Cross Country as a Team Sport?

CuriousDad

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It's my understanding that being in team sports is best for getting into a service academy (either one). My DS joined his high school cross country team this fall. Does that count as a team sport? I know they run as a team and get team scores, but I don't really think of it as a team sport. I know it helps to be good at running if you are in a academy, but does being in cross country help much to get you in?
 
Absolutely it’s a team sport. The TEAM part applies to the camaraderie, encouraging your mates...pushing each other to be better. Working through defeats. The successes and failures. All that is done as a team. Not as an individual. I get what you mean because the outcome of his individual race is up to his performance alone, so an individual. But I would argue that even his own performance/time is at least in part due to being on a team.

For sure it’s a team. And the part that will help him most on his application is being a leader on his team. Many ways to do that. Team captain being one that actually gets you points.
 
It's my understanding that being in team sports is best for getting into a service academy

One of the things you will find about applying to any SA is that friends/neighbors/relatives or the even the postman will offer all sorts of well-intentioned advice even when they have no idea what they are talking about. People on here also offer a lot of opinions about various aspects of sports and even if they post lengthy authoritative sounding statements, they are still opinions since the reality is that none of us actually work in admissions. It seems reasonable that team sports are more highly valued by SA's but those also tend to sports which are more physically demanding.

Many also refer to that Rand study done for WP from several years ago where more points were given for certain sports. There is no way for any of us to know if that formula is still the same for WP and most likely each SA has slightly different formulas. Getting an appointment is about more then which sport(s) you participated in, so only one part of the total picture. Officially published figures from all of the SA's indicate that 90+% of those appointed participated in varsity sports, which also implies roughly 10% still got appointments without any h.s. sports.

Participating and EXCELLING in a physically demanding sport probably means more then doing something just to try to 'game' the admissions system at whatever college someone is interested in applying. I wouldn't recommend anyone participate in sport X and spend all their time as a benchwarmer just because they think the SA will give them more 'points' for that sport.
 
I think on the application it asks specifically about captain of football or basketball. If you are a captain of a team sport, it could give leadership points.

I suspect most athletes at the SA play sports since 4th/5th grade.

Unless you are being recruited - I am not sure how the SA distinguishes whether an athlete sits the bench or excels. Poor CFA results with a 3 sport athlete could be a hint. Just like a valedictorian with a 1000 SAT.

I would guess the people that want to add a sport their senior year for points on a resume is the exception and not the rule.
 
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I think there are ways a SA can gauge how good someone is in a sport. Not perfect but provides a general idea.

If you put down you were in a sport for 1 year - albeit freshman year or fall senior year- a SA can probably sense that applicant didn’t have the passion or time (some have to work lots of hours for spending money) for that sport.

One SA - I think it was USAFA- asks the applicant for stats. I thought my DD had to put her PRs in events when she listed XC and track in her activities.

Another way is listing all-conference, all-state, all-area, etc... as way of conveying to the SA of your skill in that sport relative to your school or area peers.

XC definitely a team sport. A team can’t score/place unless it has at least 5 runners. That’s the beauty of XC and track and field. Both are team sports but your individual success is contributes to the team scores and is more a function of your own skill.
 
So, from the comments, it seems like it doesn't always have to be a team sport. Although maybe it is better. If that is the case, then cross country is OK for someone who want to go to an academy. How well he does would be more important it seems, which is good for my DS, since he doesn't have much experience with football, basketball, soccer or other certain team sports.
 
My DD played a team sport with about 15 on the roster and the coach always had three captains: one star player, one popular "player" from the bench and someone else the team chose. He didn't show the vote totals or tell them exactly how he arrived at these choices, but it was always so. You make of the role what you will in the context you find yourself, but getting in front of the group with their consent and the endorsement of the coaches is always a good thing.

Your son will have a far better chance getting in front of a team if he's good at the sport, and if he hasn't started competing in many of the "skill" sports yet or he's not a superstar 6'3" raw stud athlete then the tenacity sports like distance running or swimming might be the most direct route. Best of luck!
 
Cross Country is a team sport. Last weekend were the NCAA Div 1 XC Championships at Terre Haute, Indiana. We were there to watch the tightly knit AF women's team as they supported and pushed each other to vault to #8 nationally - ahead of big names like Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, NAU, Boise State... Just the 2nd time they reached the D1 finals ever and highest ranking by any AF women's sport team at D1 level. Definitely a team sport and a successful one at that!
 
I think my DS probably won't be a team captain in cross country because he is not the best. He is OK and likes it, which is important, but there are already a couple other runners in his class that are way better. The coach puts the best runner every year as captain. That's how it was this year and other parents say that's how it is done every year. If the team captain is for leadership, then my DS will have to find that somewhere else. He is in Boy Scouts and participates in church activities, so he could get leadership from them. Plus, he could get into school activities too. Thanks everyone!
 
I think my DS probably won't be a team captain in cross country because he is not the best. He is OK and likes it, which is important, but there are already a couple other runners in his class that are way better. The coach puts the best runner every year as captain. That's how it was this year and other parents say that's how it is done every year. If the team captain is for leadership, then my DS will have to find that somewhere else. He is in Boy Scouts and participates in church activities, so he could get leadership from them. Plus, he could get into school activities too. Thanks everyone!
Does your son have a good relationship with the coach? If so, he could ask them about the likelihood of being captain after explaining how much it means to Service Academy admissions. I don't know if that was the deciding factor for him but I suggested this to my son during the summer between his sophomore and junior years and he called me back about 10 minutes later and said, "Dad, I'm the captain NOW" and he was for junior and senior years. He was not the fastest but his work ethic combined with the how much it could help him were apparently the deciding factor for the coach who made him captain as a Junior even though there was a Senior on the team.
 
Yes, that is a good suggestion. We actually thought of talking to the coach about service academies, but not for this year. Letting DS be on the team another year and see how it goes before bringing something like that up with the coach seems like the best approach for the situation. DS doesn't think that will work though because of the long history of having the best runner be the captain. But I agree it is worth the try. Thank you!
 
My son did something similar - he simply had a conversation with his coach about being the team captain.

let me explain - my son had 2 sports. Karate - where there are no team captains and hockey - where there can be team captains. The hockey league he was in didn't always bother with assigning a team captain (it was a town rec league - so rather informal) and it is uncommon for a goalie to be made team captain. But my son knew that WP likes to see 'team captain' on their resume, so every season (spring and fall), he'd approach his coach (and it was often a new coach for each season) and explain to him that WP was his goal and how WP likes for their candidates to be team captains. Most said no - simply because they didn't plan to have a team captain that season but a few of the coaches caught his vision and said yes.

Don't be afraid to approach a coach and have a chat. The worse that can happen is that they say no. And then you try again next year.
 
Yes, that is a good suggestion. We actually thought of talking to the coach about service academies, but not for this year. Letting DS be on the team another year and see how it goes before bringing something like that up with the coach seems like the best approach for the situation. DS doesn't think that will work though because of the long history of having the best runner be the captain. But I agree it is worth the try. Thank you!
FWIW Sometimes you don't have to be assigned as a leader to lead, and maybe you get a leadership position by being a leader already? DS ended up a cross country team captain on a nationally competitive HS team, and was not near the performance of the top runners. He did it by leading without having an assigned responsibility to do so. The best runners who were team captains were usually off doing their own, higher caliber thing, and the runners below that had no active leadership. Do DS just kind of took it upon himself as a junior (i.e., checked in with younger students, made sure they knew what was going on, led warm ups, etc). He ended up with team spirit awards for 2 years, and was made a team captain senior year because he already was a team leader.
 
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