I am going into my junior year and have been running track since 7th grade. During the summers I run with a club team, and I have found that it is during this training period that my times improve the most. Beyond that, the club coach is both far more knowledgeable and doesn’t make me feel as if I am just another object on his team, but an actual person. I routinely get injured from over-training on my school team, and as a result my times are negatively impacted. I enjoy track very much, and wish to continue running, but don’t want to run with my school team anymore. If on my school transcript I have track listed every year, will it look bad for the purpose of college admissions if I instead switch to a club team (obviously I would make a note that I still run on my applications)?
IMO, in track, you are who the stopwatch says you are. Nothing more, nothing less.
If your official times are good enough, the college coaches will be interested no matter who you ran for (assuming you make the academic cut for their school).
Likewise, if your times are not good enough to be recruited, they won’t care what teams you ran on, they will have no interest.
So I wouldn’t worry about it. Run where you are most happy, get the best official times you can, and concentrate on your academics.
No. If you are not a recruited athlete, sports is just another EC, and adcoms will not care if you are on a school team or a club team. If you are a recruited athlete, as mentioned above, it’s your times that matter. If the coach does not care (and s/he won’t), neither will the adcoms.