Small Team Bacsi
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A great choice. Good luck to you.
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JohnGalt78
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Since it sounds like you have never participated in youth sports (grades 1-8th), you should only consider HS teams that have no cuts. Cross Country and T&F (Fall season) usually have no cuts. Fencing (WInter season) is huge for many colleges and SA's. If you truly want to test your mettle, try wrestling (Winter Season). SA's love wrestlers. Swiming or waterpolo are both huge too for SA's but that takes many years of participation to be competitive and make the cuts. For a spring sport, you should consider Volleyball. Regardless, you must find at least 2 sports and stick with them for the entire 4 years!
USMAZoo98
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Adding to this point, since you are a freshman, you do have time to gain experience and grow with various sports options. I would put in a plug for swimming. My son was never a competitive swimmer, but he worked on his technique in his free time at the YMCA, tried out for the team as a sophomore and made his HS swim team. He ultimately lettered each of his three years in swimming. More importantly, the skills he learned in swimming served him very well at the Academy. He crushed the swim test, was in the top swimming group for his DPE class last year, and nearly maxed out the scores for the class which significantly boosted his PE grade for his Yearling year. He learned that even his superstar, stud classmates frequently struggled mightily in the water, which actually helped boost his own confidence when they leaned on him to help them prepare for the swim classes.
The advice to focus on no-cut sports for a kid with no organized sports background seems pretty sound.
But, I have some doubts about the statement that "Fencing . . . is huge for . . . SAs." I thought this was a club level sport. But, I'd be surprised even if it was a Varsity sport if participation in high school is "huge" in an admissions context. Similar thoughts when it comes to water polo or volleyball.
A1Janitor
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Women’s D1 volleyball too?
Do you really want to be an officer and serve in the military? Not meant to be a rhetorical question. Have you researched what being an officer and attending an SA really means in terms of lifestyle? You probably don't have a good answer for these but make sure you really investigate what you're getting yourself into for a good chunk of your young adult life.
JohnGalt78
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I COMPLETELY disagree with your comments about fencing and water polo. These niche sports hold a VERY special appeal for SA admissions committees:
Unique Skill Set: Fencing and water polo are unique sports that demand exceptional skills. Fencers must possess quick thinking, agility, poise, and speed, while water polo players combine elements of swimming, wrestling, basketball, soccer, and baseball. This distinctive skill set sets applicants apart.
Character Development: Both sports instill important qualities that service academies value. Fencing fosters discipline, respect, maturity, and good sportsmanship, qualities that transcend the sports arena and apply to everyday life. Water polo, akin to combat in the water, builds resilience and problem-solving abilities, teaching athletes to handle adversity with grace.
Endurance and Teamwork: Water polo, in particular, demands an extraordinary level of endurance and teamwork. It's a physically demanding sport that requires not only swimming prowess but also strength, endurance, throwing ability, hand-eye coordination, core fitness, and power. These attributes align perfectly with the athletic traits service academies seek in applicants.
Ask anyone who is familiar with SA admissions committees, and they will tell you that both fencing and water polo are VERY HIGHLY regarded e they showcase an applicant's unique skills, contribute to character development, and emphasize physical and mental attributes that are in high demand to not only survive, but excel through the rigors of attending any of the SAs.
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I agree.
Fencing had a long and impressive varsity history at USNA until it was dropped in 1993. Title 9 drove a lot of reshuffling of varsity teams, but with increasing percentages of women at SAs, fencing has returned to club status, and I know many would like to see it return to varsity. I suspect it will. As with water polo, it requires strategic thinking, physical stamina, agile decision-making, resolve.
See:
And
NABSD Club Spotlight: Men's and Women's Fencing
Fencing has a deep history of great success at the Naval Academy, as the sport epitomizes the finesse and discipline required of a midshipmen.
