Golf. Water polo. Squash. Equestrian. These are the sorts of sports more or less exclusively available to members of expensive country clubs and prep schools. So why do Ivy League schools earmark slots for players of these exclusionary sports in their incoming classes each year? It’s nonsensical. Granted, not every “country club” sport has a varsity division at every Ivy League school, but many of them do, and their players take up valuable space on campuses where only the best of the best should be in attendance. In the midst of Ivy League acceptance rates dwindling to record low numbers in recent years, there is no justification for giving the children of the country club elite an express lane into an elite college education!

How Exclusionary are Country Club Sports?

Sports like squash, equestrian, and golf require robust facilities, large swathes of land, specialized training, and tons of equipment. In other words, they cost a lot of money, and might only be available in wealthier communities. While football is played at nearly every school across the nation, from the lower to upper ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, exclusive sports teams are usually only found at well-resourced suburban public schools and expensive private preparatory schools. The average school in a low-income neighborhood simply does not have the space or money to maintain a golf course or swimming pool.

But we at Ivy Coach do not blame such schools for maintaining country club sports teams. After all, maintaining these teams is a tried and true way of ensuring that a handful of their seniors will matriculate to Ivy League schools. It is high time that the country club sports pipeline be dismantled at its source: Ivy League athletic recruitment. Not only do recruited athletes enjoy a significant admissions boost over non-athletes by being flagged and tagged by Ivy League coaches, but they also are not necessarily the children of major donors, who at least secure valuable financial resources for a university in exchange for expedited admission. Country club sports are not a lucrative revenue source for Ivy League schools, as opposed to sports like football or basketball, which draw in press and advertising revenue.

In other words, country club sports recruitment is a massive waste of time, resources, and opportunity for the sake of a handful of privileged, overwhelmingly white students who offer their universities little in return. However, this is not to say that country club sports should be eliminated from Ivy League campuses all together.

The Ivy Coach Solution: Return to Ivy League Amateurism!

Country club sports have storied histories at each Ivy League school. Before unfair athletic recruitment became a standard practice across the athletic conference, these schools were famed for their amateur leagues composed entirely of walk-ons. Granted, this relationship to athleticism is a relic of a bygone era, in which masculine athleticism was identified with the American ruling class, and only men could reap its benefits on elite campuses. But there was one thing that they got right back then: each applicant had to prove their worthiness independent of their athletic ability, and only once admission was secured could they join a sports team.

Given the deep historical roots of this culture of amateurism, it is natural that Ivy League schools should return to what they know. We at Ivy Coach dream of an elite admissions landscape where athletic ability is not taken into consideration when applicants are being evaluated. The result will create Ivy League campuses that are far more democratic and where the sports teams are far more accessible and fun! Who is to say that the kid that always wanted to learn squash, but couldn’t while growing up, can’t start in college? Those four years should ideally be the perfect time to explore new horizons, and it’s a shame that the country club athletic recruitment process creates barriers to entry that maintain socioeconomic divisions.