So, how/where/when/why did your child...

After reading these replies, it occurs to me that what all these young people have in common is: DRIVE. Drive to succeed, drive to finish what they start, drive to be the best "self" they can be. Yes, they may not be "Pele" or (as comes to my mind) Troy Polamalu , but they give 110% ALL THE TIME. It is so inspiring to me to hear that these kids are dedicating the most productive part of their lives to the service of their nation.
 
DD has done most sports. Started in soccer at 3, became Texas state champ at age 10. Played softball at age 4. Placed 5th in Texas at age 8. Started basketball at age 7. Multiple tournament wins and district wins. Swim team was her downfall. Got "most improved swimmer" her SECOND year swimming. It didn't come naturally, and she hated it! All along her road she told us she wanted to play volleyball. We kept saying no because of all the other stuff she's in (not to mention two sisters who were also involved in lots). Finally we relented (after she tried out for the junior high team and made it) and let her play club volleyball. Her high school team placed 3rd in Texas 4A (before they started a 6 A ranking). She was later recruited by West Point, and was an alternate to the A1 Olympic team. She decided to play for USMMA this fall. She's thinking about playing several sports. Moral of MY story: don't shut the door on anything. You never know where their path will lead.
 
I posted kiddo's crew journey on the previous page. He's keeping it up at USMA. His boat won gold at the New York State Championships two weeks ago, and the boys left today for Dad Vails in PA this weekend where they are the number one seed. Go Army crew! So wish I could be there, but I'll be following them on row2k.com, and he'll be home a week later, plebe no more. :)

Where, oh where, has this year gone?
 
One of my guys became captain of the USAFA Nordic Ski Team though he 'd never xc skied in his whole life! They knew he could run run run marathons, and would never stop, so they trained him to "ski" using some skates on the T-zo. His first meet, his goal was "to beat all the girls." I think he came in fifth. Anyway, his form was just dreadful, painful to watch, but true to himself, he could go forever, like the E-bunny, and the team did well. Even if the kids are not world class, their determination is!
 
My nugget started in soccer. It's like a prereq in my family since I have two uncles that played on the National Team back in the 70's. So every kid in my family gets put in soccer at 3 and if they hate it we move on to something else. She played soccer from age 3-9 and eventually quit because she lost interest. We had moved her to a competitive club team and they didn't have a team for her age group so they stuck her with a team much older to train. The girls were not very nice and she was done. We then did a season of coach pitch baseball but didn't continue because she didn't want to move to softball and that's what they were suggesting (a lot). Then she found diving and competed Junior Olympic up until about a week ago when she decided she wanted to concentrate on school sports next year. So starting in 8th grade she will run track/CC and possibly play soccer again. She also does fencing but not the normal kind, it's with our medieval reenactment group so it's more "Princess Bride" then Olympics. In high school she plans on doing track, marching band, and drill team.
She also loves marksmanship since joining the League Cadets. At summer training they had active duty SEALS come in to train the kids in shooting. Evidently she did very well and they suggested she apply for the NLCC SEAL Orientation training next summer. We will have to fit that in with the STEM camp at USNA because she wants to apply for that as well.
The child has literally planned out the next 4 summers of her life.
My oldest is a high school cheerleader and thumbs her nose at anything that might make her sweat...LOL. Bless her heart she has the grades and EC's for an SA but has said numerous times it's "not her thing". She is hoping to get NMF on her PSAT and go to Baylor.
 
My cadet decided he wanted to learn how to do a back handspring after watching his little sister do Allstar cheerleading for three years.

So he joined a team at her gym and seven years later has a punch front through to double full and a bronze medal from the USASF Allstar Cheerleading World Championship (including making an appearance on ESPN that year) and is trying out for the USAFA team during BCT.

