<p>So I'm sitting in my car writing this out on my phone, and man...I just don't even know where to begin. I've always been really supportive of the idea of doing a sport and even encouraged posters on here to stay when they were considering quitting, but their situations have made me reconsider my own. I've ran all four years of high school (well, up until now) but truth be told, I don't know if I want to continue. Part of me says to just stick it out another few months and wrap up my last season but I seriously feel like this once-great passion of mine has turned into a pointless, soul-sucking endeavor. </p>
<p>There's nothing about track that makes me want to stay anymore. The team as I knew it has practically disappeared--we went from 300 my freshman year to a little over 100 people this year, and nobody who's still on the team really cares about school. My coach went from welcoming all newcomers when I first joined to kicking out kids who "didn't try" or "didn't care"--namely, kids who weren't fast enough or had, you know, things like AP classes and extracurriculars and jobs and other matters to attend to. The new underclassmen think I'm lame because I don't know who throws the best parties or sells the best bud. Honestly I feel like such an outsider. I'm one of probably 3 seniors on the entire team.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I hate our workouts because they do NOT help. The longest event I do is the 400 but you'd think I was a miler by the 1000m repeats we run. We also get punished as a team so when someone screws up by coming 10 seconds late to practice everyone gets punished for it--by, you guessed it, more running! I don't think stuff like that does anything except breed resentment amongst team members. And it's so ridiculously political. I'm sitting here in the first place because I just up and left after 4x100 because I was feeling sick. Sick of track, that is. There are so many kids that shouldn't even BE on the team because they don't meet the academic eligibility requirements (like a 2.8 semester GPA) but haven't been booted out because their parents are big donors. </p>
<p>I really just want out. I don't feel fulfilled doing this anymore and I don't really like most of the people who are in it now because I can't relate to them and won't really miss them. It's just that I've been doing this since forever at this point and I don't know what I'll do with my afternoons, haha. I really don't know what to do especially since my common app essay was entirely centered around my love of running--if I quit now then how the heck am I going to explain why I dropped the sport to colleges? </p>
<p>Yeah...I just don't know what to do. I'll have to do a lot of introspective thinking in the next few days.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant and if there were any typos--wrote this all on a phone and it's kind of hard to edit things. Thanks for listening. </p>
<p>I feel you. I love running too, but I ended up not running this year (my junior year) for the very similar reasons. I didn’t want to put time into something that I didn’t love anymore. If you want to quit, then do it. By the end of last year I ended up somewhat dreading practices because they were so similar to how you describe them.</p>
<p>Writing your common app essay on your love of running and quitting track because you don’t like the way your school’s team is are two different things…quitting doesn’t mean you’ve stopped loving running. if you for some reason have to explain why to colleges, then explain exactly what you say here.</p>
<p>I’m not an athletic recruit or anything like that, haha. I just run (ran?) for fun. My best times were in the low 13’s for the 100m and around 65 for the 400m sophomore year. I didn’t really get to compete junior year because I had a lot of EC’s going on, and my coach decided that having other activities going on besides track was an insult to his program and did me the “favor” of taking me out of most meets…</p>
<p>And I’m really starting to dread practices too. I have hardly anyone to talk to and when I do talk to someone it’s always some really forced chitchat about random classes. I’m pretty sure my coach treats me as a contingency plan since he thinks I’m afraid to quit (as that might impact college decisions and everything) so even if he doesn’t acknowledge my existence, I’ll still stick around. But I just might not, even if we only have two months before the season’s all over, forever. </p>
<p>I think it’s just a matter of time now. If it doesn’t make waves with admissions then I don’t want to spend my last year of high school doing something that I no longer enjoy–it’s just not worth it. As for the big Q-Day…I don’t know. We don’t have practice tomorrow because of a school event so I’ll see how the next week or so goes, but I’ll definitely be mulling it over. </p>
<p>Colleges won’t check up on what you wrote in your college app essay next fall, and at the time you wrote the essays you were being truthful. Quit if you want to. No reason to stay if your heart isn’t in it, if anything, your lack or enthusiasm could bring down your teammates.</p>
<p>I love track, and I’d normally petition you to stay, but your times (if you’re a guy) are not that competitive + you can run for fun. I don’t have the greatest coach workout wise (we RACE FULL SPEED for practice EVERYDAY), but he is a good guy, is nice to us, and understands that we have other extracurriculars. </p>
<p>On those 1000m repeats, just think… theres this kid on CC that has to run a sub 55 400m twice a day or has to run another 400m haha. (seriously… running so many fast 400m runs suck!) </p>
<p>I’m a girl, haha. I would be really slow if I were a guy </p>
<p>And that’s insane, I feel like that’s something my coach would do too. Right now he’ll randomly announce a timed 400m at the start of practice and if ONE PERSON (including the new kids and freshmen) doesn’t hit a certain time then we get to do it again. But joke’s on him, because a ton of freshmen switched out since they got really discouraged from everyone blaming them for the extra runs, and now I don’t think we even have a F/S girls’ team anymore. To be honest, I don’t even know if I’ll miss that much about track. I thought that I might’ve enjoyed running the relays again, but even if I got the chance to, I don’t know if I’d even enjoy it. I’m the kind of person who watches a ton of race videos and visualizes the race over and over again before a competition. I grind my teeth. I can’t sleep. And is all that stress really worth the possibility of a medal and a photo op after the race? (I know they make for great cover photos, but still…) </p>