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Fun fact: When fencing was dropped, the fencing team alumni found/pledged enough money to fully fund the sport at USNA but
USNA was not able to allow its to be reinstated at that time due to the aforementioned Title IX issues which deal with numbers of men's and women's varsity roster slots compared with actual numbers of men and women students. FWIW, the overwhelming numbers of students that a D1 football team encompasses makes it very difficult to keep some of the smaller men's teams in varsity status.
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I'm someone who is pretty familiar with Service Academy Admissions Committees on the Congressional and Senatorial side and have never seen a particular affinity for Water Polo or Fencing any more than a number of other sports. That goes for both how the nomination committees that I've served on evaluated candidates as well as how the academies accepted or didn't accept our nominees.
JohnGalt78
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Especially for the USNA, water polo has always been a highly regarded sport for all the obvious reasons, plus it requires such incredible tenacity, strength and basic water survival skills. If you have ever played water polo at any competitive level, you would understand how it's basically a 32 minute MMA/Wresting/Jiu Jitsu match in 10ft of water and you are fighting non-stop to stay alive and not drown! Someone puches you, you just deal with it. There are rules against violence. But the referee can’t see underwater, so the personal fouls section of the water polo rules might as well be blank pages. Yanking on the suit, kicks, elbows, chops to throat: all part of the game. There’s a reason why there’s nail-checking at the beginning of each match. The sport is brutally difficult but you have to be smart too. There’s a lot going on. Five other players on your team (plus your goalie), seven opponents, ball position, shot clock counting down, time in the game. All of these dimensions while maneuvering a one-on-one battle to keep your head above water. Yeah, USNA loves water polo players. IMHO
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I don't disagree about the difficulty and qualities that water polo requires and its a fact that a friend/classmate who was a major USNA water polo team member was indeed a flag officer. That said, I have not seen this have much effect on ADMISSIONS.Especially for the USNA, water polo has always been a highly regarded sport for all the obvious reasons, plus it requires such incredible tenacity, strength and basic water survival skills. If you have ever played water polo at any competitive level, you would understand how it's basically a 32 minute MMA/Wresting/Jiu Jitsu match in 10ft of water and you are fighting non-stop to stay alive and not drown! Someone puches you, you just deal with it. There are rules against violence. But the referee can’t see underwater, so the personal fouls section of the water polo rules might as well be blank pages. Yanking on the suit, kicks, elbows, chops to throat: all part of the game. There’s a reason why there’s nail-checking at the beginning of each match. The sport is brutally difficult but you have to be smart too. There’s a lot going on. Five other players on your team (plus your goalie), seven opponents, ball position, shot clock counting down, time in the game. All of these dimensions while maneuvering a one-on-one battle to keep your head above water. Yeah, USNA loves water polo players. IMHO
I'll be specific here: From what I've seen over the years, a NON-RECRUITED high school/club water polo player does not have a leg up on an equally academically qualified NON-RECRUITED high school/club wrestler or swimmer or for that matter Ice Hockey player with admissions.
JohnGalt78
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Sounds to me like you are saying that, regardless of required skill sets, physical demands, team/leadership, etc, ALL high school sports and/or clubs are weighted equally on SA admissions committees. Is that correct? You may be correct from the Congressional and Senatorial side of attaining a recommendation, however, I believe that is misguided advice when it comes to the actual SA admissions selection committee thought process. Obviously, not everyone who receives Congressional and Senatorial recommendations are selected and more often than not which sports a candidate participated in comes into play, especially when most other admissions criteria are about equal.
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Not correct.
It is not a secret that there is a bias toward athletic team participation over clubs like the chess club. All things being equal if a candidate is only going to have ONE activity, I'd strongly suggest that it be a varsity sport instead of a non-athletic activity. That said, the vas majority of SUCCESSFUL applicants have one or more varsity athletic teams as well as more than one "other" activity with many having three or more.
As for weighting between sports? I really have not seen much added/subtracted points based on the specific sport for NON-RECRUITED athletes.
JohnGalt78
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Regardless, the OP had zero HS sports at the start of this thread and given everyone's replies, we seemed to have helped him understand the value of having multiple HS sports on his application.