<p>Hi everyone! I'm considering the merits of doing a sport in college, and I was hoping that I could get imput from cognoscenti.</p>
<p>Throughout high school I've run cross country and played rugby, but I think that I'll have to choose to do either one or the other in college. What's cross country like in college (as opposed to high school)? How about rugby?</p>
<p>If neither works out, what are other good sports to try while in college?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’ve been accepted to CC EA, though I don’t know if I’ll be attending next year. </p>
<p>If I go, I’ll definitely run both cross and track for them, so I can tell you a little about that. If I were you, I’d send an email to Coach Castaneda and see if he could answer some of your questions more directly.
His email is <a href=“mailto:Daniel.Castaneda@coloradocollege.edu”>Daniel.Castaneda@coloradocollege.edu</a> </p>
<p>CC may not have a top-10 nationally ranked DIII team like some of the other schools I applied to (Williams, Geneseo), but I thought their program was probably the best organized. Coach Castaneda is a really nice guy and from our conversations he’s really invested in improving everyone on the program. And the times definitely show that; he’s turned a lot of “ok” high school runners into sub 26 minute 8k guys. He took their best runner, who was a 16:30 5K guy in HS,and transformed him into a 24:40 8K guy as a soph/junior. And these aren’t just isolated incidences. </p>
<p>From what I could gleam from the program though, training is really what you make of it. If you want to put in 70+ miles a week, you can, but its all your prerogative. It seems like a pretty relaxed (but still tight knit) group where you can have fun no matter what skill level you are. Being on a team will give you an automatic group of friends and really help you to transition into college life. Arguably the best part of running at CC, though, is the location. Almost no other DIII school has a comparable beauty and diversity in its trails.</p>
<p>I actually forgot to mention the other part of your question
“What’s cross country like in college (as opposed to high school)?” </p>
<p>So from what I can remember specifically about CC’s program, you have ether four or five days of official practice a week, which is different from my HS team, where we have 6. At CC, you are expected to run 6 of 7 days a week, though two of the days aren’t through official practices (though alot of kids on the team do plan group runs). Also, this varies based on the quality of your HS program, but you should probably expect an increase in weekly mileage. Coach Castaneda will work to form a plan for you based on your HS mileage, but I’d expect most underclassmen put in at least 55 miles a week, while upperclassman in the top 7 will log in the 90s. Another thing that varies with your HS team is size. From what I remember, CC has about 18 guys and probably around the same for girls. That is significantly smaller than my HS team.</p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
This might be helpful for others like you looking at this thread, as I assume now you’ve already made your decision 
https://mytrendingstories.com/article/should-i-play-sports-in-college/