Athletes and nominations

W

Worriedparent2

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2019
Messages
66
Hello,
So my DS received a nomination to USAFA and USNA recently, and we both had a few questions. In his district, there are 2 committed athletes to USAFA, and we were wondering, when competing for an appointment, do the committed athletes take up 2/5 spots allotted or is their process completely separate. DS was told by aid he was 4th overall for USAFA. Does this ranking include athletes, or do athletes have a separate nomination process?Also, our district uses a competitive slate(not sure if it was necessary to include)
thankyou in advance
 
Athletes compete for all the same categories of nominations for which they are eligible. They compete in the same way.

Where eventual appointments from a slate get charged, some miles further down the road, may or may not be the elected official’s quota for the cycle.

Don’t forget everyone on the elected official’s slate, if they are triple qualified, will get a nom. The SA is allowed to continue to fill out the class from the national pool (fully qualified with nom), per established rules. The Superintendent also has a handful of discretionary noms. There are the VP nom, the service-related noms, the JROTC and ROTC noms, etc.

This is why advice is often given here to not look left and right, just focus on your own path.

And, a “committed” athlete doesn’t work quite the same at an SA. It guarantees neither a nom nor an appointment.
 
Noooo not necessarily. I’ve had two recruited athletes (USNA, but it’s similar as I’ve read on the forums). One a high level, one a low level. The high level was told his application would be ‘flagged’. Crickets on the low level. Regardless, both were told to compete on their own. Our high level received 3 noms, and was appointed early. Low level has 2 noms and is still waiting to hear.

Depending on the sport, a coach may be able to blue chip a few. But they still have to be qualified for an appointment.

A SA may assign an athletes (or any nom for that matter) elsewhere in order to get another candidate on the slate in if they want them. So just because an athlete from your slate has accepted an appointment doesn’t mean another person on the slate won’t. You just have to wait and see.

Additionally, you may be moved to the national wait list (assuming that’s done for USAFA the same as USNA?) to compete. DONT give up. Just keep eyes forward and know you are in it until you aren’t.

Adding: I was typing the same time as CAPTMJ. She said it all much more eloquently.
 
Last edited:
“Don’t forget everyone on the elected official’s slate, if they are triple qualified, will get a nom.”

Capt MJ, can you explain this line from your post. I am confused by it. Thank you.
 
Capt MJ said:
Athletes ...

Don’t forget everyone on the elected official’s slate, if they are triple qualified, will get a nom. The SA is allowed to continue ... .
Click to expand...

Correcting my post via Quote because I am outside the Edit window.

“Don’t forget everyone on the elected official’s slate will get a nom. If they are triple qualified, they are eligible for an appointment.”

Trying to watch Ravens vs Titans while typing on iPhone - something got truncated.
 
Thanks. And, I appreciate the difficulty especially given how this game is going.
 
To the original poster, the comment that your son is 4th is not necessarily right. If the slate is truly a competitive slate as the aid informed you, then it will be up to USAFA to rank the slate, and your son could be first of the applicants or last. But, a nomination is a ticket to continue in the competition for appointment and if your son is first on his slate or last he has a realistic chance of an appointment. And, if he is lacking, as a recruited athlete, he likely also has a chance at a prep school slot.
 
dddad said:
To the original poster, the comment that your son is 4th is not necessarily right. If the slate is truly a competitive slate as the aid informed you, then it will be up to USAFA to rank the slate, and your son could be first of the applicants or last. But, a nomination is a ticket to continue in the competition for appointment and if your son is first on his slate or last he has a realistic chance of an appointment. And, if he is lacking, as a recruited athlete, he likely also has a chance at a prep school slot.
Click to expand...

I wonder if OP meant ranked slate? Might be a good idea for OP to check out all the good info at the top of the nominations forum.
 
Just for clarification DS was told by aid that when determining who gets a nomination, he was ranked 4/10, but when the MOC submits the slate the rank does not matter.
 
Makes sense. My guess is the panel who did the interviews and provided the list to the MOC ranked them 1-10 to assemble the list, but the MOC ultimately submits an unranked slate. We actually did this on the board I sat on this year. The nom coordinator is sometimes not 100% comfortable with all the language and nuances.
 
This scenario is the reason why some MOCs may choose to submit ranked slate. For example, say MOC has four current cadets charged to him/her at an academy leaving one open slot for nomination cycle. MOC has two recruited athletes (or other applicants) with LOAs in his district. Knowing that those with LOAs that are 3Q are virtually guaranteed an appointment, MOC would rank LOA holders at bottom and rank others in order of merit at top. The highest ranked 3Q nominee on slate along with 3Q/LOA nominees would all be offered appointments. One would be charged to MOC and the other two elsewhere. In doing so MOC could potentially have seven cadets from his/her district at academy the following year.
 
My Son has a nomination to the AF academy and we are awaiting the appointment. An I deal situation was for him to play football at the academy but he was not recruited by AF, go figure because UVA, UNC, Ivys all recruits him at 6'5" 235 and all County player. Very frustrating to see coaches recruit athletes and not have a care in the world for a kid that really wants to attend the AF for all the right reason. It lead me to have a desire to find how many athletes get a Blue chip ticket to the academies because it's free rather than to serve.
 
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