Thinking back a little, I was kind of a mega sports person when in my pre-teens and teens. I was heavily involved in sports at all seasons of the year, and I was pretty good at them, too. Also, amongst some individual sports (track and field events), I played team sports where I had the only form of social interaction that I knew how to have at that point in my life (though, I often still felt out of place). Actually, I was quite drawn to my coaches, too, I often considered them more my friends than most anybody my age.
At one point, I needed to make a decision about piano vs athletics (it's a really long story. I think I could have actually avoided needing to make this decision had I not been so secretive about my life in general, but as I said, that is a *long* story). I chose athletics (though I was still in choir throughout the entire time of my athletics). At the time, I thought that I could pick music/piano back up at any point and that this option to accel with it would be there for the rest of my life and whenever I wanted. With sports, however, I felt like that time in my life was thee time to experience the athletics.
But, looking back, I think there was more involved in my decision, which had to do with what I described in my first paragraph. By that point, I had started to create something in my identity that people recognized through my athletic achievements. People, especially my coaches, and often media (later on in my athletics), saw something in me that I had little confidence on my own to see. Also, I had some kind of social network that was fairly tumultuous, but valuable to me none-the-less.
I had mentors (my coaches offered to all the team that if we ever needed to talk with them, one on one, about anything, that they were there for us. I actually took them up on this) and friends... and I was out of my house (which seemed important to me at the time) for a good portion of each day.
Perhaps, if I had some form of all of these things through piano studies, my decision would have been more in favor of piano/music (though it was very difficult for me to make this decision as it was). I started lessons late, though I played the piano my entire life. I met with my teacher once a week for half an hour. I "started" lesson with her with a beginner's method book, which I believe was completely the wrong approach for me at the time.
I believe that I accelled fairly quickly when I did start, though, and I did well with the things I applied myself to. I enjoyed performing (similar to athletic events), I composed and won contests... but I had no idea that meant anything "special" regarding who I was/am. I mean, it was just something I did, like many other things, that I enjoyed and felt some kind of success in. I think I would have appreciated some kind of self-awareness support from my piano teacher, or from somewhere anyway, that validated that portion of who I was/am (this aspect of training is particularly important in the age you are dealing with).
I believe the scales could have easily tipped more toward piano had I felt that I had a teacher (or somebody musical) who really saw me and connected with me (didn't find him/them until Uni, as it turns out).
This is quite interesting because I have never thought about all of this quite this way before. Anyway, I bring all of this up because perhaps some of it may apply to your student. Find out what makes her tick as a person, and then get those things involved in her piano experience. If she can experience those things and grow through her experiences, she is not being robbed of anything. Many people could be something great over something else great. Just give her the opportunities and she will make her own decisions.
Hope that helps,
m1469
Topic: Sportive student