I am a student who is entering freshman year. I do not know if my time is best spent running for cross country during the fall season, or if it is better spent doing clubs like relay for life, model UN, math team, and other things that I plan to get a leadership position later on. For more info, the XC coach only lets you attend clubs once every two weeks, so I would be able to go to one if I were to do cross country.
Your time is best spent doing the activity you enjoy. Club vs. sport does not matter.
I agree, as usual, with @skieurope . For colleges it doesn’t matter.
But my suggestion would start with cross country…you will make some good friends freshman year. You can do the clubs in the winter/spring (if that works out). You may also decide to do some track and field in the spring.
Sport because it’s better for your health
I did not do sports in high school, so I am biased but I find that sports take up an incredibly large amount of time. Unless you are good at a sport or thoroughly enjoy it, clubs in my opinion offer a more diverse array of offerings and opportunities to demonstrate leadership. By all means try it out, and you may even be able to do both, but there are definitely a bunch of seniors that come on CC each year that say that they are stuck in a sport they do not enjoy but stayed with it because it looked better for college. Then again you might really enjoy it and like others have mentioned it has good health benefits.
Have you considered that leadership positions are also possible for Cross Country? For example, eventually becoming a team captain or helping to organize team fundraisers.
Do what you like! The important thing is that you are active and engaged.