Playing college sports takes grit. These local high school grads and their parents can attest to that.
Words by Danie Koskan | Photos by Kevin Eilbeck Photography
Ana Egge didn’t know where her college search would take her, but she always knew what she’d be taking with her.
“Playing college volleyball was something I always knew I wanted to do,” the 18-year-old Rapid City Christian graduate said. “I didn’t know where I wanted to go, but I knew that I wanted to keep playing past my high school years.”
She’ll take her love of the game to the Twin Cities this fall when she suits up to play women’s volleyball for the University of Northwestern.
Ana’s circle of friends, fans and family celebrated the outcome of her college search in December—a light-hearted event that included her officially signing her National Letter of Intent to play for the University of Northwestern-St. Paul in St. Paul, Minn. But most of Ana’s well-wishers likely didn’t understand what it took to get to signing day.
Keep Going
Getting to that signing is not all celebratory refreshments and reflections on a great ride. Black Hills families who have been there, done that will tell you it’s feeling overwhelmed, overlooked and just plain over it—and then choosing to keep going.
That’s why when it comes to sports after high school, it pays for parents to understand the process of looking for and landing on a college or university team.
Asking the right questions could shorten the process.
“A good question to ask your child is, ‘Do you want to be done with sports after high school?’” said Abby Peterson, a Rapid City mom whose daughter will swim for Augustana College this fall.
If there’s no interest to continue, that’s a cue to stop. Parental ambition can only drive the process for so long.
The thought of relegating swimming to a box of high school memories didn’t sit well with Abby’s daughter, Ashley, an 18-year-old Rapid City Stevens graduate.
“I wasn’t content to be done,” she said.
Ashley began seriously looking at colleges where she could study and swim, but her parents made sure her search was steeped in reality.
Together they researched what Ashley’s schedule might look like.
Depending on your pain tolerance, there’s no shortage of anecdotal online insights into a day in the life of a college athlete. But if you’re short on time and humor, stick with the pie charts.
The point is to show would-be college athletes
how much of their time will not be their own.
“It’s really walking them through it,” Abby said. “You’re not there to discourage them. You’re just being realistic.”
Planning for the Future
“There are many tasks that have to be completed to be eligible to play a college sport,” said Courtney Crosswait, whose son, Tate, will play football at Northern State University. “Helping your child make a plan of study when they are a freshman is so important if they are even thinking about playing.”
The 2024 Stevens High School graduate sought out a school that would fit him both academically and athletically. He took advantage of “junior days” and game day visits. These unofficial visits get high school students on campus so they can catch a game and a gist of the school, but “unofficial” means students foot the bill for travel, accommodations and food. Unless your family comes to college with a money-is-no-object mantra, your aspiring recruit should be intentional about game-day visits.
These firsthand experiences provide valuable insight into college life, but they’re just one step on the road to recruitment. Staying in touch with the coaching staff and attending prospect camps help downsize students’ wish lists.
Camps
Courtney encouraged student-athletes to try camps as a way to see and be seen.
“When you get camp invites, go,” she said.
Camps allow participants to try on a school for size and scope and sustainability. There’s time and space for athletes to gauge if they would survive or thrive.
“It gives the athlete a feel for what the school is like,” Courtney said. “Does it fit them?”
Performing well doesn’t mean you’ll receive an offer on the spot, but it might mean getting on the coach’s radar. If you’re the parent of an athlete who wants to attend one of these camps as an underclassman, remind your daughter or son that coaches are primarily looking at recruiting older campers. This is not to diminish their drive, but to embolden them to take advantage of working on their game alongside more experienced players.
All the visits, camps and conversations eventually led Tate to Northern State University. NSU offered the degree he wanted and a scholarship to play football—the two things recruits are usually after. But what Tate found in the process was something that can’t be measured in dollars and diplomas: community.
“When I chose Northern State University, part of that decision was because of the community,” he said. “The community supports the football program and surrounds the team with that support.”
Relationships
Money and academic programs might draw students to a school, but relationships are the stuff that sustains them.
Isaac Flanegan ran and jumped for Rapid City Central High School and wanted to continue in college, but that desire wasn’t exclusive. He also wanted to find a good school that was affordable. He and his family started looking at colleges the summer after his junior year.
Because track and field runs late on the school calendar, recruiters tend to look at a thinclad’s junior marks, whereas football or volleyball players have the fall to make one last impression before recruiting season ends.
The Flanegans found one tool especially helpful: Next College Student Athletes (NCSA), an online recruiting service that connects middle and high school students with college coaches and recruiting information. Isaac toured several state campuses and was offered a partial track scholarship from Black Hills State University but eventually settled on the University of South Dakota, where many of his friends attend.
A conversation that Isaac had with his high school coach proved invaluable in his college selection. Isaac’s coach asked him why he wasn’t pursuing track and field after his senior year. He was among the best high school jumpers in the state, after all. Isaac’s coach had connections to the track and field program at South Dakota State University, so it wasn’t too long after that conversation that Isaac received a recruiting invite. A ride across the state later, and he had an offer to compete for the Jackrabbits. This spring he wrapped up his first season as a Division 1 athlete.
“It really came down to his coach’s recommendation that he was a good kid, hard worker, likely to keep his grades up, and a positive teammate,” said Isaac’s dad, Keith.
Isaac wasn’t looking for a signing day, but it found him. He inked his letter of intent to compete for SDSU in May 2023.
His story is not every recruit’s story.
“Looking back, maybe it was for the best,” Keith said. “He did his thing, succeeded and focused on the rest of his life. It’s a tradeoff, though, because we didn’t do any other special training that helps kids improve.”
Passion and Perseverance
Parenting a child as they pursue college sports is lead, follow and get out the way. Sending emails or making phone calls is not as exciting as showcasing their skills, so kids might need a push or a pull when it’s time to initiate a conversation with coaches.
Committing to college athletics requires sacrificing other aspects of campus life. That’s where parents can help teens process the future.
And sometimes parents just need to get out of the way so students can figure out if the process is worth the outcome.
If signing is the goal, encourage your child to persevere. If the passion’s not there, let it go.
“During high school, parents can fall into the trap of over-promoting sports,” Keith said. “This can diminish the joy.”
But if college sports are what your kid is after, parents of recent and soon-to-be college athletes encourage leaning into — rather than counting all the reasons to loathe — the process.
“I would not ever change the process that Tate went through, as it was so rewarding in the end,” Courtney Crosswait said. “All the pushing, the hard work, the time and the sitting in the bleachers is worth it.”