Waivers for SA Athletes to serve AFTER pro sports career

I don't think it's a decision. One way to mix things up is to say things to just get people talking about it, and then watch what happens.
You can act - or move on in a different direction - or forget about it.
 
6 Service Academy Athletes Who Fulfilled Their Obligations Before Going Pro
(from Military.com)


https://www.military.com/off-duty/2019/05/07/6-service-academy-athletes-who-fulfilled-their-obligations-going-pro.html?ESRC=dod_190510.nl

1. Roger Staubach- NAVY Football
2. Napoleon McCullum- NAVY Football
3. Phil McConkey- NAVY Football
4. David Robinson - NAVY Basketball
5. Alejandro Villanueva- ARMY Football
6. Ben Garland - Air Force Football


and :


7. Billy Harris- NAVY Golf
8. Mitch Harris- NAVY Baseball
 
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Correction: 7. Billy Hurley- NAVY Golf

and

8. Mitch Harris - NAVY Baseball
( from the STL Post)
The Cardinals selected Harris in the 13th round of the 2008 MLB draft, and they did so unsure when or if ever Harris would pitch for them. As a Naval Academy grad, Harris had a service commitment, and while NFL-bound football players were given leave of it to pursue their sport, Harris had difficulty securing the same allowance.

He brought a glove with him on active duty in the Persian Gulf on the USS Ponce. He had a glove with him when he was on active duty fighting the Drug War or when he was on mission to Russia. He once (or twice) enlisted the help of the ship’s cook as a catcher – anything he could do to keep his arm somewhat sharp for the possibility of pitching. The Cardinals stayed with him.



“It’s really one of those things that means more than you can say,” Harris said. “The Cardinals took a chance on me when a lot of teams would not have drafted me from the Academy because there were so many questions, no many unknowns, and a lot of complications. Those first years it really looked like we would never turn the corner, never get the chance, and they were with me all along, walking right there, so that when we did turn the corner, we did something that hadn’t happened in almost 100 years.”

In April 2015, as the Cardinals arrived for a series in the nation’s capital, the team promoted Harris to the majors. He made his debut against Milwaukee a few days later, and in doing so became the first U.S. Naval Academy grad to pitch in the majors since 1921.
 
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When winning football games becomes more important than producing commissioned leaders of character! I really don't even understand why ANY high school student aspiring to go pro would even consider entering a service academy. If you really are that good...you probably already got recruited or have the choice to go elsewhere that has a more "competitive" program.
 
There are zero 5 star recruits at the academies. Zero. Some...very few... earn a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by achieving their full potential over 4 or 5 years of hard work. Honestly, this is a non-issue IMO. I think they should be given every opportunity to go pro. They can serve in many ways thereafter.
 
but if a move was made to D2 or D3, the academies would lose a lot of strong potential applicants/candidates.

I as well don't see the logic in this. Why would they lose a lot of strong potential applicants/candidates? There a an army (no pun intended) of "strong potential applicants/candidates" that don't get accepted every year that have nothing to do with their athletic abilities to play DI sports.

Yes, you lose some that aspire to and have the talent to play DI, but the notion that somehow the application numbers or the quality of those applying would be compromised by moving to a different level of athletic competition is far fetched. IF a candidate is coming to an SA to play DI as a primary goal, I'm stating the obvious here, they're coming for the wrong reasons and by extension, that individual would certainly not be a "strong potential candidate".
 
Curious about what the process is for potential Olympians. The Navy, and USNA specifically, has produced many over the years. This is obviously shorter term than a “career” in football (injuries being what they are). How are Olympians handled?
 
World class athlete program is one way athletes in Olympic sports compete. Additionally, I have allowed permissive TDY for Soldiers in my unit to compete in qualifying events.
 
Further evidence of how college athletics have corrupted even 'prestigious' schools like the academies. 80% of the people attending the prep schools are athletes who couldn't qualify for admission otherwise which makes them an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and a joke for even existing. Then you conveniently forget the purpose of the academies and turn them into taxpayer funded training grounds for the NFL. Obscene.
 
