<p>since it's D III, you can compete for a spot on a roster right?</p>
<p>I hear that if you show up, you're in.</p>
<p>I would like to try out baseball... never had time to play officially.
Barely manage to have enough time to wrestle varsity during h.s. junior year.</p>
<p>Yeah, you'll be able to play.</p>
<p>I beleive that factor + the great academics would make cal tech my number one choice (hopefully... there's always that chance of that letter in april not comming your way, but if it does, then cal tech is on top).
Plus I'm not looking for an atheletic scholarship or anything of that sort.</p>
<p>Good. We don't have those.</p>
<p>Pretty much everything is walk-on, in the sense of "You can walk? Great! You're on the team."</p>
<p>The whole small-school thing means that our teams aren't huge, which is great for some sports, since the athletes get as much playing time as they want. The downside is that this doesn't help that much for track and field, since despite the fact that we have some pretty good athletes, we just don't have the sheer numbers to compete with Pomona-Pitzer or Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (each of the 5 schools are as large as or larger than Caltech).</p>
<p>I think the only sport where playing time is an issue is soccer.</p>
<p>Anyone familiar with Caltech's basketball team? How are the players? Are we talking all 6'3" or taller guys, or perhaps something closer to the national average?</p>
<p>check the bios. I beleive they have one guy that is 5'1".</p>
<p>Roster: <a href="http://www.athletics.caltech.edu/sports/mbb/mbbroster.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.athletics.caltech.edu/sports/mbb/mbbroster.html</a></p>
<p>11 out of 18 of them are 6'0" or taller. The shortest is 5'6".</p>
<p>ooops, I was checkin a different sport then. It must be tough for the center who has to take in the punishment in the paint.</p>
<p>On the roster, everyone is listed as forward or guard, and there's like 5 forwards and 15 guards.</p>
<p>yea, so you have forwards playing against centers.</p>
<p>My experience is largely limited to swimming, and it's not a given that in DIII you can walk on. It's up to the coach. For example, DIII swimming powerhouses like Kenyon might not allow walkons, because they are so competitive.</p>
<p>It always pays to ask. Go for it!</p>
<p>Luckily for ballplayers, Caltech seems to be 1 - for something big last year. =p</p>
<p>Is tennis competitive for Caltech (relatively speaking to other sports)? I'm #1 doubles at my school and I would love to play at the collegiate level, but I'm probably not good enough to play for the school team for most colleges.</p>
<p>You'd definitely make the team and more than likely get frequent playing time. I don't really know how good the tennis team is here, but PM me and I can put you in contact with one of the players.</p>
<p>I play on the tennis team, so I can give you detailed information. Caltech is in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), along with CMS (Claremont Mudd Scripps), Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands, Cal Lutheran, Occidental, La Verne, and Whittier. Our conference is extremely competitive compared to most division 3 conferences in tennis, and Redlands, CMS, and Cal Lu are all ranked in the top 11 in the nation. In the past Pomona has also been in the top 25. In our conference we usually finish 5th or 6th. This year we finished 6th, but we are competitive with the 4th and 5th teams usually. Tennis at Caltech has improved significantly in the last few years. Before my freshmen year the top teams would play mostly players that did not normally play for them against us. Now they play most of their normal players. I think that we have a good team, even when compared to the average division 3 school.</p>
<p>As far as making the team, we have never had cuts, although it has been contemplated before because we often have a large group of players (and 8 courts that we split with the girls team as well). Last year, our coach did restrict the practice time of some people to make courts more available. </p>
<p>It is really hard for me to say where you would fit on the team. Depending on how good your high school was, and how they did line ups for matches, I could see you being better than most of our players or worse. I should tell you that this year most of the players are seniors, so the year after there will be more opportunities to play in matches. For what its worth, one freshmen on the team this year played mostly doubles in high school, and he played 5th or 6th singles for us in most matches. We had another freshmen who played 5 and 6 as well who was a modestly ranked player in the USTA Southwest section juniors. The rest of the traditional starters are mostly high school players with some limited USTA tournament experience. Personally, I played lots of junior tournaments and did quite well, but most people didn't. Outside of our top 6 we have a bunch of guys. Most of them played high school tennis I think. </p>
<p>Since we have a lot of players, its hard for me to say how much playing time any particular person will get. After next year, there might be a large exodus of players, so opportunities increase. Also, we play lots of very good teams that have extra players. So even if you aren't in the line up at first you can still play exhibition matches sometimes. There is also a high attrition rate of athletes. People get injured, quit, or get bogged down with schoolwork a lot. You sound like you are good, and I am sure that you will be welcome.</p>
<p>During the tennis season, which starts in January or Febuary, we practice 2 hours a day other than matches, and do conditioning. The conditioning is actually pretty hard, but being out of shape is our largest area of weakness. The coach is very understanding of the fact that people came to Caltech to study, and that studying can be hard sometimes. </p>
<p>For what its worth, I really enjoy playing for Caltech. If you are an incoming freshmen, you should sign up for the advanced tennis class so you can get to know the team members and find people to practice with. Otherwise, good luck with your application. Feel free to contact me with any inquiries about Caltech or Caltech Tennis.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, George Hagstrom! I'm applying for '10 and Caltech is one of my top choices.</p>