If he doesn’t play in the spring recruiting coaches will ask why. The first concern is the coach didn’t want him on the team for character reasons. Second would be academics. If a kid is academically struggling through high school a coach will be concerned he can manage college academics. The time demands of college ball are rigorous. So rigorous my kids almost never got eight hours of sleep in a night.
My kid’s day started early before 8am classes with swimming for upper body strength. They had classes from 8-12. They had practice in the afternoon. They had strength and agility training in the early evening. Then they had homework until midnight. They got up at 6am and did it all over again the next day. What I didn’t put in this schedule is meals and a little bit of socializing.
They considered the season down time compared to the fall. The season just involved bus travel interrupting life. Mid week bus travel is more disruptive than weekend. But doing homework on a long bus ride and getting back to campus at midnight to 2am Sunday night is fatiguing when there’s class at 8am.