Further evidence of how college athletics have corrupted even 'prestigious' schools like the academies. 80% of the people attending the prep schools are athletes who couldn't qualify for admission otherwise which makes them an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and a joke for even existing. Then you conveniently forget the purpose of the academies and turn them into taxpayer funded training grounds for the NFL. Obscene.

Well that’s certainly one take on it.

As a former college athlete I apologize for corrupting Kings Point....

The number of people this would apply to is infinitesimally small and in my opinion is reasonable. We probably lose more cadets and midshipmen to drug busts than this would effect and this would have essentially no effect on end strength numbers.

People argue we spent XYZ dollars on training the person, okay, then have them pay back XYZ dollars +whatever penalty you want.

Oh, they took a spot from someone who would have been a great officer.....you have proof for that? How can you say X person would have even finished the first summer. You can’t, so unfortunately we can’t really use that as a factor.

The academies will become a free factory for pro sports....no, the academies still have control over admissions and the vast majority of high caliber athletes won’t all the sudden come flooding for a free education...they already get that as a scholarship athlete AND no regimental life.

As an educator I will take a college athlete (or really any life-long athlete) over someone else 100% of the time when they are at least similar otherwise. The athlete has proven they know how to take instruction, interpret that instruction, and put it into action. They have also been placed in situations of high perceived value (bottom of the 9th, 4th and goal, PK to win, etc) and performed. An otherwise capable student has no track record and only theoretical application of taking an educational curriculum and interpreting that for a test. While valuable it is nowhere close to the same.
 
Further evidence of how college athletics have corrupted even 'prestigious' schools like the academies. 80% of the people attending the prep schools are athletes who couldn't qualify for admission otherwise which makes them an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and a joke for even existing. Then you conveniently forget the purpose of the academies and turn them into taxpayer funded training grounds for the NFL. Obscene.

Well that’s certainly one take on it.

As a former college athlete I apologize for corrupting Kings Point....

The number of people this would apply to is infinitesimally small and in my opinion is reasonable. We probably lose more cadets and midshipmen to drug busts than this would effect and this would have essentially no effect on end strength numbers.

People argue we spent XYZ dollars on training the person, okay, then have them pay back XYZ dollars +whatever penalty you want.

Oh, they took a spot from someone who would have been a great officer.....you have proof for that? How can you say X person would have even finished the first summer. You can’t, so unfortunately we can’t really use that as a factor.

The academies will become a free factory for pro sports....no, the academies still have control over admissions and the vast majority of high caliber athletes won’t all the sudden come flooding for a free education...they already get that as a scholarship athlete AND no regimental life.

As an educator I will take a college athlete (or really any life-long athlete) over someone else 100% of the time when they are at least similar otherwise. The athlete has proven they know how to take instruction, interpret that instruction, and put it into action. They have also been placed in situations of high perceived value (bottom of the 9th, 4th and goal, PK to win, etc) and performed. An otherwise capable student has no track record and only theoretical application of taking an educational curriculum and interpreting that for a test. While valuable it is nowhere close to the same.
 
Further evidence of how college athletics have corrupted even 'prestigious' schools like the academies. 80% of the people attending the prep schools are athletes who couldn't qualify for admission otherwise which makes them an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and a joke for even existing. Then you conveniently forget the purpose of the academies and turn them into taxpayer funded training grounds for the NFL. Obscene.

How do you define “qualified?” At least for West Point, it means be able to graduate and get commissioned, not best qualified or top 1200. Football programs might have most players, but there are other sports at SAs and aggregate numbers are larger than football programs. We can’t have an admission system that is based 100% on objective data. So this qualified discussion goes into personal bias. Perhaps someone could do a study, there might be already one, on how recruited athletes perform in the military after graduation. A couple random examples, I don’t think they are the exceptions, the current West Point Supe was a football player. The first general officer in my class was a swimmer.
 
Hasn't seem to hurt USCGA's pool of strong potential applicant/candidates.

There's an ensign that just graduated the USCGA last week and her billet was the USCGA. When I asked my DS, he said she was preparing for the Summer Olympics in Pistol. What does this have to do with Pro Athlete's? Probably nothing, but I want to give a shout out to the USCGA class of 2019, and the athletes that play for the love of competition. Personally I'm tired of Football and Basketball, and the celebrity drama that surrounds those two sports.
 
