<p>The biggest surprise (to the upside) for my D is the amount of socializing her team (W swimming at a D3 school) does together. Each week there is a theme party, not to mention the to be expected dinner together after the afternoon "captain's practice"--and breakfast after the am "captain's practice" for those who don't have to rush off to classes. It seems as if the sophomore girls take responsibility to bring the freshmen girls into the fold with notes and other tokens of welcome. We had heard that this team was very "tight" but she had no idea how much until the emails started this summer.</p>
<p>She is encouraged to have friends and a life outside of swimming (they take academics VERY seriously), but it seems as if swimming is like joining a sorority. </p>
<p>What have other athletes discovered? How does this vary from school to school?</p>
<p>My daughter has had a nearly identical experience with her team at Harvard. She loves her classmates on the team and the older girls have been extremely helpful in terms of academic advising, social introductions and making sure they know exactly how everything works on the team. It’s made some of the tricky areas of transition to college life much easier than they would have been otherwise. She’s feels very lucky to have had all this assistance. Four weeks into the school year it has actually become a little suffocating so she decided to take a break and not follow the crowd this weekend.</p>
<p>Ditto with son’s ivy baseball team. It is like a fraternity with a typical tight knit group with plenty of chararcters and shenanigans. I really like hearing about the shenanigans. </p>
<p>I think “the team” has helped my son quite a bit when he was a freshmen, and introverted. The upper classmen took him under their wing to bring him out a little more. He is still quiet as a junior, but more socially outgoing as he is helping out the new freshmen. It has come full circle.</p>
<p>Delighted to hear about your D’s successful transition to Williams and the swim team. As much fun as she’s having this fall, however, I hope she’s getting ready to “bring it,” as the women swimmers are exceptionally fast and train hard and long. Many of the top incoming women have Jr. Nat cuts, current women swimmers earned US Olympic Trials cuts, and one new FY swam in London (for a middle eastern country–obviously, not the US).</p>
<p>Our student’s varsity team (ivy) is also very tight.
And yes the shenanigans are a hoot.
Between academics and a big team commitment…they do hang out together…although k1 has tried to keep connections outside of the team as well…to be a little more well rounded socially.</p>
<p>Just did an overnight and spent two days with my sports team… It was like a family. It makes the transition from HS to college life so much easier according to all the girls. They bond so well and the chemistry is so great. The coach bases part of his recruiting on how well the recruit can get along with others and their personality (as well as a large part of skill and academics).
I just got a great vibe from the team</p>
<p>My daughter’s (ivy) rowing team is also a very close knit group. It has been an absolutely fantastic source of social interaction, mutual support, healthy competition, and academic and athletic guidance. Now that she is an upperclassman, she and her classmates are integrating their new freshman team mates into this special mix. She does work on maintaining friendships outside of the team, as fogfog mentions, in order to have some sense of balance. However, that does take conscious effort as she is living and breathing academics and athletics with her fellow rowers!</p>
<p>h2ocows, have no worries–all of the frosh have been doing “captain’s practices” twice a day since the first week. My D is impressed with her classmates and they are working hard–she was in great shape before school started but has lost 2 lbs since as they are kicking butt-- 2x week in the weight room. She made All American and has Jr Nat cuts from high school and feels that her fellow young swimmers are just great. She told me that they have a tough act to follow that losing Carolyn, Logan and the other senior girls will put the pressure on them to perform this year-- but they can’t wait–she is a happy swimmer.</p>
<p>etondad: Nice to hear. While exceptionally few women ever improve upon their HS swim times (for an array of reasons), Williams manages to take in such large classes of swimmers each year and, like clockwork, there is always one or two each year who manage extraordinary time cuts at NCAAs. The Williams women had an unbelievable showing at last year’s NCAA meet.</p>
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