Playing Basketball at KP

My son is interested in attending the USMMA and palying basketball there. I am concerned that with the academic demands trying to do a sport with the travel, practice, etc. might be too much. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Basketballdad said:

My son is interested in attending the USMMA and palying basketball there. I am concerned that with the academic demands trying to do a sport with the travel, practice, etc. might be too much. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Learning to multi-task and balance the priorities of activities other than academic is what sets the proverbial men apart from the proverbial boys so to speak. Some can do it and some can't. There are literally tens of thousands of graduates who have done it already.

I can tell you that it can be done. Only you and your son can tell if HE can do it.

For some of the students (and I know this applied to my DD), participating in a sport helped to break up the monotony of day in and day out studying. She was on the swim team all 4 years and always seemed to do better academically when they were in season. I have noticed that some athletes choose to quit once they hit their senior year. I guess after 2 sea terms, sea projects, etc. they are just ready to finish up and graduate; and sports just aren't that much of a priority.

Navy81 makes a good point. In many cases that I have seen, playing a sport actually helps the grade situation. I know my mid used the time he had away from soccer during the season very efficiently. Grades never suffered.

The rolls of KP grads are filled with those who participated in a sport...some even in two...one of my son's soccer mates, Kenny Graff, played both soccer and baseball and graduated right on time.

I would encourage your son to play the sport he loves at KP should he be accepted to attend and should he make the team. One thing about all the service academies, if you find the time demands are just too much, they certainly cannot pull your scholarship! So, you risk little in giving it a try.

Go for it!

KP sports

I echo the thoughts of prior comments. It is suggested all misdshipmen get involved with some club/sport to build relationships (support structure?) outside the regiment. This is particularly true during plebe year when the upper classmen who break chops in the regiment, are "only" your teammates on the sports team. Having said that, outside studying for license exams at end of 1C year, plebe year is the toughest academically as 2 and 3C's spend 3 of those 6 trimesters at sea. 4 years down the road nobody will care if the graduate played a sport, so if it hurts academics, then he shouldn't do it. If he can handle it, it's recommended.

I'm going to echo what others have said here. Our DD was on the Cross Country and Track teams. The Cross Country team was her family at KP. She was able to get off campus and, as someone else pointed out, team members were team members, not 1C out to stick you. It's an escape from the regimental pressure cooker. Time management can be an issue for some. But the flip side of that for our DD was that team members were willing to take time to tutor her and help when she had difficulty with some of the classes. And I would also repeat that your DS can try it and quit if it's too much.

DS (2013) did XC in the fall, indoor T&F in the winter, and outdoor T&F in the spring. I completely agree about the benefits of doing sports, especially as a plebe - it gets you off campus and you're treated as a member of the team, not as a plebe. DS tried to "pay it forward" as an upperclassman. You do need to mind your time management skills - DS spent this past spring traveling to meets with his license prep materials in tow, and the ECAC championships were right before final exams. However, he wouldn't trade it for anything.

It's been said before already, but I'll say it again. I would not have graduated without swimming