nd, hardly has time to do any flights but is slowly getting there. Hes been flying with me about a year and is roughly half way done with about 25 hours.

But a motivated person could get done quite a bit quicker in my opinion.
 
If it was me, I would put soccer and school way ahead of flying-especially if you are scholarship. Soccer is a limited window. Flying can wait. I would see how it goes the first year, or maybe do it in the summer. Either way is fine, I do think if money is an issue, it is best to be able to concentrate on a rating, and focus on that. All of this is just a knee jerk opinion. Good luck!
 
I had multiple soccer scholarships in high school. I took one at a D-1 junior college. It was pretty serious and we traveled all over. Even played the defending national champs. In my experience, I don't think it could have been done...

We practiced from 630 to 730 am. Then a 3-5 pm practice, then 9-10 practice everynight. During school. Long story short, I left after the season to play at a school closer to home with more career choices but went to college at home for a semester and liked it so much I stayed. I really don't see how it could be done. It all depends on your school and practice/game schedule, but you will be expected to be at EVERY practice, and work on your regular classes while flight training. In my experiences, that would have been a recipe for disaster. It can be done, but kiss your social life goodbye. Life's too short to be that serious.

My advice, give up the soccer and play intramural or club soccer if you'll miss it too much. I really don't mean to sound rude, but you're going to have to give it up someday(otherwise you wouldn't need to go through flight training;), really) You could also try it for a semester, but I can almost guarantee your schedule will be miserable. Soccer chicks are hot, playing college sports is a blast, but you might want to start thinking about longevity. On the other hand, if you're entirely sold on flying, play soccer and take general eds for a semester and get a better feel for what you want to do. Personally I just don't think doing both would be much fun.

Good luck with whatever you choose and more importantly, have fun and lay it all out!
 
As someone who played collegiate soccer and then went over to Europe to play professionally, pick one or the other. If you are going to play at a DIV IA school, you will not have time for anything else (other than classes and your sport). What many don't realize is that a collegiate sport is basically a full-time job, then you are taking classes on top of that. Think about how you are going to pay for your flight training as well. If you will be on scholarship, you can not work, per NCAA!

My advise is to think about what you really want to do, and do that. With that said, know that your college years will stay with you the rest of your life! You will never forget those time or those friends. Also, you can never go back to live the college experience. You can always go back to school, but again, you can never go back and relive those years from 18 - 22 years of age. Personally, I would go to school, play ball, make friends, meet girls/women, have fun and then fly. As people have said on JC since its inception, airplanes will always be there. Those four years will not!
 
You can fly any time; you only have four years of eligibility to play college soccer.

I didn't play and wish I had tried. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the USAF team camp one year, but I blew my ankle the first day.

Now I get to fly all over the world and play pickup soccer, run a soccer club, officiate at the Georgia State Cup, watch my U19 Classic I son, U10 and U9 kids in Academy play, and work games with my other two sons.

I fly to support my soccer habit. :D
 
Thank you all for the speedy and info-filled replies! There's a lot more soccer players and fans on here than I thought. :rolleyes:

I kind of figured that I wouldn't give up on soccer, but I just wanted to take a look at all options. You all are right about the college years, you can never re-live them. I can get training anytime.
 
Really, that is true. I think a large majority of us look back fondly on those years on the what-ifs and what I could have done (good or bad)

They are great times, just remember to have fun, and don't get caught.
 
I wouldn't be nearly as motivated without my flight training in high school. I'm only a junior, but I'm on the varisty swim team. For now I just have practices from 5AM to 7:15AM. But come November It's 5 to 730AM and 3:30 to 6:30PM. The only day I really have to fly in the winter are Sundays. And that's if the weathr is decent, it hardly is here in the winter.. But, I wouldn't trade flying for anything. Keep me outa trouble too:pirate:
 
I did college track and XC, and my wife did soccer. I'm of the mindset that if you're going to do something, do it well -- which, for college athletics, means that it'll take up all of your free time. I suppose you could fit in a flight lesson here and there during the off season, but it's not really worth doing at that point.

Go with the sports. Like it's been said already, you can fly whenever, but you only have one shot at playing at that level. It's well worth it.
 
whats up man. It is definitely something that can be done. I am working on finishing up my degree in aviation and I played basketball for the school I attend for the first 4 years. There are trips that you will be gone for on weekends and things like that for sure, but it comes down for priorities. There are going to be times when your friends are out having a good time, but you will have to study. There will also be plenty of times when they are reading some chemistry book, and you are flying for your homework. If you want to make it happen, you can make it work. Honestly I had a more difficult time with teachers and missing class for games than I ever did with basketball and flying conflicting.
 
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