Sports During BCT

sendmetoENJJPT

sendmetoENJJPT

USAFA C/O 2026
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
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I recently stumbled upon this question and I could not search the forums due to the words being too common. What do sports (IC) look like during basic training? Is there practice during basic? How does that look (schedule-wise)? Any information would be helpful.
 
My DD is an IC and they were able to practice with the team ( juniors and seniors only) during breakout ( so it ended up being 5-6 times during basic)
 
Same as what Glider78 said. I will add during the Jack's portion, those athletes weren't able to practice with the team, but DD still had 5-6 practices. DD left her sport gear in her coach's office prior to reporting for I-day.
 
Is it only if you are recruited for a sport, or would you be allowed to practice if you have walk on potential?
 
Sparky233 said:
Is it only if you are recruited for a sport, or would you be allowed to practice if you have walk on potential?
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There are opportunities to walk-on for a lot of sports but I don't think I ever saw any for the big D-1 sports. You could walk on for boxing, cheer, etc. During morning PT, the IC's would work with their team and the other Basics would do PT out on the athletic fields, so it was probably 4-5 times a week they'd break out to their respective sports.
 
Sparky233 said:
Is it only if you are recruited for a sport, or would you be allowed to practice if you have walk on potential?
Click to expand...
I think it depends on the sport and the coach. I can tell you my DD experience... DD grabbed another girl and "recruited" her to the team as a walk-on during BCT. That girl did practice with the team during BCT.
 
Many sports are very wary of accepting walk-ons, but you can try during basic. I know for swim my year they didn't accept any walk-ons.
 
A couple of years ago, my DS was recruited by several div 2 and div 3 schools for lacrosse. He was offered scholarships. He hoped to walk on to the IC lacrosse team when he got to USAFA. He was afforded a tryout along with just one other guy. Neither was accepted. The tryout was after BCT.
 
My DS tried to walk on to the swim team and he swam for a week then was told he was too slow. He did not swim during BCT so that kinda made a difference.
 
I wonder if being a female vs. male for walk-ons makes a difference? I would guess, only a guess, that there's more limited space for males in certain sports to compensate for the football team and larger percentages of men vs women. I'm guessing maybe there's more spaces available for females?
 
2025 hopeful said:
I wonder if being a female vs. male for walk-ons makes a difference? I would guess, only a guess, that there's more limited space for males in certain sports to compensate for the football team and larger percentages of men vs women. I'm guessing maybe there's more spaces available for females?
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I think there is some truth here in the total number of women participating sports, but not when it comes to walk-ons. That is - because of the need to balance women's and men's sports and the low number of women at USAFA (although that's improving!), a higher percent of the women at USAFA are participating in a sport. When I was there, it seemed like the majority of women were playing an IC sport freshman year.

I don't think that really translates to walk-on spots though. The teams recruit heavily to fill their spots with the strongest team possible, but that said, it is definitely possible to walk on to some teams. Fencing is one I know has historically taken walk-ons. Rifle is another. Tennis usually allowed some to try but never actually took any in my experience. In short- if your skills/stats are D1 level, it may be possible to walk-on. If they aren't - it's pretty unlikely. Also as a general rule, the less mainstream the sport the more likely they are to take walk-ons.
 
I think it depends on the sport. My DD was able to get together with the other freshmen a few times during basic but because of ncaa rules couldn’t meet up with the full team until something like 10 days before the first competition. She did mention she lost fitness during basic but the coaches are used to that and have a developed program to work with the freshman to get them back in peak shape safely.

If you’re looking to walk on I would recommend reaching out to the coach before basic and see what they’re recruiting class looks like and if they might have room for walk ons.
 
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