When you're little, growing up to be the next Derek Jeter or Mia Hamm sounds like the easiest achievement possible. If you get in the habit of going to practice everyday, listening to your coach, and playing hard in each game, there's nothing that's stopping you from becoming a professional athlete someday. For a lot of us, this journey to greatness started with Saturday rec soccer and maybe travel league if it was accessible for your family, and then, from your small perspective the "big leagues," aka high school varsity.
High school sports become our lives in our small towns. Your school earns their reputation based almost entirely on the strength of their athletic programs. When you're fortunate enough to be able to play for a strong team and coach, your winning record seems to be the greatest accomplishment possible. Occasionally, your season is going so well that it may result in a sectional title, or a trip to states, but that stays a dream for a lot of teams every year. College scouting and recruiting isn't something that's in a spectrum of possibility for majority of student athletes, and because of this, their serious sports careers end when they receive their high school diploma. For the pool of athletes that are able to continue playing, especially around small areas, they do so at small, local community colleges. It's rare for a local athlete to make it to a D1 varsity team, and there's nothing wrong with that.
There are a lot of reasons why a serious college sports career isn't a possibility for someone, and often involve factors outside of ability. Tuition, distance of recruiting campus from home, college major time requirement conflicts with practice or traveling for games, or needing to have time to have a job in addition to classes all impact one's decision to pursue involvement with a college athletic program. For some, too, it's a realization that a sports career won't last forever, but that a practical college major and networking and interning results in a forever occupation. So, you transition from a frequent name in the sports section of the local newspaper to just a regular ol' student at your chosen college, and your dream of becoming the next Derek Jeter diminishes.
Honestly, we all hope that we can play our sport of choice for as long as our bodies will let us, but there's nothing that says that you can't do just that even if you didn't pursue becoming a college athlete. Your talent doesn't disappear, and College campuses offer intramural and club league sports, and there's always pick-up games going on outside on the lawn. Communities have a lot of adult leagues that you can enter a team for, whether just for fun or with some competition involved. Then there's also always the realm of volunteering and coaching if playing yourself isn't an option anymore. Just because you might not be able to step on the court, field, or track yourself, doesn't mean that your years of experience and knowledge of the sport aren't valuable, and could be incredibly beneficial for a young athlete.
Every win, loss, memory, award, and injury are all something you've earned along the way of your career, and just because it didn't get to continue on into college doesn't take any value away from these things. You worked so hard to get to where you were, and no one can take that from you. Yes, seeing the teams on campus or attending the games can hit you with a heavy dose of nostalgia, but go ahead and let it. You made those memories, and no one can ever take them away from you. Everything happens for a reason, and maybe you weren't meant to be involved with a college sport, but that shouldn't stop you from playing the game you love, no matter what.
