USNA Track

tkinion

tkinion

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Jan 3, 2023
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My DD is not a recruited athlete but interested in “walking on” to the track team. Does anyone have any experience or information about this?
 
The varsity teams usually hold some walk-on tryouts during Plebe Summer.

Has your daughter researched various sites for typical Navy scores/times for her event, to see if she is competitive for D1? Talked to her coach to discuss if she is competitive for the sport at Navy?

Did she fill out the Sports Questionnaire during the application process? That would have flagged her to coaches if competitive.
www.usna.edu

Sports Questionnaire Instructions

Sports Questionnaire Instructions page for Admissions at USNA.edu. Updated Fri Apr 26 05:07:11 EDT 2024.
www.usna.edu

On the Navy Sports site (this is the Naval Academy Athletic Assn, an independent non-profit which runs the D1 programs), there is additional information and the potential to fill out an individual sports questionnaire, if there is one for her sport. If she feels she could be competitive, there is nothing to be lost by making herself known to the coach. The key is presenting some performance stats that will be of interest.

navysports.com

Admissions

Admissions
navysports.com navysports.com


It can be a difficult transition for HS varsity athletes, letting go of a sport they have played and done well in for many years. It’s part of their identity. It can also be fun and refreshing to try one of the many club or intramural sports and have time for ECA activities.

navysports.com

Club / Intramural Sports Programs

Club / Intramural Sports Programs
navysports.com navysports.com

www.usna.edu

Extracurricular Activities

ECA List by Category page for Midshipman Interests at USNA.edu. Updated Tue Dec 12 16:24:58 EST 2023.
www.usna.edu
 
tkinion said:
My DD is not a recruited athlete but interested in “walking on” to the track team. Does anyone have any experience or information about this?
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Most of the D1 sport coaches are not around during plebe summer - my DD told me they are not allowed to be there(??, need confirmation on that bit of scuttlebutt). However, there is a week or so during PS when the rising Firsties and Seconds will have informal "clinics" for each sport where the aspiring plebe can show them what skill level they are at for a particular sport. The team members then report back to the coaches if there are any Tom Bradys found. That said, very hard to walk on a D1 sport at the Academy. My DD was going to "try out" for the volleyball team but after talking to a Firstie VBall team member who visited NAPS earlier this year she decided not to do it. Even if she went against the odds and "walked on" the time away from studying and sleep would not be worth it. Intramurals are her goals now.
 
Thanks everyone for the information. She is aware of the target times for walk-ons and wasn’t competitive until now. She keeps dropping her times as the season progresses and within striking distance. I wonder if the target times are at tryouts or times recorded during your varsity season.
 
tkinion said:
Thanks everyone for the information. She is aware of the target times for walk-ons and wasn’t competitive until now. She keeps dropping her times as the season progresses and within striking distance. I wonder if the target times are at tryouts or times recorded during your varsity season.
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Great question for her to ask. She can call the track office, let them know she is an incoming plebe, her times are dropping, what should she be aiming for during Plebe Summer informal tryouts.

I’d go look for the women’s track questionnaire if they have one. Gives them something updated to look at.

Plebe Summer will also exhaust her and get her out of training regimen, so as strong as she can finish this year will be the bookmark for her potential.
 
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Capt MJ said:
Great question for her to ask. She can call the track office, let them know she is an incoming plebe, her times are dropping, what should she be aiming for during Plebe Summer informal tryouts.

I’d go look for the women’s track questionnaire if they have one. Gives them something updated to look at.

Plebe Summer will also exhaust her and get her out of training regimen, so as strong as she can finish this year will be the bookmark for her potential.
Click to expand...
DD is class of 2027, she filled out the questionnaire, talked to the coaches, knew she was borderline to make the team. Coaches invited her to try out.

During the sports period during plebe summer, she went with the XC team. They didn’t do any running during Plebe Summer since they were already getting their miles in with PEP. They did Yoga, walks in the woods, nutrition discussions, relax during Plebe Summer. Quite frankly, this was what prevented DD from Tango’ing out. She liked the team, the coaches were very good. Once they started training in mid August, DD was running better than she ever had in training.

Nevertheless, DD was cut from the team around Labor Day. They cut all of the walkons including upperclassmen who were on the team previous years. Evidently, they used to keep a large number on the team and the AD wanted to trim the overall roster size. DD is the type who loves training and would have been perfectly happy training with the team and just running at home meets.

Overall, I would say she had a good experience with the team. It didn’t work out for her, with the big drawback was it took her a couple of months to find her people after she was cut.
 
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