Club sports

MaximusFL

MaximusFL

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
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I noticed the Academy has a Marathon Team as a club sport. If I join a club sport can I get a varsity letter and one of the star sweater (if that's not what it's called I'm sorry, I brain farted)?
 
Club sports get sweaters. The only difference is they will have the sport they play stitched on the letter. Varsity athletes do not have their sport on the letter. Also you only get a star if you Beat USMA Army West Point Black Knights Cadets in the designated athletic event. I can't remember if club sports get a star or not. Not sure how it works on the club level, but as a varsity athlete you have to have so many minutes, games, matches, etc played to letter. So even as a football player someone might not letter even if on the team the whole season. Wrestling is a good example as they have a large team but only 1 wrestler gets to wrestle at that weight for the team. There are qualifying factors like minutes played and number of games played to get a letter. Not sure how it works at club level but guessing there are requirments too. Definitely not sure how marathon would work. Maybe they only have certain top runners who qualify or times that must be met.

We called them letter sweaters or Nstar sweaters.
 
Hoops, explain the Black N, open to all deserving Midshipmen. It used to be worn on the bathrobes but they were phased out when women were phased in, I believe. Where are they proudly displayed now?
 
Black Ns are now displayed on sweaters. They look exactly like the navy blue letter sweaters but are a bright yellow/gold with a black N. Stars are presented for follow on offenses of 100 demerits or more. Not sure what system they are using these days on conduct offenses. At one point they modified it. One year I was there the supt refused to give 100 demerits and gave 99 so no Black Ns could be given out. Every year at Halloween dinner is capped off with the parade of Black Ns. They all walk through King Hall together and the brigade goes nuts. The presentation of a Black N usually is done by fellow Black N members and done at night in company areas.
 
NavyHoops said:
Black Ns are now displayed on sweaters. They look exactly like the navy blue letter sweaters but are a bright yellow/gold with a black N. Stars are presented for follow on offenses of 100 demerits or more. Not sure what system they are using these days on conduct offenses. At one point they modified it. One year I was there the supt refused to give 100 demerits and gave 99 so no Black Ns could be given out. Every year at Halloween dinner is capped off with the parade of Black Ns. They all walk through King Hall together and the brigade goes nuts. The presentation of a Black N usually is done by fellow Black N members and done at night in company areas.
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I get that you usually only get a Black N if you do something really bad but I was always confused by the culture around, though amusing. Why does Navy treat it almost as a status symbol, why is it presented at night like some sort of secret group, why does everyone go nuts? Sorry for the questions but that sounds so funny!
 
future_navy said:
I get that you usually only get a Black N if you do something really bad but I was always confused by the culture around, though amusing. Why does Navy treat it almost as a status symbol, why is it presented at night like some sort of secret group, why does everyone go nuts? Sorry for the questions but that sounds so funny!
Click to expand...

Just looked up "Black N USNA" on Google. Those are some amusing stories to say the least
 
There are tons of traditions, this is one.
Some make sense, some not. A lot of Mids like to push boundaries. I know on the outside it seems like why would someone break the rules? Because Mids are still mostly 18-24 year old college kids who like to have fun. Alcohol and fun does not always equal good decisions. Also, you will realize that good Mids can make some bad choices sometimes. The reason it's done at night mostly is because that is when all Mids are around, generally company officers and senior enlisted are around and its when things sort of wind down for the day. Also when I was there if a Mid did something Bad enough to get that many demerits and be retained it was a huge relief. That is an extremely stressful time for them and you never want to see a close friend go. Off the top of my head I had the following friends get Black Ns: one is now a Marine LtCol and F/A18 pilot, another was a Brigade Commander first semester and got one second semester, one is an astronaut, another is a permanent military instructor at USNA, another was just selected to be a Commanding Officer in the Navy, another has a PhD and is a Navy SES. As you can clearly see stupid conduct offenses does not mean bad Mids or humans. It means a bad moment in judgment, many times its alcohol fueled and others its Mids pushing boundaries with a work hard play hard mentality of a young adult blowing off steam. It's a matter of their character, potential and performance that keeps them there.
 
I had my share of conduct offenses but never Black N level... I never got caught for those o_O. I got some stupid ones too... I had a late flight once and missed formation, I got stuck in traffic after a concert and missed taps, during summer school we got dinged for stupid stuff all the time like an improper hospital corner on my rack. My best one... We came back drunk after libo in summer whites. We wanted sodas out of the machine but it wouldn't take our dollars... So we decided to go to the fountain by 8th wing and get quarters. We of course didn't want an honor offense so we had put the dollars in the fountain under rocks and just exchanged it. So yes we went swimming in the fountain in full summer whites drunk! We got 50 demerits and 30 days restriction for that. The CDO who caught us actually was laughing at us and let us get our sodas.
 
I am not sure if you get stars for the marathon team. However, normally the only chance at "beating" USMA Army West Point Black Knights Cadets is at the Boston Marathon, since USMA (and sometimes USAFA) attends. To qualify for Boston you need to run 3 hrs, 5 min (7:03/mile) for guys or 3 hrs, 35 mins (8:12/mile) for gals.
 
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