Contact sports -- wrestling, football, lacrosse, basketball (and yes basketball is a contact sport at high school level, as I was surprised to find out when DS finally got to that level) -- may get slight edge over non-contact sports at USMA perhaps, but I think the main thrust of the emphasis on varsity sports participation is that team membership shows you can fit into a group, work within a "program", deal with the inevitable ribbing and joking that takes place on a team, and know what it is to "platoon" on a team by doing whatever asked, even if it's not the star position or the position of glory. At the very least, playing a sport shows you have stamina and basic ability and coordination. So what sports you do does not matter as long as you do something!
Summarizing, including all responses above:
- If you have no real preference, then do cross-country since it fits with the whole CFA and good shape aspects. This is the one sport that even if you hate running, you should do. It is the one you need no prior experience to do right out of the gate.
- For the winter, strongly consider wrestling, since it gives you a true contact sport, and if you have never played basketball, you aren't about to learn to dribble at age 14 or 15. Wrestling is also a sport most likely to have a whole bunch of noobies playing it in first year of high school, since most towns don't have wrestling programs for younger kids like they do for basketball and baseball.
- Similarly, I'd say consider lacrosse in the Spring if you have interest in it and are ok with the hockey-like checking. You may not get a lot of playing time in games at first, but it tends to be a sport many kids only try for the first time when they get to high school. Tennis is a good second choice (still requires wind and stamina). Golf, I dunno, but pick it for sure over baseball if you have never played baseball. Again, as stated by another person above, you aren't about to try to learn how to bat and to field a baseball at age 14 or 15. At least not well.
- Also as stated by another poster above, after you have picked the sport(s), you may want to evaluate your chances for captaincy, since that's high on the list of EC points at USMA. But teams can only have one or 2 or 3 captains, so this is a lesser consideration.
- If you find that you hate a sport, DO NOT QUIT IT unless you can switch to another sport with little fanfare and disruption. If you can't switch, just plan to get out of it for the next season. You may, in the end, after all your planning, never get into USMA or USNA or any other academy, in which case you just spent 4 years making yourself miserable playing sports you hate because that's what you thought "they want"; don't be afraid to move around if you need to. Do the one(s) that you find you like. This may take you a season or a year of trying. As far as I know, USMA will not penalize you for being a sports shopper (i.e., doing 3 sports your freshman year,and then dropping two of those in favor of some other sports). As long as you are doing SOMETHING in your afternoons besides playing XBox and sitting in your bedroom posting on Facebook, you are well ahead of the average kids anyway.
All that said, keep in mind that you do NOT need to do a sport every single season if you are deeply involved in other activities (especially leadership activities) at your school or church or community. For instance, if you are your class president, or yearbook editor, or band major (or all 3
) then no one could fault you for not doing a winter sport or a fall sport. But you should definitely do some sport or two each year, and plan to make varsity in them.
Finally, keep in mind that USMA is looking for the "Rennaissance man and Rennaissance woman" -- strong academics, athletics, leadership, interest in the world and interest in growing themselves. Sports is just one piece of that puzzle. Enjoy your high school years and focus on making them memorable and productive. If you do that instead of worrying about USMA for the next 3 or 4 years, then you'll come out ahead. From what I read on here, it seems the kids who approach it that way seem to have a higher acceptance rate than the kids who try and force their life and their record to fit into what they think USMA wants. What worse way to end up, having done 4 years of things you hate and to no avail. Do 4 years of things you like that happen to also make you an attractive candidate to USMA and you will, in the end, be an attractive candidate to the other 50 top schools in the country as well. And that way, no matter what happens, you can't lose.
Good luck.
