NJROTC questions

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SCnSC

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My son is a rising junior and extremely involved in his school's NJROTC. He is captain of the Rifle team, a member of the Fancy (Exhibition) team, a member of the Academic team, and has been asked to join the Color Guard. He was on the PT team but the school ended it. He is already third in "command" (out of 150+ cadets) and was one of only 2 cadets chosen to attend Leadership Academy this summer. He attends boot camp every summer. Etc, etc, etc.
My worry is that all this NJROTC participation means he does not have any free time to join a school sport. He has already lettered in rifle (since his freshman year), and while his school considers it a "sport," does it count at the USNA as a sport?
He does hold leadership positions in every NJROTC activity he is involved in, but would dropping one of those for a traditional sport make him an "overall" better candidate for the academy?
 
Of course.

That's the short answer and here is the long one. Sports are desired by the Academy as it is an indicator as to performance in actual, physical, combat---the only reason the Academy exists (which is a surprise to some parents and candidates, I know). Therefore team, gut-busting, contact sports are especially looked at like football, lacrosse, rugby. Next are non-contact team sports requiring excellent physical fitness like basketball, baseball, soccer. Next come gut-busting individual sports like wrestling, track & cross country. Everything else is lumped into extracurricular activities: golf (I know, there is a golf team), martial arts, rifle, band, etc.

Another way to look at it is how competitive would your son look next to another candidate that was very active in JNROTC AND went out for wrestling and baseball? People make a big deal out of whether a candidate letters or not but that is not the point of sports participation. To go out, practice hard and participate whether he is a game-time bench warmer or not is far better then no sports at all. Every midshipman plays sports at the Academy their entire 4 years every season so if a kid shys away from sports, there pops up the question as to whether he could even handle prolonged daily physical activity, much less the physical stress and grind of Plebe year. Good luck to your son in any case.
 
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Thank you so much for your answer.

My son is very physically active, just not in an organized school sport. He runs every day. He is a member of a "causal" (not official in any way, but very active) bike club and rides an average of 100 miles a month. He has played basketball, soccer, and baseball for our church and community leagues. He was in gymnastics classes in the past and still practices, just not at a "competitive" level. He is one belt away from black belt in tae kwon do and is mid level in ju jitsu. He has earned several physical training ribbons from NJROTC.
I guess my question is this: would an official school recognized team just be "better" (even just riding a bench and not getting any physical benefit) than all that physical activity alone simply because it is an "official" team/sport?
 
sports

I think I've seen responses from many on this forum that as much dedication and time martial arts can take (we have a DS involved in TKD) the academies and the military in general I think like to see membership in a team and ideally leadership as a member of that team. So, yes I think it would benefit your son if he were to participate in a school team sport.

P.S. don't hang too much on that JROTC unless you're battalion or company commander...
 
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Thank you for responding to my question.

As for being a commander, he will be CO when school starts back and XO his senior year (unless I got those backwards, my apologies if I did).
 
If he wants to arbitrarily join a sport junior or senior year, I recommend cross country. It'll get him into outstanding running shape, and running will get him far here.

That is exactly what I did back in the day. I was a JROTC kid with all drill and no sports too. Great decision, paid good dividends.

Though I think community sports leagues are still considered sports. I think Admissions recognizes that school practice hours overlap and choices must be made.
 
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