As you can tell by the many different responses, there are 2 separate categories when it comes to athletics and the academy.
1) Physical Fitness/Team Attitude
2) IC: Inter-Collegiate Athletics.
The first one doesn't really matter what you do. It could be track, tennis, football, baseball, swimming, wrestling, etc. NONE is more valuable than the other. I believe the number is like 95% of all academy students have a varsity letter from a sport in high school. The academy wants to see that you did a sport for a NUMBER of years. That you wound up on the Varsity team. That you were good enough to get a varsity letter. (Which isn't that hard at most schools). That you have leadership and team attitudes in playing/working with others. And of course, that you are physically fit.
The second category is for recruited athletes who will be looked at to play inter-collegiate representing Air Force against other schools in the country. Not only did you accomplish everything in the first category, but you are considered one of the best at it. You were definitely one of the best on your high school team. In this category, the academy is definitely interested. Some sports more interested than others. Some sports, the academy has a difficult time recruiting for. e.g. fencing, wrestling, gymnastics, water polo, ... Other sports like football, basketball, baseball, track, etc... they get a lot of applicants.
Not just to the OP, but anyone interested; Realize something however if you are interested in playing a sport inter-collegiate for the air force academy. None of the academies GIVE ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS. Any athlete they recruit will still have to meet all the same "minimum requirements" to receive an appointment as anyone else. Also; based on NCAA/NAIA rules, only so many athletes/money can be given athletic scholarships. So if you get recruited on scholarship to the "University of Wherever"; you are on contract and you know college is paid for the next 4-5 years, and you will probably participate because they aren't going to waste money on you if they aren't going to play you. With the academies; they don't give scholarships. Therefor, there is NO LIMIT on how many they can recruit. I.e. A normal college will recruit around 18-20 football players for the team. The air force academy routinely recruits 50-60 football players a year. It is not uncommon for almost HALF of those recruits to NOT be on the team come their 2nd year. They will be cut. You don't lose the academy. You're still a cadet. Just like everyone else. If you're cut from the team, you just won't be playing for them.
I bring this up because there are some athletes that are recruited that were choosing between an athletic scholarship to "XYZ" university and the Air Force Academy. They considered them EQUAL except for the academy being a better school. The difference however is; at the "XYZ" university, you have a 95% chance of staying on the team. Because you are part of a small group and they are PAYING FOR YOU. At the academy; depending on the sport; you could have a 50% chance of not even being on the team after the first year. And you could be cut any time in the 4 years. For those where athletics is very important to them, this can sometimes be very discouraging. There's a lot of athletes recruited to the academies who show up for the first practice after BCT and realize they aren't the only one to be recruited and they aren't as special as they were made to feel. Some of these cadets leave the academy if they get cut from the team. Many stay because the academy means a lot more to them than playing sports. You just need to know that Inter-Collegiate athletes at the academy are a lot different than a normal college.
if outdoor track doesn't work out, join the lacrosse team (I heard they like contact sports too).
LOL!!! Mike....
