ROTC with a sport

B

basketball2squid

Member
Joined
May 25, 2023
Messages
52
Hi! I am a freshman at a university. I am a sciences major and a team manager for one of the sports teams on campus. I am considering doing ROTC beginning in the spring semester, but I am a little hesitant due to my courseload and work.

Any tips/advice?
 
Why do you want to join ROTC?
 
Better look at schedules. Do sports practices / games and ROTC classes and labs conflict? If so,may have to choose one or the other.
 
My son is a freshman and plays hockey. I told him up front, your priorities are Grades and NRTOC. Hockey is a very very distant third place. I told him that if you have any class that falls to a C, you need to stop hockey for a while until it gets back up to an A or B grade. So far he is doing a good job of managing his time/grades. We let his coaches know that it will be unlikely that he does out of state and out of country tournaments on the weekends because NROTC has the priority. They were good with our candid approach and still wanted him on the team.
 
Which ROTC is this for?

I would speak with the ROO and Cadre at the campus. My is in Army ROTC and was a recruited athlete.

He was excused from ROTC if there was an event (practice, game, lifts). He missed a lot of ROTC his freshman year and decided for his sophomore year he would only do ROTC.

I will tell you if its something you do. It will become an exercise in time management.
 
For Army, you can make it work in freshman and sophomore year, but the time commitment is greater junior and senior years. Different divisions and sports have different levels of time commitment. I could see a primarily individual sport like Cross Country or Swimming being easier than a team sport like Soccer or Football.
 
DS is on ROTC scholarship at a mid-size college and battalion. He’s a STEM major and a member of the business school’s pro-bono consulting firm (one of only two non-business majors). They do serious engagements with real companies, which takes enormous time and effort.

He’s very clear — with guidance from cadre — that academics come first, then ROTC, then everything else. It’s a very tough grind juggling all the commitments, but he has his priorities straight. So it can be done. But you must be a master time manager, planner and prioritizer.
 
I think a lot depends on what level of play your sport is.

For what it's worth, my daughter was recruited to play lacrosse, committed going into September of HS JR year...decided over the summer going into Senior year that she was interested in service and met with ROO at the university (ArmyROTC). They were very welcoming to the notion of her being able to balance both and cited having two athletes currently doing both. She's a scholarship athlete - not a full ride, but a nice package (women's lacrosse is notoriously under-funded everywhere outside the top 20) and her lacrosse coach is supporting her decision as well. She met with the leadership of cadre, PMS, and a grad that juggled both (lax & rotc) and just graduated in the Spring. They told her when lacrosse is in season and/or training/conditioning, she'd be exempt from PT because that would count has her PT and anytime lacrosse conflicted, she'd be excused to keep that commitment.

The fuller her schedule, the better she performs and she's been carrying a pretty heavy one through high school with lacrosse, school and work. We'll just have to see when the rubber meets the road I guess. Luckily she'll only be "working" a few hours a week as assistant to the coach as part of her package, so that will free up a lot of time in her schedule (she works 15-20 hours a week right now).

Now all that said, back to my original statement - I'm involved with lacrosse and work for a club that handles the recruiting for their players. I seriously doubt many D1 coaches would be jolly about one of their athletes going this route. I also imagine it's incredibly difficult to VOICE such when you're talking about service to our nation. But coaches have a way of getting their point across and that can be tough. My kid decided in 9th grade she wanted a competitive D2 program after training in the off season with multiple D1 athletes that really helped her make an informed decision on the time commitment playing on means. She wants to play, but she wants to experience college and keep achieving highly in the classroom. Like they say, you can have it all, just not all at the same time.

So bottom line? WHO THE HECK KNOWS? Check back with me in a year for an update :)
 
Definitely possible, but you have to be willing to put in the work. We have multiple D3 sports players in NROTC at the unit i went to
 
The standard conversation regarding rotc and sports is that you need your detachment head and coach to be able to cooperate. There are only 24 hours in a day and sometimes one of the two is going is going to need more time that day. Lots of times, cadets can get away from doing PT as they do plenty of training while training for their sport. The biggest issue is time management. As for team manager, my guess is that Rotc isn't going to be that cooperative so you can be the team manager. I mean if most of the work is done at home games, then i have to imagine it wont be that time-consuming. However, if you going away for away games, i don't think Rotc would be that kind.
 
It can be done but it is a priority to juggle. My DS plays volleyball. The schedule of practices makes the already tight schedule tougher. He did it year one. He had to miss Nationals for volleyball due to ROTC. This year he found himself a research position which he needs for med school resume. Something had to give and he made right choice to give up volleyball. You should experience as much as you can in college...just make sure the focus is on the right priorities.
 
My youngest is looking at D3 Football at a really tough Engineering School and has also stated his concern with work loads. I told him to remember who is paying the tuition bills if he does AFROTC.
 
Each school and program is different. Talk to coach and cadre. If it looks like they have a good relationship and have worked well together then you can definitely do it. The rest is on you to manage your time be up front with both entities. Some ROTC programs may want mor out of you, and some coaches may want more.
 
My son did AFROTC in college. Mechanical Engineering major. He also was in Honor Guard and marched for the university. He never had issues. PT was always early morning and band practice was late evening.
 
Much will depend on your PMS. Some are supportive, but unfortunately some are not.
It is probably apocryphal, but by oral tradition the Duke of Wellington is said to have remarked that “the Battle of Waterloo was won on the fields of Eton.” George Orwell retorted “…but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there”, but that’s besides the point.😃
As West Point football players take the field in Michie Stadium they touch a plaque on which is written, “I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player.” It’s attributed to General Marshall, but as with the reference to Wellington there is no evidence he actually said that.
But the sentiments have value. You learn things about leadership and “followership” on the playing fields that you just can’t learn in a classroom. I learned much more on the lacrosse and football field about life, leadership, and working together than I did in any classroom.
Physically you will be in better shape as an athlete than the vast majority of PT programs. Even as a D3 athlete I thought basic training was physically pretty easy compared to preseason “two a days”. My daughter was a D1 athlete and physically smoked basic training. Many ROTC programs exempt you from PT during season. SA athletes do not participate in company athletics or PT in season. Heck, most mornings my DD was in the weight room before the rest of her company was awake.
But beyond the physical aspect there is the leadership aspect. It may be cold, drizzling, sleeting, but you still have to play. Heck, I played in conditions that caused field problems to be cancelled.
You may not like that player next to you, but you have to learn to work together. When the other team scores you can’t give up. When you lose, you wake up the next morning and hit the weight room again.
So I would go for the athletics if you can. Years from now you will be happy you did.
Now if you’re talking golf… I’m sorry, but that isn’t a sport. 😃
 
Last edited:
Just keep in mind that as you progress through ROTC, your roles, responsibilities and time will increase. 1st year of college ROTC was 3 days per week for my DS, 2nd year he's doing 5, he said it's like a fraternity and sport/club all wrapped up in one. However, you control your own ROTC destiny to a point, the more you put in, the more you get out, the less you...............you get the point. Certainly, your major dictates the aforementioned, engineering a lot more amped-up than communications or political science majors. Bottomline, you can take on anything and accomplish anything if you know how to correctly manage your time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top