With every new school year, there are many scholarship opportunities provided.

Athletic scholarships that are offered to student-athletes come from local, in-state colleges to out of state colleges as well.
A number of senior student-athletes this school year visited a number of universities and colleges to learn more about athletic scholarships they can earn to the schools.

“I visited La Salle University, Longwood University, VCU and Temple University to learn more about athletic scholarship opportunities,” senior Melissa Wilson said. “I would have to go D1 in order to earn a full athletic scholarship in lacrosse.”

It is not always necessary to qualify for Division One in order to earn athletic scholarships. It is also possible to earn partial scholarships for lower-tier divisions.

“Some of the schools that I visited to learn more about being able to earn athletic scholarships were Chatham, Albertus Magnus and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts,” senior McKenzie Yi said.

Depending on the university or college, merit or academic scholarships are awarded, but athletic scholarships are not always an opportunity.

“I learned that for D3 schools, you are only offered merit money,” Yi said. “But for D1 and D2 schools you can be given money to go and play for the school.”

A variety of sports that student-athletes partake in are offered athletic scholarships from time to time.

“I visited UDC in order to learn about the athletic scholarships I could be offered for playing soccer,” senior Rudy Flores said.
Depending on quality of play in the sport, the amount of scholarship money can increase.

“If I play really well, I would be awarded a scholarship to assist my educational needs,” Flores said. “If I perform even better I will earn a larger athletic scholarship.”

Athletic scholarships could be very beneficial in the long run for student athletes and give another positive to participating in high school sports.