You are far too young to exclusively focus on one to the complete exclusion of the other. Run in the fall and spring, play ball in the winter and do what you need for either sport in the summer.
If you are worried about paying for college, then focus on your grades. The odds are extremely low that you will get any kind of meaningful athletic scholarship anywhere
Experience wrote:
I was forced to make a decision like this as well...progression in the mile was Fresh: 4:30 soph: 4:23 Junior: 4:16 Senior: 4:14. I am 6' 4'' and was in a similar spot as far as playing varsity basketball and being put under pressure by coaches. I went to a big school, 2000+ students so spots on varsity teams were tough to keep, and our teams were competitive. Long story short, I gave up basketball, a sport I had played since I was 5. I did win an individual state championship in track, and was given a partial scholarship to an extremely solid Division I XC/Mid D program. I ran at conference championships and our XC team qualified for NCAA's. At the end of the my career I left with a PR of 3:50 in the 1500. My advice: ENJOY HIGHSCHOOL SPORTS! I still to this day regret giving up playing basketball. It is a terrible feeling sitting in the stands at a varsity basketball game, watching your ex-teammates win a big game, and not being able to enjoy the experience with them. If you quit basketball, just know that you will likely never get an opportunity to play on a stage like you are playing now! Once you quit, ITS OVER, and you will never get the feeling of running out onto the gym floor in front of 1000 of your classmates ever again. I would look to enjoy high school sports as much as possible. Bottom line: FOCUS ON SCHOOL, to a point where you can get into college for academics, and enjoy sports! If I could do it over...I would have finished my basketabll career.
Good post.
I coach high school basketball in CA. We were pretty damn good this year.
Top public in our section. All of our top 8 play other sports. Football,baseball, volleyball, track...
My opinion is that coaches who hoard athletes are insecure.
Play as much as you can. While you can. As above you get just one chance.