<p>Track, to me, is a sport that was originally nobody’s first choice. Everyone I’ve known used to focus on another activity. But it would BECOME someone’s passion by virtue of their determination, and their being rewarded for said hard work. Now these new people aren’t even getting the chance to cultivate their passion because they basically get shamed right off the team. And okay, so maybe these newbies aren’t going to be great their first year. But how about their potential? This is delayed gratification, buddy. Long-term investments. Not to call the all-state superstars worthless, but only focusing on them and throwing everyone else to the curb is like day trading in penny stock. </p>
<p>I’d be a benchwarmer on a sport where there are no benchwarmers, a relic of better days gone by. A has-been. Really, I should’ve quit while I was still ahead, because whenever I think about track now, my enthusiasm gets tempered by a tinge of bitterness. </p>
<p>And I know, bodangles, I know I’m just really conflicted on whether to spend these last months doing something for the sake of doing so, or to step out of my comfort zone a bit and jump ship. (sorry for the rant again! i’m in a very sour mood today apparently)</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing about doing track this season. Last year as a junior I had to run on a stress fractured foot for much of the season so my 4x400 relay team could go to state and we medaled! But afterwards I felt so burnt out. I didn’t run at all that summer and “jogged” a crappy cross country season… which made my coach mad at me (me and him have never clicked). This winter I went back and forth over doing track. But then it dawned on me that every time some girl would mention track at school or I’d think about never being able to run that last curve again this competitive rush would go through my chest. So I’ve trained and decided that I gotta do track for the love of the sport. I think you should sit and contemplate this for a good amount of time. Do what makes you happy. And for sure don’t do something you could regret. Good luck <3</p>
<p>I had your same exact situation. I hated my team last year. I didnt care for them. They were self-centered and were in cliques and I only had two close friends that were seniors. But, they were going to graduate soon. Without them, there’s no point in track. My coach made me lose my passion in track. I was in love with it, it was my life. I was a track star and on varsity. But, when I got patellar tendonitis and shin splints, he treated me like ■■■■, like I was lying and that it was my fault. I didnt run for a month and i was treated as if I wasn’t on the team. I don’t like anyone on the team and it’s not a fun thing to do anymore. But i always wondered how colleges would view me if I quit. But I realized, if I’m not enjoying what I do… Just don’t do it then. You can use that time for other activities and for academics. Also if asked you can even talk about that to colleges about how you feel left out because you aren’t like the rest of the team-the ones that don’t care about education etc. and you can say you realized that you need to prioritize other things as well. Good luck! I quit track last year and at first it was one of the hardest decisions in my life, but now I know that if I stayed I would’ve probably became depressed/angry all the time because I really dislike my coach and team and there’s no point </p>
<p>Thank you for both your responses! I know how it feels to deal with unreasonable coaches…mine was basically the same way last year when I brought up I would have to miss a lot of Saturday meets due to time conflicts with the county science fair, science olympiad state, JETS, etc. I hate how cutthroat my track team is too. Get injured here and you’ll also be treated like dirt, unless you’re one of the developmental admit juniors or their friends. And whenever somebody talented quits the team, everyone pretends like it’s such a tragedy, but I can see the dollar signs flashing in their eyes. I wish I could feel that rush again, haha. I’d used to get so pumped up whenever somebody mentioned track, talked about upcoming meets, but now all I feel is emptiness. It’s kind of a bummer how a coach or a team can dampen someone’s passion for a sport, but that’s how I feel now as well, sadly–pretty burnt out and disillusioned about the whole deal. I was mulling it over today, and I think I’ve made up my mind; I’m going to quit the team. </p>
<p>I’ve been leaning towards that decision for awhile, but what cemented it was my sudden realization that this was no longer where I belonged. Practice was canceled due to inclement weather today, so the entire team was herded into a multipurpose room. And for an hour, as I watched the cliques milling about and kids kissing up to my coach (never mind that they were spewing vitriol about him on Facebook the night before), I felt like I was all alone in a crowded room. It wasn’t just one little thing that made me want to call it quits, but rather a lot of little things snowballing into something more serious. The dynamics of the team have changed in these four years and my heart’s just not there.</p>
<p>The only thing left to figure out isn’t a matter of if anymore, but when. Even though I disagree with the direction things have been headed, I still respect the program enough to want to let my coach know in advance. I’ll probably tell him at the end of next month; enough time for my lily-livered conscience to justify why I have to. </p>
<p>Thanks again! I’ll let you guys know how the next couple of weeks go. </p>
I have hardly anyone to talk to and when I do talk to someone it’s always some really forced chitchat about random classes. I’m pretty sure my coach treats me as a contingency plan since he thinks I’m afraid to quit (as that might impact college decisions and everything) so even if he doesn’t acknowledge my existence, I’ll still stick around. But I just might not, even if we only have two months before the season’s all over, forever. </p>
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