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Parents of college-bound student-athletes often ask, "How can I best help my child prepare for the academic demands of college?" Whether or not your youngster is planning to compete athletically at the next level, or has been an A or C student, the question is significant.

To help answer that question, we have compiled the following "To-Do" list for parents. These suggestions come from our more than 30 years of teaching and mentoring student-athletes and are drawn from the ideas and strategies of academically successful student-athletes from around the country whose insights were at the core of the research for our recently-published book, The College Athlete's Guide to Academic Success: Tips from Peers and Profs. We offer these suggestions and quotations of student-athletes from our book to help you provide guidance to your youngster now, while he is still in high school, because now is the time for him to establish good habits, attitudes, and skills, so that when freshman year arrives, he'll hit the ground running and his academic transition to college will be smoother.

Help them realize they've already got what it takes!

Student-athletes possess a host of personal characteristics, traits, and values that have helped them thrive athletically, including discipline, commitment, focus, high energy, work ethic, ability to handle pressure, and resilience ... the list goes on and on. Yet, as students, they often don't realize that these same attributes are transferable to the academic playing field.