<p>Are they really needed? A lot of people at my school do sports, and the sports program is valued more than the visual & performing arts program (IMO, that's really stupid, but I'm from the orchestra, so I may be biased :P). I play volleyball, basketball, and run for fun, but I know I'm not at the level to get into a team. I tried out for volleyball last year and this year for the same team (Freshman-Sophomore, but it's usually for freshmen), but I didn't make it. I'm not sure if I should put my effort into training this year and trying out for junior year (maybe JV?) or just dropping it and focusing on my academics.</p>
<p>Sports are good for learning teamwork, leadership, and competition while meeting new people and having fun.</p>
<p>If you aren’t cut out to make the team and like academics, you could try something like math team or quiz bowl. You can still do & learn the same things.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to do a sport, then don’t. If you would like to try one, do track or cross country. I don’t know of any schools that cut kids from those two sports, it’s pretty much a whoever has two legs and can run can join type of deal.</p>
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<p>I second that.</p>
<p>Cross country is the best sport. You just talk with your friends during the long runs.</p>
<p>if you’re doing it for college, they don’t value it as much as they should.</p>
<p>Sports take a lot of time. My track team practices for 2.5 hours 5 days a week starting in Early march. Other sports teams have even longer seasons and the same practice time.</p>