<p>I think in many sports (soccer, baseball, gymnastics are a few that come to mind) you have a good idea early on if the person will have that ability or not. If so, you really do need to be playing with a competitive team and against strong opponents to develop that ability. Those who are just randomly “discovered” are in the minority; like most things in life, if you really want something, you have to put in the effort to make it happen.</p>
<p>Having a strong team in swimming and crew help you mentally. If you are doing sets twice as fast as everyone else, you start to ask, why not slow down, you’ll still be the best. on a fast team, everyone pushes each other. However, stranglers might be left behind so too much competition can be bad.</p>
<p>kent has a strong crew program :)</p>
<p>just thought i would throw that out there</p>
<p>Interestingly, not that many NE boarding schools have interscholastic swim teams. Having grown up in the suburbs of Rochester, NY where almost every town had swimming, I was somewhat surprised that so few of the boarding schools did. In the end, however, it was a blessing, as it was one good way to narrow the initial list of schools that we considered.</p>
<p>Nhfootballer made a point earlier on another thread (not taking credit for his good thought): if you love a certain sport, you want to be happy doing it at whatever school you choose. However, what would happen if you got injured and could not do your sport? Would you still be happy at your school? Something to think about…</p>
<p>Good luck with your decisions! For me, it seems a bit odd that the process is now done…</p>
<p>brooklyn, this was advice given to me by one of the boarding school interviewers i met last fall. it helped me a lot in this process.</p>
<p>That is very good advice and is oft-given to prospective collegiate athletes as well. You might love your college team, but what if you had a career-ending injury…would you still love your college/university?</p>
<p>The other thing to consider in regards to sports is the coaches…it’s easy to say how much you love a coach and that is certainly a reason one school rises above another in consideration. However, again, consider, if the coach were to leave, would you still be happy with the sport/school? I’ve heard about more than one kid who based their decision on the coach only to have the coach leave over the summer.</p>
<p>Have you made your decision nhfootballer? PM me if you’re not comfortable posting it yet.</p>
<p>Yes, nhfootballer, I’d also like to know what you decided.</p>
<p>Exeter advice for iHerculez. S was a new lower this year and played V waterpolo and swam. The team is going through rebuilding. If you are capable of breaking school records at St George’s then there is a good chance of swimming varsity at Exeter. Pool, coach, and team members are fantastic. S says that going to Exeter was the best thing he has done.</p>
<p>A friend of ours is a runner and picked a “top” school over a “not top” one last year because he would have broken all the school records as a freshman and would have dominated the league. Academically, he knew he would be challenged either place. He wanted to be challenged athletically as well. In that case, the environments of the 2 schools were similar. I don’t think that’s the case with Exeter and SGS though.</p>
<p>eXeter is awesome!</p>
<p>eliormelech: Which one did you choose?</p>
<p>After careful thought, I concluded my decision. Choosing between Andover and Exeter is terribly hard. I wished I could have gone to one more revisit day at each school to verify my decision. After thinking over it all day and night yesterday, I drew to a conclusion. I’m not sure if I’m entirely sure, but I am happy with my decision to go to Exeter. It’s much better pool, worser swim team so I can swim instead of siting on the sidelines, Harkness tables, and first impressions of the school guided me to the decision. Thank you everyone that has helped me.</p>
<p>you are lucky to have the choices. count yourself lucky to have two good ones. either way, you will learn to love the school you picked.</p>
<p>i guess since you like exeter so much you should go with your feelings. have you been to a revisit?</p>
<p>Lets go nhfootballer, times up. I thought I read somewheres you went on a St. Paul’s revisit. That should make up your mind right there!</p>
<p>Yes, I been to Exeter’s revisit. Wasn’t the best, but impressed me enough. Top-notch.</p>