<p>Hi people of CC,
I am a sophomore and I am doing track this season. In addition to track, I also play cello. I decided to do track this year because I like it, and because my friends were encouraging me to try a sport. So I did, and now I want to quit track because it is very time consuming and tiring. I get home around 4-5pm, and I barely have time to do homework (1st priority) and practice cello (which I put higher value over track, so 2nd priority)</p>
<p>I want to quit track, but since it is during season, I will be penalized with an F in citizenship and an academic grade that is usually not an A....if I stay, I get an A, but I dunno how my academic class grades will fare...</p>
<p>Do you think it is worth it to quit track now? I don't think colleges care about citizenship grades (?) and if I do get a bad academic grade, can't I just explain what happened? I want to put my school classes first, but it isn't working.</p>
<p>Side note: my academic class grades have fallen ever since I joined track. I used to have all As and now I have a C,B,A,A,B in my classes. And I am pretty sure it's from track...</p>
<p>Also yes I know it is a matter of balance but I have lots of pieces for cello so that usually takes up 4-5hr practice in my day. And also I am not “good” at track so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to quit. My course load is pretty heavy and I am taking most of the hardest classes for my grade </p>
<p>Your description is kind of confusing. You get a grade for track? I’ve not heard of students getting graded on their after-school sports before. Not heard of a “citizenship” grade either. Is “citizenship” something you get credit and high school grades for, and it appears on your high school transcript? And running on the track team is somehow considered “citizenship”? But playing cello isn’t? </p>
<p>How much longer does track last, seems like indoor track is just about over at this point (in which case I think you should stick out the last week or two), or spring track just got started (in which case maybe you should talk to the coach and say you wanted to do it but now you’ve realized that you don’t have time for it, because of your major commitment to cello. </p>
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<p>Mine does. PE is a requirement, but I play varsity sports in lieu of it, so my end-of-year grade report will have 3 sports listed. We’re graded P/F though, as is PE.</p>
<p>To the OP, I would say stick it out; you knew (or should have known) the time requirements up-front.</p>
<p>@skieurope- I was told 1 hour a day for practice which seemed manageable but now I’m required to go to sprints practice because I am a long jumper. But that’s too much. Thanks guys for ur help</p>
<p>Track practice ends a 4:45 every day for me (meets last alot longer). This year I have 5 AP classes (all A’s), math team (top 10 in the county), debate team (captain/speech writer), scholar’s bowl, Science Olympiad (medaled at regionals), and NHS. If I can manage that, you can manage what you’re doing.</p>
<p>I think this is more of a time management problem. Don’t quit the sport and get an F; an F looks horrible. If long jumping is causing you to have to stay longer become a distance runner or a thrower. I swapped to sprints this year because a fractured pelvis/growth plate and later walking pneumonia caused me to be unable to train for distance, and my coach didn’t mind. Granted, I still score points at meets doing sprints, just not as much since the competition is WAY stronger in sprints than distance running (at a VERY small local meet a sub 5:00 will medal in the 1600m, but it takes sub 53 to have a shot in the 400m). </p>
<p>@Patton370, the OP says he practices cello 4-5 hours per day. That is a huge commitment. And if the OP is getting a PE exemption for track, then it won’t save much time to drop track, because he will have to pick up PE instead (I assume. Our athletes are required to take PE, so I don’t know how this works). </p>
<p>@OP, can’t you just stop being a long jumper? If you aren’t that good, you aren’t letting the team down because you weren’t going to win anything anyhow. </p>
<p>@mathyone haha harsh but true. But my school is small, so they accept anyone on to the track team and every coach basically believes that if you aren’t good, you’ll get there soon enough. They want me to stay on the team. If I do quit track I’ll join PE. At my school we don’t even exercise in PE…it’s like study hall -.-</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe you can actually get much homework done during PE class. So, if you would need to add that class, I’d just stay in track. Try to get more work done on the weekends, or during that study hall you must have since you’re not in PE. My guess is you will find the practices a little less tiring when you get more used to the routine. Also, the exercise is good for you. Maybe you can speak to the coach, explain your cello commitment and ask to just do the regular running, not the long jumping.</p>
<p>Yeah, track is a huge time-suck. Sorry to hear about that. 
Do any of your friends participate? The season’s just begun, so maybe you can talk to your coach about switching. How about asking if you can be a team manager or coach’s assistant instead? I know that sounds kind of lame, but you’ll still get the credits and not be penalized, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to leave at a reasonable hour!</p>
<p>And haha, “the regular running” would likely be even more time-consuming. Distance and sprint events usually have much harder workouts and require a lot more commitment. You’re not just aimlessly shuffling around a track. If anything, I’d recommend OP to stay in jumps because that’s normally the least time and energy-consuming event other than throws.</p>
<p>For the record, colleges don’t really care about the grades you get for sports. They might not even appear on your transcript. But if you’re really gunning for that A, I’d maybe try to stick it out for the next few weeks (preseason’s a joke and you might even be able to place in some meets) and see how that goes. If it’s too much trouble, then ask about any other opportunities you could do to get credit or conveniently get injured or something. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Source: Recently liberated varsity sprinter/leadoff runner </p>
<p>@Coriander23 ah yes track is very time consuming. Yep I know season just started- we have a scrimmage meet next week- and if I quit, I’m going to get a F in citizenship and an academic grade “contingent upon the circumstances of dropping a sport” so hopefully if I act fast it won’t be that bad.
But still not an A. BUT I can explain it to colleges I suppose. For my school my sport grade is under a course called “athletics” and it does show up in the transcript :-/ and ya haha jumps is actually ok but I was talking about jumps + sprints = too much.</p>
<p>Hopefully I can compromise with the coach…!</p>
<p>My friends are in track (actually all of them lol). They encouraged me to try it this year and I was like why not, I’ve always wanted to do track since 7th grade but I never had the chance to.</p>
<p>Darn, that seems really unreasonable. Would you be able to cite a heavy academic workload as the reason why you’re no longer able to continue, or do you think they’d not accept that as an explanation? Yeah, I think if you approach him early on in the season, he might be willing to work something out with you. Any halfway decent coach wouldn’t want one of their student-athletes to suffer because of a misunderstanding.</p>
<p>That’s awesome that all your friends are doing track! It definitely makes it a lot more fun, and workouts are a lot better if you have people to run with. Since you don’t plan on being super competitive, you could probably be okay staying near the back of the pack during sprint workouts or even leaving early whenever you have them. The season isn’t that long–you’ll probably have your league finals by the end of April or early May, and then you can get the heck outta there, haha. </p>
<p>But I get where you’re coming from. If you really feel like you can’t stick around, maybe you should try talking to your counselor. Given your situation, hopefully you’ll find some sympathy with him or her. You’ve really got a lot on your plate. </p>
<p>It’s manageable. I was in the same situation as you with heavy course load and everything except I was in football for four years and played the tuba during that span as well. I learned to cope with it and it worked out for me. I think my colleges accepted me because I stuck it out (my grades and test scores were mediocre).</p>
<p>I’d encourage you to try and find ways to manage your time better. Don’t take this as an insult, but you never know if you’re managing your time really well until you try to improve it in any way possible. </p>
<p>I did varsity football earlier in the year which often kept me at the school until 7 o’clock, and all day on Fridays. This was with 1 AP, and 4 honors classes with moderate EC’s.</p>
<p>If you can’t do it though, try to stick out the season but if it’s too much don’t feel bad about quitting. You have your priorities straight.</p>