My son didn’t work in college. He didn’t have time. In the summer he was busy taking classes online when he wasn’t playing ball. He got his undergrad degree in three years. Going in with five to play four due to injury he had his sights on two degrees in five years.
But from thirteen to eighteen he hustled for work. My daughter (played college softball) also worked in summers in high school and college.
My kids grew up in a town where I had to teach them they could have everything they need and some of what they want. The rest they had to work for. They had friends who got everything they wanted. Friends were getting mommy’s Mercedes, Beemers, Lexus’, etc. coming off lease in high school. My kids got six year old Honda Civics senior year as early graduation presents. But they had to pay one-third.
We lived on a golf course. Starting at thirteen my son caddied. His friends asked why he didn’t just ask his parents for the money. In high school he bussed tables during Christmas dinner party season and made $100 bucks a night. His friends teased the hell out of him calling him Hispanic names and asked if he was in the country legally. He just rubbed his fingers at them (the money signal). In the summer a couple of friends and he banged on doors to mow lawns. It worked out so well one of the kids skipped college and now has a successful landscaping business.
My daughter worked as a nanny in the summer during the week in high school. In college she had 22u for six weekends. Other than those weekends she continued to be a nanny. One year in August the family took her to Europe for three weeks.
Neither kid sacrificed what they needed to do to get to college ball and stay there. They worked around it. If anything suffered it might have been their social life.
Why did my kids work? To earn the money for some of what they wanted. In LL my son used a $29 Jeter style Rawlings glove. In middle school I got him a $90 Muzano glove. He wanted an A2000. I told him when he’s in high school and proves he’s on track for varsity I’ll buy him any baseball equipment he wants. I did the same for his (older) sister with softball. He wanted the A2000 so badly he caddied until he had the money to buy it himself for 8th grade. And had it monogrammed.