It's the only sport (and he's done them all) he stuck with longer than one season...and nothing builds your armor against people screaming and cutting you down quite like being a straight male cheerleader starting in that sport as a 6th grader. Cadre have nothing on what names he's been called over the years :)
 
My Kids (5) sport for many years was working cattle, herding, them in from the field on foot cause we never could quite afford horses. Sorting them in an "Alley" and running them through a head gate. My mid used this theme in his application. He literally started so young he had to stand on a Cut in half 50 gallon drum, to reach the lever pull shut the head gate. We had 4 year olds filling syringes to give vaccines.

My favorite part of my Mids essay was where he talks about growing up on a farm and how the courage to face down an angry Bull was what would help him a good leader. The way I remember it...it was an angry Mamma cow (Which most cattle people will tell you can me mighty dangerous) but no kidding she had him down on the ground and was getting ready to rough him up when she realized he was just a little kid, and she backed off and ran on by.

Of course the time when our feed equipment broke and the kids feed, 200 calves with 50 -5 gallon buckets of grain , carried on a 4 wheeler , 2x a day , for 3 weeks, was kinda character building too.

Yeah I'm bragging on them, but also my point is there are so many different ways these kids develop their character. Parents of potential Academy students, don't be fooled into thinking there is only one "Formula". He did go on to Play football for 3 years in high school, but he was already a leader by then. Funny thing was he never even knew it. He just wanted to "Take care of his guys on the team, they need me to be there".
 
My son isn't "All State", at anything, but is good it seems at everything, and played varsity soccer for four years and baseball for three, making All Conference,and All District First Teams in soccer. He also was on varsity swim, and played football and basketball with good success freshman and sophomore years. More than anything he is well rounded. He is an accomplished guitarist, which is undoubtedly the thing he does best of all, and is very artistic, particularly with drawing.

He is quiet, thoughtful, and very even tempered. I have always referred to him as a Renaissance Man. He loves team activities and sports. He looked forward to Beast at West Point, and so far is doing well there. I think his squad and company cadre and mates will like him.
 
I think I was chased by that Momma. I also remember breaking a broom stick over a Hertford Bull's head when he charged me and didn't want to leave the pasture with the heifers. DD was all ISL and State in field hockey Navy has no Field Hockey team so they started a Club team.
 
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DD started basketball in kindergarten. Seemed to have a knack for it even then. Played through HS loving every minute of it, even running lines. A real gym rat. Ran Cross-Country and even played soccer just to stay in shape for basketball, but was too competitive not to go all out. Abhorred the idea of letting down her team. Talked to some coaches about playing basketball at the DIII college level, but was more interested in academics and SA or ROTC. Made the Ranger Challenge team and I don't think she's given another thought to basketball. In the end it wasn't about the sport it was about the challenge and the team.
 
DS was a three-season runner and hurdler. Used to tell me that running is just about how much pain one is willing to endure. He's "that" kid. Gets it from his mother. Stubborn as mules. Love them both for it. Not running at the Academy. Boxing. Here we go again.
 
At 14 my daughter was a really solid soccer Full Back. Fast, Powerful, and a "not on my watch" attitude with respect to scoring. DD was starting High school in an accelerated academic program within our public school district, (Cambridge Int. Bac.). We'd done the "accelerated program stuff" through most of her schooling and knew that it meant she would be in an isolated bubble within a "normal" high school. I was VERY anxious to see Soccer be her bridge to a normal high school experience; leaving work early to drive her to Summer soccer "tryout/practice" for 9th graders; (she was doing really well).

Somewhere in there my wife snuck off and bought a Living Social deal for an introduction to rowing for our daughter. It was kind-of an out of no-where move out here on the west coast (even in Seattle and it's LEGEANDARY UW CREW PROGRAM).

My daughter was almost instantly transformed, (really there was no "almost" about it). Soccer, Fencing, Snow and Water skiing were all dropped or significantly cut back upon. "Not on My Watch" in soccer became "It's Suposed To Hurt" for crew. She'd spend 18-20 hours a week in practice AND then get up at 5AM on Saturday mornings to take out a single skull. She even got me started with skulling in my 50s.

