Athletics

navy1014

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
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Jun 25, 2009
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hi everybody, upcoming plebe here with a couple questions about sports. I'm interested in crew and boxing at the academy, but have no background in either. Does anyone know if you need prior experience for either of these? I'm a swimmer and was thinking of trying out for that so i'm involved in a sport, but i'd really like to try something new.
 
Good question. I was wondering the same. I'll just reply to move the thread back to the top.
 
My son has no experience with crew, but put it down on the card that asked what he is interested in - we just got a letter yesterday, along with a beautiful catalog all about Crew... So I don't think experience is necessary. The letter said 80% of the plebes have NO experience. So take heart! :smile:
 
The ladies crew team sent out an email a couple of weeks ago stating the same percentages- I guess there will be some time during PS for us to meet up with the coaches and "practice" crew and we can decide from there if we want to row, etc.
 
tryouts for all and some

Most sports have tryouts, some are easier than others to get into. Crew and Boxing are not hard to get into in some fashion. Combat Arms Team is Hardest I have heard.
 
No experience is required to do crew or boxing or sailing or D&B or half the things there. They all have tryouts and you get to meet the coaches during PS. At some point though, they may ask you to take a hike. Crew is a cult that recruits everyone and their mother. Most end up leaving it behind. Be cautious in deciding to do any sport/eca. They take take away from time in company, study time, liberty, sleep, etc. To each his own.
 
^^^ Pretty much on the mark.

Swimming takes almost no walk ons. Crew on the other hand most have no experience.

If you are not passionate about a sport I would suggest being an intramural rat. That will do way more for you in the end in the way of company time and company time and in the end help your company ranking. The whole "you need to be on a team plebe year to help make plebe year better is way overrated. If anything, it can make it more difficult IMO.
 
If you are not passionate about a sport I would suggest being an intramural rat. That will do way more for you in the end in the way of company time and company time and in the end help your company ranking. The whole "you need to be on a team plebe year to help make plebe year better is way overrated.

Don't do intramurals to help your company ranking. That's a very silly thing to worry about. Do intramurals because they are fun without taking up a bunch of your time.

As for the "need to be on a team for protection," second it's overrated. You don't need protection plebe year because it's not hard, just annoying.
 
Sound advice from all. Play field ball if it is still around. Everyone will think you're crazy, but it is fun. If you're injury prone, do softball I guess. Intramurals are fun, the get you out of the hall, they don't eat up time and the upperclass will gain some idea of what you are like outside of the Bancroft bubble. Unless of course you are not a good athlete. Then everyone will just make fun of you.
 
Yeah i got the lightweight crew letter as well but i wanted to be on the track team. Can one try out for a varsity team and if they get cut try out for a different varsity team or what? Also i was wondering how the try outs and sports periods worked during plebe summer.

Thanks
Will
 
Guess I was not clear - I did not mean to do something "just" because it will help your company rating - I should have said that typically those who stay in company, get to know their company mates rather than hang with a team tend to do better in the company - at least that has been my experience. My roommate who quit a varsity sport after plebe year has been much more involved in our company and it certainly has helped in our companies perception of this Mid.
 
You don't need to have a background in either of the sports.

I rowed (actually I was a coxain b/c I'm small aka short) for my first semester as a plebe, then tried power lifting the following semester, and final found my home with the Intertnational Sports Pistol team and D&B (I did both at the same time). Crew is tough, but a great work out - plan for EARLY morning practices. Just do something that you enjoy!!!! It's always nice to be able to earn your Varsity 'N' letter so if you can participate in a varsity sport do so, in the end do something fun that you enjoy!

Being invovled in your company is overrated. You got selected to attend the Academy because you are a "well rounded" student. The fact that you get "graded" on your FITREPS b/c of your time spent "in company" is ridiculous. I was actually told I was ranked below someone b/c I chose not to drink with my company.

That is NOT how things work in the Fleet and that is NOT how your rank your Sailors either. You take all things into consideration, involvement within your division, department, command, community, etc...

anyway, I'll get off my soap box
 
A lot of you in the incoming class of 2013 are very good athletes’, but were not recruited for the prominent D1 programs at Navy. There are alternatives for you. USNA offers some very competitive sports programs under the Club Sports category. The club sports programs are mostly walk on programs and offer some very interesting possibilities to compete at the collegiate level. A quick visit to the Navy athletics page will give you a full list but I wanted to highlight two programs that have had great success this spring:

Navy Triathlon Team – Won the USA National Collegiate Championships held in Lubbock, TX. The Navy men’s team finished 2nd and the Navy women’s team finished 3rd. The combined scores earned Navy the National Championship

Navy Women’s Rugby – Won their bracket, in Lake Mary, Florida by beating Indiana University and Chico Sate and earned a slot in the USA Rugby National Championship D1 Final Fours in Palo Alto. Navy played arch rival Penn State and unfortunatly lost to eventual National Champion Penn State. This is the second year in a row for Navy Women’s Rugby at the Final Fours and playing for a National Championship. The womens Rugby team is looking to reload with new talent and make it to Palo Alto for the third time in a row.

These Club Sport teams put on the Navy jersey travel locally and nationally depending on the sport and are highly competitive in many cases. At the end of plebe summer these teams will be looking for you if you are interested. Keep an eye out for them and enjoy the competition and fun of playing for Navy!
 
My Mid rows on the heavyweight crew (no previous experience), and while it's demanding, he says he's not sure he'd have survived plebe year w/out it. He liked getting away from Bancroft to the boathouse, traveling a little, and even wearing warm-ups instead of whites.

A Mid friend of my son's is a recruited runner (I forget if it's track or x-country), and he felt as if his plebe Order of Merit was adversely affected by his sports absences. My Mid had an opposite experience --in fact, he thought early AM practices might have earned him a little extra respect in his company ranking.

As advised in this thread, do what you enjoy or try something that sounds interesting because you want to. There's no predicting these things @ USNA.
 
Agreed. Do what makes you happy. Don't do it because it looks good to some lame brain 1/c. You would be surprised as to what goes into company rankings and what gets left out. In terms of OOM, MOM and AOM...you don't have to be ranked anywhere near 1st, unless you want to be a doctor.
 
Peer ranking is (if i recall correctly) 1/3 of your "ranking," which is like 1/3 of your Military Order of Merit, which is like 35% of your Overall Order of Merit. So unless you desperately need to be validated with supt's list stars, don't stress it.
 
Anyone know how difficult it is to get onto the cross-country team?

From your name, I'm assuming you mean the women's cross country team. Navy has a very strong team that won the Patriot League this year. They had 7 runners who finished in the top 40% of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship. However, there were 31 Mids on the team this past year. Some of the girls don't get to compete as often, because they haven't made it into Navy's top seven, and some may only get to compete once or twice in a season when Navy hosts an event, but they're all still very much part of the team. All of the girls practice together and work hard to help each other get better. I suggest that you contact the coach to see if you can try out. You'll never know until you ask. Good luck!
 
Sure why not, be ambitious. If they cut you from one - which will probably happen - you can try harder at the other one.
 
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