Cross Country vs. Other Extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

Hi, I posted this in the High School forum, but I figured it might get more replies here.

I’ve run spring track freshman year and cross country sophomore year. As a rising junior, however, I’m faced with a dilemma.

<li>Cross country practice is 6 days a week, monday through saturday. I am attending Columbia SHP on saturdays, so that’s one practice missed.</li>
<li>On wednesdays, I have to work from 3-7 at Kumon, so that’s another practice missed.</li>
<li>On thursdays, I have table tennis lessons and a training session starting in the afternoon, so that’s a third practice missed (I’m nationally ranked and a junior olympic gold medalist, and I train 3-4 times a week).</li>
<li>In addition, my local community center has offered me a volunteer opportunity to teach table tennis, most likely on tuesdays.</li>

Last year, I was able to balance all this because I didn’t have Columbia, Kumon, or the table tennis class, and my coach let me miss practice once a week on thursdays. Now, however, I feel overwhelmed.

I love running, but there’s only a slight chance that I’ll make varsity this year. It seems to me that by doing cross country (and dropping numbers 1, 2, and 4), I’ll be wasting precious opportunities for other things, not to mention grades and SATs and what not. My coach, who also happens to have been my history teacher sophomore year, is a really cool guy. On top of that, there’s a good chance I’ll have him for history again junior year, so I do not want to damage our relationship.

My parents have told me to quit cross country, but I have yet to think of a nice way to break it out to my coach. I think this is what I’m really faced with. After typing this entire entry out, I think I’m leaning even more toward quitting cross country, but tell me what you think.

Thank you in advance!

2

<p>bump......</p>

3

<p>Whatever you decide, in terms of admissions, keep the table tennis because you are so good at it and you have a "hook" there in terms of ranking. Personally, I don't see how you can do it all, I think dropping cross-country is a good idea. Best of luck to you.</p>

4

<p>hmm maybe you can still be a part of the cross country...
maybe if you want to, tell your coach you would like to still practice with the team when you are not doing something else, but (since you won't be a full-time member of the team) will not go to the meets/competitions.</p>

<p>some of my friends do this with track because they have other obligations during the week, but still want to participate with running.</p>

5

<p>I've already tried that...my coach for some reason doesn't like it. So basically, I'm either on the team or I'm not. Right now, given all the opportunities that comes with quitting cross country, I'm leaning towards doing that.</p>

6

<p>Quitting cross country would probably the best idea. The other things that you do would be more valuable on a University application. That's just my oppinion.
It's great to see someone who does so much (I always felt like I was the only one, at least at my school) I'm on SU (that's like 3-4 days a week over lunch + after school on wednesday), newspaper wednesday, choir (2 times after school + lunch). I managed to balance it by setting set times to hang out with my friends, they keep me sane! And by getting along with teachers so that they don't mind if you miss a class to do stuff for SU in my case. </p>

<p>Good luck to you, I hope you'll manage!</p>

7

<p>Table Tennis lessons.............lol. Isn't that just ping-pong?
sorry, I've just never heard of anyone taking those.
But yeah, I would suggest dropping XC</p>

8

<p>soccer fanatic, yes....</p>

<p>Table tennis is competitive "ping-pong". It's just not very popular or recognized in the US. Perhaps you've seen killerspin on espn though?</p>

9

<p>Oh yeah, I've heard that's actually pretty cool. I've heard that they back like 10 feet from the table and play from there b/c of he low angle they shoot the balls, and it goes really fast. Are you in another country?</p>

10

<p>No, I live in NJ.</p>

11

<p>gxing-- I agree with the other posters....junior year is important & the last thing you want to do is overload yourself. I like micceli's idea of trying to remain at some practices, but I also agree that the table tennis thing sounds like a differentiator to me. FYI, here's another thread on Table Tennis:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=75085%5B/url%5D....I"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=75085....I&lt;/a> see that you've already posted here too.</p>

12

<p>If you're not going to make varsity, and still want to run, just run on your own, use the fall as a base, and run winter and/or spring track. By using the fall as a base season, you'll be in much better shape and able to run a lot faster by not having to peak for XC, then peak for winter, then peak for spring.</p>

13

<p>I'm probably going to quit cross country. ^^If I decide not to run in the fall, I can't decide to run winter or spring because that would mean quitting everything I quit cross country for. Soo, I'm probably just not going to run.</p>

<p>I realized that cross country wouldn't be my biggest priority even if I did it, and I don't feel I should do something if I'm only half committed.</p>