Varsity Cross-Country, Springboard Diving, and Track in high school?

Question

If you make it to state in one, two, or all of those sports starting freshman year and ending senior year, are you pretty much set for a full ride scholarship for college/university?

* also with a 4.0 GPA, and in the IB program (which basically means that you take all advanced classes)

* and with taking Sophomore Spanish and Math freshman year and going all the way through high school one year ahead in both of those classes

im just wondering cuz i want to know what to strive for

Answer 1

if you make the state cut freshman year thats a plus because it means youre dedicated, same with the gpa -- but that wont set you up for a scholarship on its own, if you want an athletic scholarship go for a section/state record, or if you want an academic scholarship which is easier in most cases i think keeping a 4.0 and acing standardized tests should suffice; those last classes you mentioned dont really matter that much

good luck

Answer 2

No it won't.

While making state in any sport as a high school freshmen will improve your chances of a scholarship, and having good grades makes you more attractive to schools, coaches will be looking at many other things.  

One thing coaches will look at is your improvement.  How much an athlete improves through their high school years can give a coach a good indication of what to expect in college.  Tied into this is how coachable and dedicated to your sport you are.

Another thing coaches will look at is your competition.  Some states are more competitive than others.  For example in Illinois swimming the winners of each event at sectionals automatically go to state, yet many of the downstate sectionals are much slower than those around Chicago, so just making it doesn't matter if you finish last by a significant margin.  Also the Illinois State high school swim meet time standards are much faster than the Wisconsin time standards.  

One other thing that will decide if you get a scholarship offer from a school is how you fit into that team.  Will you fill a gap?  Will you work well with the team philosophy?

There are many other factors that go into getting a college scholarship and the process can be confusing and intimidating because there is no ONE way to guarantee a scholarship.  The best advice is to work hard, stay healthy, stay out of trouble, and be proactive in the recruiting process.  Choose where YOU want to go and start making contact with them once you're a junior.  Know the rules, work with your coaches and you should be okay.

Good luck