Senior Year Sports Inquiry

U

USSEnterpr1se

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2022
Messages
113
Hello! I have posted previously once on this forum regarding my application and ECAs. Currently, I'm stuck between pursuing the following athletic sports next year.

- Joining Swim and Lettering
- Joining XC and Track with a much signficantly lower chance of lettering (XC and Track is EXTREMELY competitive at my school)

This seems like a lot, and I don't really know what to try and doing. My biggest hole in my USNA application is the lack of athletic sports and leadership in that area. I have been doing Archery for 5 years now and served as a Team Captain for it for 1. I do plan on doing Taekwondo in December. Other than that, I don't really know how to make up for my lack of sports leadership and sports in general.

I have heard that an oustanding score on the CFA can make up for the lack of athletic sports. Is this really the case? Or is it better to try and work on a sport next year?

Also, side question, how good does 5 years of Archery and a couple of state titles look to the admissions committee?

Thank you!
 
Athletics are much more than just physical activities and a CFA score. It's the whole being on a team, learning to win and lose, working toward a common goal, taking instruction, leading, following, persevering and a whole bunch of other Win One For The Gipper speech material. Search the site for any of the many threads on the topic. The main challenge for you if you're not on teams is the need to find replacements for that working together stuff more than anything else. You've got the archery success and Taekwondo already, and you can put together a good CFA to address the athleticism question, so find a team that doesn't mess up those other things and get to work on a letter and some time with the squad.
 
StPaulDad said:
Athletics are much more than just physical activities and a CFA score. It's the whole being on a team, learning to win and lose, working toward a common goal, taking instruction, leading, following, persevering and a whole bunch of other Win One For The Gipper speech material. Search the site for any of the many threads on the topic. The main challenge for you if you're not on teams is the need to find replacements for that working together stuff more than anything else. You've got the archery success and Taekwondo already, and you can put together a good CFA to address the athleticism question, so find a team that doesn't mess up those other things and get to work on a letter and some time with the squad.
Click to expand...
First and foremost, thank you so much for your reply!

I do understand the trouble that I'm facing with the lack of a team sports kind of thing, but I do believe its a bit too late for me to work on a team sport like soccer or such. First semester of Junior year is already over and second semester is just rising up the horizon. Do you think my NJROTC officer experience and club officer experience would allow me to push the fact that I am able to work as a team?
 
USSEnterpr1se said:
First and foremost, thank you so much for your reply!

I do understand the trouble that I'm facing with the lack of a team sports kind of thing, but I do believe its a bit too late for me to work on a team sport like soccer or such. First semester of Junior year is already over and second semester is just rising up the horizon. Do you think my NJROTC officer experience and club officer experience would allow me to push the fact that I am able to work as a team?
Click to expand...
Ask yourself how badly do you want to get into USNA?
If you want it badly enough then you'll stop asking what is "good enough" and bust your butt to get as much done as possible. That could start with winter/spring track. Maybe they're very competitive as you've said but HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?
If you want it badly enough, you'll join the team and give it everything you've got.

PS: That's kind of the lesson of team sports. . . giving it all that you've got to help the team. Even the folks below the top echelon help by pushing the top folks to keep them at THEIR best.
 
Swim AND Cross country. Typically different seasons. Both provide the basis for lifelong fitness, will help tremendously with your CFA, and the SAs all have running and swimming requirements. There is no down side, and learning time management as well. Lettering is extra.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Ask yourself how badly do you want to get into USNA?
If you want it badly enough then you'll stop asking what is "good enough" and bust your butt to get as much done as possible. That could start with winter/spring track. Maybe they're very competitive as you've said but HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?
If you want it badly enough, you'll join the team and give it everything you've got.

PS: That's kind of the lesson of team sports. . . giving it all that you've got to help the team. Even the folks below the top echelon help by pushing the top folks to keep them at THEIR best.
Click to expand...
That is a very true statement! I do plan on pursueing track and cross country. I do have another question though, how does 5 years of archery along with leadership positions and titles look? Will the admissions committee take that well? Or will it just be a meh, whatever as it is considered a non athletic sport?
 
T-37IP said:
Swim AND Cross country. Typically different seasons. Both provide the basis for lifelong fitness, will help tremendously with your CFA, and the SAs all have running and swimming requirements. There is no down side, and learning time management as well. Lettering is extra.
Click to expand...
Yes!! I definitely think it will help, I would join both if my time permitted. I will definitely do all I can to join both and participate in both. The only main issue if the time constraints this might have on my schedule.
 
USSEnterpr1se said:
Yes!! I definitely think it will help, I would join both if my time permitted. I will definitely do all I can to join both and participate in both. The only main issue if the time constraints this might have on my schedule.
Click to expand...
Not to put too fine of a point on it, but you can either make time or make excuses.
 
I was in the same boat as you until I decided to do volleyball in the spring. Although my JROTC position requires me to be there year round, I figured out how I can take spring season off with my program commander taking the work for me while I took hers while she's out for swimming this season. This type of planning and figuring things out will also demonstrate your ability to manage priorities and make plans to put yourself on a track to success. Varsity sports are key in the admissions process for service academies. You'll thank yourself later for having had experience with at least one varsity sport with a letter. I'm a junior as well applying for USMA, best of luck to both of us.
 