Hasn't seem to hurt USCGA's pool of strong potential applicant/candidates.

There's an ensign that just graduated the USCGA last week and her billet was the USCGA. When I asked my DS, he said she was preparing for the Summer Olympics in Pistol. What does this have to do with Pro Athlete's? Probably nothing, but I want to give a shout out to the USCGA class of 2019, and the athletes that play for the love of competition. Personally I'm tired of Football and Basketball, and the celebrity drama that surrounds those two sports.
Like the vast majority of Service Academy athletes, there are no pro contracts, its for the love of the sport and/or competition. I had teammates make it to the Olympics and others do things like win the World Military games (called "CISM") on a number of occasions. Other classmates are in various and sundry Halls of Fame in their sports long after they brought favorable attention to our alma mater.
 
How do you define “qualified?” At least for West Point, it means be able to graduate and get commissioned, not best qualified or top 1200. Football programs might have most players, but there are other sports at SAs and aggregate numbers are larger than football programs. We can’t have an admission system that is based 100% on objective data. So this qualified discussion goes into personal bias. Perhaps someone could do a study, there might be already one, on how recruited athletes perform in the military after graduation. A couple random examples, I don’t think they are the exceptions, the current West Point Supe was a football player. The first general officer in my class was a swimmer.
He is also a 1979 graduate of Mount Vernon High School, the same school in which my kids graduated and where I taught before my current location.
 
Further evidence of how college athletics have corrupted even 'prestigious' schools like the academies. 80% of the people attending the prep schools are athletes who couldn't qualify for admission otherwise which makes them an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and a joke for even existing. Then you conveniently forget the purpose of the academies and turn them into taxpayer funded training grounds for the NFL. Obscene.
College athletics i.e. football & basketball, but really football offer $$$ to an athletic program for TV rights. It would be a strong-willed organization, truly, to turn up one's noses at the millions involved.
Would you please provide the link to the 80% of prep schoolers' who are athletes & couldn't have made the SA any other way? Thank you in advance.
Lastly, the mission of prep schools is to academically prepare otherwise worthy candidates for the SA. Today, I would not be surprised that the demographic breakdown of a prep school has a majority of people of color. This can be viewed several ways not the least as a positive program to assist prior enlistees, the academically disadvantaged, increase diversity while maintaining the academic standards of the SA, etc., or a way to have recruited athletes receive academic assistance to enter the SA so they can just be athletes. The purpose of the prep school has been debated before but can be brought up again if you wish to post about it. Lastly, the # of pro athletes coming out of SA's can be counted on both hands going back to Roger Staubach in the early 60's so in the grand scheme of things, they're no big deal.
 
"They’ll serve their time after they’re finished with professional sports." - President Trump

Not sure this is such a great idea, or that it would even be effective. Waiting a few years has worked out well for a small number (Roger Staubach, David Robinson, etc) but I assume most any recruit who is good enough to eventually play in the NFL or NBA is probably not looking to serve in the military AFTER a pro career.

I'm as conservative and hard core as anyone, but I have an open mind on this issue. The Service Academies do not exist to serve as a stepping stone to pro-sports, and any one that enters a Service Academy with the plan to make it the NFL or NBA is simply nuts. That said, every once in a while, a rare talent is developed while at USNA, and I think that rare talent should be recognized.

I will admit, my view comes from watching David Robinson at USNA. I remember seeing him as a tall, gangly Plebe, white works at mid ankle length halfway through Plebe year (he was still growing). By all accounts, he wasn't a superstar athlete in HS, but was a great candidate and a good Midshipman, and represented USNA well. I believe he got some breaks in his service, participating in Olympics and stationed ashore so he could train, but he also put on his uniform and visited inner-city schools to talk about his service in the Navy. There are many ways to serve the country, and I would suggest that someone like David Robinson, visiting schools and promoting the Navy and service, contributed alot more to the country as a NBA star than he would have as line Officer.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens with Noah Song. He was drafted in the 4th round by the Red Socks the other day. I also believe he is still in the running for pitcher for the year in college baseball. Great pitcher. Has an NFO spot. He is staying humble and handling the press well.
 
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