NAPS football

Dial the gate

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Son #2 dreams of playing football for Navy. He is only a freshman but is in all honors classes with an unweighted gpa of 3.8 at the quarter. So, my question is, if he doesn't qualify in the normal sense of needing the extra year of academic help, would they still send him to NAPS to redshirt his first year?

Also, what do the players do since (as I understand NCAA rules) they cannot have contact with the "real" team? Are there other coaches, do they work out?

Thanks!
 
I am not sure what you are trying to ask. The Naps is something similar to a junior college. Although your not officially in college. So if you could imagine having and extra year in high school. Then ask your questions. Do high schools have coaches? Do they have contact with colleges? look at it from that point of view , and I think most of your answers will be answered .
 
NAPS plays many roles in prepping candidates for USNA (prior enlisted, diversity, and those that the academy find promising but just need another year), I don't think it's a secret or misperception that it is also the redshirt factory for athletics.
 
I don't think it's a secret or misperception that it is also the redshirt factory for athletics.

Yeah, that is LITS's point and many people's frustration.

I understand your son wanting to play football for USNA but I also hope that he understands the five year service commitment after his Academy career. I hope he has the same (if not greater) desire to serve his country as he does to play football. Because at the end of the day, nobody he is supposed to lead will care that he played football at USNA, all they will care about is his ability to lead and take care of the people he has the privilege of serving with.

But to answer your question, I suppose it would depend on how talented he is the sport but I wouldn't necessarily count on just his athletic ability getting him into NAPS or USNA. The grades, leadership, community service, etc is all taken into account. To be honest, I would encourage your son to excel in his academics as much as possible.
 
If you read the Midshipmen Profiles in a Navy Media guide (available in PDF form on the Navy website), you will see that many, but not all, of the varsity players spent a year at NAPs prior to USNA. Some of the athletes with more in their bios about academic distinction came into USNA as direct admits, so if your son were a strong student (grades and board scores) as well as a football recruit, it is not a foregone conclusion he would be asked to go to NAPs.

At NAPs, they play on a football team, with a game schedule, and with coaches who generally run the same offensive/defensive schemes as are run at USNA. They also weight lift and work out after the season is over.

The prep schools for all three of the service academies that play Division I sports (Army, Navy, and Air Force) all have a good number of athletes at them. Some of this may be straight redshirting (get bigger/stronger/older), but generally the athletes at the prep schools also need the academic boost to try to get ready for attending these very difficult engineering schools. Without getting into the big argument -- are Division I sports worth it for the service academies -- at a minimum everything people have said on here about making sure an athlete really wants to serve as a commissioned officer after the playing career is over is excellent advice.
 
Go sox,
Thank you so much for the info about the team's schedule, and we will look for the bios.

He has always wanted to go navy, his dream is to fly helicopters but understands the needs of the navy come first (his dad and I were both military).

He has been playing football since 3rd grade and as a freshman this year was moved from the frosh team to the JV to the varsity.

I have no idea if he will be good enough to play for Navy (probably not as only a handful of kids each year go on to play division 1 in our conference) but in my opinion, the dream keeps him focused and too busy for trouble.
 
Dial the gate, it sounds like your son has the desire to serve first. As a former athlete at Navy, I agree this is very critical. Going to any SA is hard, playing a sport makes things harder in many regards and easier in others. One thing I always caution athletes especially going to play football, basketball and lacrosse is the numbers game at Navy. Remember that there are dozens of football players coming in from NAPS each year and direct entries also. For instance if there are 50 football players coming in with each class from NAPS and direct entry by the time they are seniors only half or even less will be on the team. If you watched senior day last game, of the seniors honored, only half of them are names we have heard of. There were a handful of those guys who have rarely if ever suited up a game. I don't throw this out there as a scare tactic, but I just want folks to understand the reality. SA athletics is different than regular schools. The great part of the Academy is they are not tied to an athletic scholarship and can remain at school with no financial obligation like a traditional university would have, but that also means they need to have come there for the right reasons or they will be miserable.

I played basketball at Navy, we started with around 6 recruits and a few walk ons. By the time I graduated only 3 of us made it through.

Also not sure on your son's size, but Navy does have a lightweight football team. So if he is around 175 lbs that could be an option.
 
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