Team. Team. Team. A functioning team is greater than the “stars”, whether that’s sports, a project team in business, etc. I suspect most of the mids were stars of teams in HS. Most will not be stars at USNA (some will) but then they will commission and will not be stars when they hit the Fleet or Corps. But the stars are acutely aware that they hold this spot because of their more anonymous teammates and this lauded “position” is temporary. Teams function and succeed because everyone on the team willingly takes on whatever role is necessary and does their very best, even if to an outsider it looks like they are unimportant. The team knows otherwise.

Don’t think about HS sports as some kind of demonstration of your athletic prowess. Think of it as your demonstration that you know how to work in a team, that you will work your butt off for the team’s goals, and maybe that you know what it means to be a role player and can keep your ego in check (but that you have a healthy ego).

I suspect that applicants who demonstrate that they naturally gravitate to teams in HS (sports for sure but also Scouting etc.) present clear evidence that they like and need to be part of something bigger. Being part of a team for several years shows a willingness to work hard (maybe in obscurity) to make the team better and to expand their impact on the team’s success over time. I might suggest watching the movie “Rudy”. The world needs more Rudy and less Ye.
 
ders_dad said:
Don’t think about HS sports as some kind of demonstration of your athletic prowess. Think of it as your demonstration that you know how to work in a team, that you will work your butt off for the team’s goals, and maybe that you know what it means to be a role player and can keep your ego in check (but that you have a healthy ego).
Click to expand...
This! Bolded, underlined and italicized!

A major misconception is that a strong CFA compensates for a lack of team athletics. But they demonstrate very different things. The former measures physical fitness and capability. The latter measures so much more — from physical to mental to emotional.

With our kids, we emphasized competitive team sports from a young age. They were required to do them, just as they were required to do their homework and their chores (homework always came first). In athletics, they had to operate within a system, deliver on the responsibilities of their position, follow a precise plan and adjust when necessary, develop their individual skills, battle back in the face of adversity, and respond positively to seemingly unreasonable demands for more, faster, better.

Now, insert “plebe summer detailers” for “coaches.” When you’ve been chastised or yelled at (hopefully, with positive intent) by coaches since childhood, you’re less likely to wither in the face of all that at an SA or on AD. Looking back, competitive team sports seems an awful lot like what one must do to thrive and survive as a midshipman and officer.
 
Last edited:
OP doesn't say what year he is ...but if he/she is a junior, my Opinion (fwiw) is focus on what he/she is doing now. If I were sitting on the Admission's Board looking at an application that says Track (11), I'd scratch my head and say why wasn't this Candidate doing team sports as a Freshman/Sophmore ? Participating in a sport just to "check the block" is just participating, and probably draws more attention to the lack of team sports than emphasizing what you learned and accomplished in the activities where you did in fact accomplish something. Bottom line -- put forth the application that shows who you are -- not the application that you think Admissions is looking for. It is really transparent to the BGO (and presumably the Board) when you try to be someone you aren't,
 
USSEnterpr1se said:
That is a very true statement! I do plan on pursueing track and cross country. I do have another question though, how does 5 years of archery along with leadership positions and titles look? Will the admissions committee take that well? Or will it just be a meh, whatever as it is considered a non athletic sport?
Click to expand...
"Take It"? They will consider it as it will be part of the points in your Whole Person Multiple that is calculated based on
what you have done in and out of school.
 
I feel a need to double back for a moment. There's been a lot of "you need to be on a team" advice given, and it does illustrate the reason that it's the standard path most successful applicants take to the academy. But the fact is that people have been playing non-traditional club sports instead of the standard high school team sports for years and they do get accepted.

Please go search the forums for the many other threads that respond to people asking about martial arts, high level club sports, ultimate frisbee, fencing and a laundry list of other activities that don't produce a varsity letter. You can certainly make a case that they are clearly athletic, meet many of the soft requirements that the academies are looking for in athletics, and take a lot of time management to participate in. But those other threads are going to tell you that you do need to make that case to be in the 10-15% of non-lettered acceptances. If your participation hasn't been substantial or long-term then you may really have a challenge, but join a team, make your archery case and hope for the best. Five years of archery with a captaincy is not nothing, so make them say no. Try searching for VARSITY LETTER and you'll find a bunch of discussions over the years. Good luck, we're all pulling for you.
 
MidCakePa said:
This! Bolded, underlined and italicized!

A major misconception is that a strong CFA compensates for a lack of team athletics. But they demonstrate very different things. The former measures physical fitness and capability. The latter measures so much more — from physical to mental to emotional.

With our kids, we emphasized competitive team sports from a young age. They were required to do them, just as they were required to do their homework and their chores (homework always came first). In athletics, they had to operate within a system, deliver on the responsibilities of their position, follow a precise plan and adjust when necessary, develop their individual skills, battle back in the face of adversity, and respond positively to seemingly unreasonable demands for more, faster, better.

Now, insert “plebe summer detailers” for “coaches.” When you’ve been chastised or yelled at (hopefully, with positive intent) by coaches since childhood, you’re less likely to wither in the face of all that at an SA or on AD. Looking back, competitive team sports seems an awful lot like what one must do to thrive and survive as a midshipman and officer.
Click to expand...
Such a great post on the subject! The team sport aspect, responsibilities, outcome, and why it helps develops a person. Well said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top