I have to add that its really interesting to see how high school kids react to rowing, (particularly girls); its magic for them. It's like they have been waiting for an opportunity compete in a sport that values heart over coordination and team work above athletic talent. I highly recommend crew for any parent with a kid who lacks the "ball skills" to make the high school football, baseball, soccer, volleyball, teams.

DD was recruited for Crew at USNA. Cracked the Varsity 8 as a Plebe (AWESOME!!).
 
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*We just returned from watching our son/Army row in the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston last weekend. As I said upthread, crew is calling; there are no casual rowers. For those unfamiliar with the sport, here's a nice overview of the insanity* of it and gives you an idea why the academies know that a kid who rows is one who won't give up no matter what:


Congrats to your daughter, Just Dad. She will be joining our son's best friend from HS who was recruited this year to the USNA men's varsity team. There was a lot of good-natured ribbing between him and his friend this weekend over their upcoming rivalry.

(*I'm surprised that video didn't show the vomit buckets that are the mainstay of every erg room.)
 
Son was Ice Hockey and Soccer all his life. HS required sports all three seasons so he tried rowing. He said it was the most trying of all the sports he ever competed in. Not in first crew but worked his a$$ off and loved it. IMHO not a great sport for fans to watch without long range opticals. Rumor has it that Navy Crew is brutal with those early mornings down at the boat house. Does Army climb down the cliff to the Hudson every morning?
 
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AF6872 said:
Does Army climb down the cliff to the Hudson every morning?
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Yes. On the water at 5:30 AM and on the ergs in the PM. Practice twice a day relentlessly year round. Our son has rowed in the rain, sleet, and snow. Only a river that is frozen solid is problematic. One upside, though, is that the boathouse provides some respite for the team, their own place away from the madding crowd. Crews are generally an extremely tight-knit group.
 
All three sons were competitive alpine ski racers...slalom and GS. Youngest two now race for USAFA and USMA. Where as the USAFA cadet gets to ski in Wintrepark , Telluride, and Steamboat., the USMA cadets will be headed to Killington, Hunter Mt., NY, and the Poconos. Our older son really needed the breaks from the zoo to get him through the winter. We'll see with the plebe. He is working his tail,off and we think he needs some rec time for himself. We will be at the game...GoARMy play well...GoAirforce play well....what else can I say?
 
DS played 9th grade football and wrestled for a few years, then lost interest in those because he was also running high school cross country, track, and swim team. He decided he likes those last three sports better. He came home one day about halfway through seventh grade and said he wanted to join the Navy, become an officer, and work his way up to be in charge of a boat or submarine some day, and that he was going to go to USNA. I told him there were about 25,000 kids that applied every year to USNA, but that only about 1300 were accepted each year and he needed a Plan B just in case. His instantaneous response was "I don't need a Plan B because I am going to make sure I'm one of the ones that gets in and everything I do from now on is going to be working for getting into Annapolis." He spent hours online researching naval careers, admissions requirements, basically anything and everything to do with USNA and the Navy.
 
Sandydesert said:
DS played 9th grade football and wrestled for a few years, then lost interest in those because he was also running high school cross country, track, and swim team. He decided he likes those last three sports better. He came home one day about halfway through seventh grade and said he wanted to join the Navy, become an officer, and work his way up to be in charge of a boat or submarine some day, and that he was going to go to USNA. I told him there were about 25,000 kids that applied every year to USNA, but that only about 1300 were accepted each year and he needed a Plan B just in case. His instantaneous response was "I don't need a Plan B because I am going to make sure I'm one of the ones that gets in and everything I do from now on is going to be working for getting into Annapolis." He spent hours online researching naval careers, admissions requirements, basically anything and everything to do with USNA and the Navy.
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There you go! Love it! So where is he now? Age, status?
 
@Sandydesert - similar story for my son. He was totally focused on West Point for all four years of high school. He was certain that he did not need to apply anywhere else but mean mother that I am, I insisted on a plan B and a plan C. He is at WP now. :)
 
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