ROTC and sports - Big man

J

jensen bch fl

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My son wants to join ROTC. He is also a football player, offensive lineman and wants to play at the collegiate level.

He is 6’3-6’4

The requirements for offensive line in college are between 260 and 300 lb. he is a junior in High school and currently 250.


Is there provision to reconcile these two goals or must he give up football for ROTC?
 
He can do both. West Point has a Division 1 football team. When he is done playing - he will need to meet the Army standard below:

73 " 17-20 years old - 189 pounds is the screening weight. If in excess, he will execute a body fat test (tape test). The standard is 20% bf.

73" 21-27 year old - 191 pounds. Bf standard is 22%.

74" 17-20 - 194 pounds. 20%

74" 21-27 - 197 pounds. 22%

It may require some discipline in the winter/spring of his senior year to get to the standard. Trainers can help with nutrition and calorie requirements.
 
One of the ROTC guys need to weigh in, but at West Point, the football players end up having to lose a bunch of weight the last semester. There is a support system in place to help them get there.

There are the initial height/weight tables, but the BMI test is what they have to meet to be commissioned.
 
Yes, you can do Rotc and play college sports. I have to imagine it will hard if he plays at a D1 school because of the time requirement. College athletes have something like a 20 hour weekly max they are allowed to practice officially which doesnt sound like much but if you divide it over the week that comes out to a lot of hours. Combine that with personal training, school, studying, traveling and Rotc requirements, your son will be a very busy guy and something may fall through the cracks.
 
You did not specify which service branch of ROTC you are considering. Note that each branch may have different height and weight requirements.

It would be best to contact the recruiting operations officer of the programs you are interested in and express your concerns.
 
jensen bch fl said:
My son wants to join ROTC. He is also a football player, offensive lineman and wants to play at the collegiate level.

He is 6’3-6’4

The requirements for offensive line in college are between 260 and 300 lb. he is a junior in High school and currently 250.


Is there provision to reconcile these two goals or must he give up football for ROTC?
Click to expand...
My DS posed that question to a number of schools -- specifically, would he be able to play his sport in college and also participate in ROTC. The answers differed depending on the school. Some said it would be very difficult in terms of time managing those two commitments, and others said no it's fine, people do it all the time. In the end he decided to go to an SMC so that there would be less of a conflict, given that all of the athletes would also be participating in ROTC. Having to lose the football weight afterward is an additional consideration, but certainly doable if that's what he wants.
 
He could also work on his height. I believe getting under a 25 BMI at 300lbs would require him to reach 7'8", but my math could be off. ;)
 
He should work with the officers in his unit to make sure it's possible and that weight won't be an issue. It will be difficult unless both the coach and the ROTC unit cooperate and are supportive of him. Also, although I'm sure advice here is correct, ROTC is not the academy, and one should never make assumptions based on advice from an anonymous forum. He may need to make weight to contract, which would not be at the end of his college career for ROTC. Good luck to your DS.
 
We have wondered this same thing. DS is lineman and talking to coaches at the D3 school where he has accepted his scholarship. He has a 3 year scholarship and the documents state he must make weight standards by October of his sophomore year if I remember correctly. As much as I would love to watch him play ball again, he is realizing now that his job at school will be the army and that will
have to come first. We plan on discussing with the Roo when we go back to visit again next month.
 
I started off my freshman year running cross country at the jr. college level (believe it or not, it is the same time commitment as the top 4-year running programs). I also started AROTC right away in the fall (non-scholarship). My cadre told me I was required to come to lab, class, and as many PT sessions as possible. I ended up missing one practice a week (that I was required to make up), but I usually made it to about every PT session (3/week). I also drove about 30 minutes one way to get to the host school. So add all of that together and I had a lot of days where I would wake up before 4:30am and workout 2-3 times per day, plus I would have to stay up hours to complete my homework. I became so exhausted that my fitness level actually went backwards and I couldn't even compete at the national XC meet. Needless to say, it was way too much for a freshman. I decided to quit track over winter break in order to transfer to a closer university. Now I am training to run marathons on my own, and my PT score has actually gotten better (I have taken almost 2 minutes off of my run time) because I am not over-exhausting myself. I also just received my 3-year scholarship, which I probably wouldn't have been competitive enough to receive until I became fully committed to ROTC.

So I guess my advice would be, go ahead and try them both, but decide what is most important. Is his priority football or ROTC? He must realize that he might have to let one go in the end, it is way better to do that than spreading yourself too thin.
 
I know one football player in NROTC and another in army ROTC at my school.. it can be done!
 
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