<p>I'm fairly new here, so I'm a little bit nervous posting a second thread in such little time, but bear with me.</p>
<p>I'm a rising sophomore this year, and today was the first day of tryouts for field hockey. I played last year as a freshman and it was a blast. Every ounce of work I did was nothing less than fulfilling for me.</p>
<p>This year, as the first day of tryouts concludes, I'm really not even interested in the sport. Not only have I developed some physical roadblocks as last season progressed (shin splints, though seemingly flimsy, quite severe & anxiety issues/panic attacks), but I honestly have no passion for playing. As I was talking to some of the girls today about quitting, they said things like "Yea, the running is bad, but don't you love field hockey ?" And honestly, the answer is no. If someone were to ask me why I was deciding to play, I'd have no substantial answer. I kept trying to remind myself that playing this level, which would lead to varsity, would give me a strong addition to a future list of ECs come college application time.</p>
<p>But to be blunt, I hate it. And I'm having extreme difficulty continuing to play a sport I dislike so much.</p>
<p>As much as it seems like an obvious answer for me to quit, I feel like it'd be a huge loss when college application time comes, for me to be a highschool student that never made it up to play a varsity sport. And I'm nervous as to whether or not any other EC (academic or not) would be able to measure up to playing a highschool varsity sport. :/</p>
<p>Do any of you have any advice as to what I should do next?</p>
<p>Quit. </p>
<p>Unless you're good enough to be recruited to play at college level (and for top schools, that usually means you're playing AT LEAST at state-level, if not national level competition in high school), colleges will only see you playing a sport as one more EC, comparable to drama club or key club. Varsity sports are not a big deal, especially if you're not a captain (if your school has captains - mine doesn't) and you're not involved with the sport in a way that's beyond the typical high school athlete. Look at the hundreds of "varsity" track and tennis players on CC alone - I put "varsity" in quotations because often, these sports do not have a JV team or even have cutting tryouts (which is why so many CC-type people are on them, including me). Quit and find a more interesting sport (or club).</p>
<p>Quit. Use your free time to get involved in something that you like.
Most colleges barely -- if at all -- use things like ECs as factors for admission. The main exceptions are places like HPYS, that have such an overabundance of high stat applicants that they choose from that outstanding pool students who can most contribute to an active, campus and surrounding community. To stand out for ECs/ sports in such a pool, one has to have made major achievements, not simply played a sport for 4 years</p>
<p>H.S. is a time of exploration to learn about the world and how you fit in it. Quit the team and use your free time to find some activities that you genuinely do enjoy. Then dive right into those activities. It may take a couple of years of exploration to find what you love, and that's OK, too.</p>
<p>My younger S found an activity that changed his life summer before he entered senior year. He got very involved in that, did very well, and his accomplishments in that helped him get merit aid to college.</p>
<p>Quit.</p>
<p>I know this is over sued on this site, but since even people on CC are saying it, there has to be a bit of truth to it. Don't do an EC for the padding, do it for the love. Do it because you love to be out there. Like me and marching band, do it because you love being out there in the 100 degree whether marching the same set over and over. Be passionate. If you don't lie it, don't do it.</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for your input. I guess I really just needed someone besides my mother to convince me that what I'm doing now isnt a beneficial use of my time. Seriously, this advice has made me so confident in my choice not to play.</p>
<p>I'm really looking foward to spending more time with my school's newspaper (I'm taking journalism this year and newspaper as soon as I'm allowed to next year) as well as digging deeper into my class sga which I'm already involved with as VP.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, all of you. (:</p>
<p>What is SGA?</p>
<p>Wiat scratch that...is it Student Government Association?</p>
<p>Exactly. Each grade has its own student government "officials" - Pres, VP, Treasurer, Secretary. And I'm VP for my grade (2011). At least thats the way it is at my school.</p>
<p>We call it Student Council. That's why it didn't click.</p>
<p>OH. Haha, same this basically then, sorry to explain it like you were unaware. :/</p>
<p>It's fine. I kind of was for a few moments.</p>
<p>As others have said, quit...and I'm sure you'll find something that you'd like. And EC's aren't as a big of a deal as you think...just do a couple stuff that you enjoy doing (if anything is there at school...lol).</p>
<p>And feel free to post anytime around here...welcome to the HSL forums.</p>