I got really confused when picking my sports for my school so I’m deciding to change them but I was wondering what sports I should pick. I know that people will say, pick whatever you like or something like that, and yes I am picking recreational skiing as a sport but I was worried that it might look bad in the long run if all the sports I did in ninth grade were recreational skiing, and some physical education classes, maybe recreational bicycling…
Btw, what are thirds? Is it under JV? Cause for my classes there is Varsity, Junior Varsity and Thirds… I might pick that if it is for beginners, like people who barely know the sport…
Thirds refers to non-competitive intramural sports, those with no roster for play against other schools, unlike JV and Varsity sports. Unless you play a sport at a recruitable level, you should pick the ones you most enjoy and be open to trying new ones. If your BS offers it and you are interested, crew is one sport you can start with no experience and end up on the varsity team.
Never worry about looking bad. Pick a sport. Play your heart out. Have a blast.
Note that, at some schools at least, the Thirds/Frosh teams (which can have upperclassmen on them) do play against other schools…on a more limited schedule. But that’s not to say that the games aren’t intense. Depending on the sport/team, the opponents are evenly matched and there is pride in winning (especially for sports/teams where winning is rare).
As ChoatieMom notes, unless you are a recruitable athlete (in which case you would not be asking your question), I wouldn’t worry about how things “look” (to colleges).
Depends a tiny bit on the sport. If resources are scarce and a sport is popular, sometimes novice players can’t get on thirds. At my son’s school, for example, squash and tennis thirds’ players are pretty good, and even some experienced players get cut. They DO sometimes have a “development” team, sometimes off season, for kids who want to learn or try out the sport. For other sports, where resources are less scarce, novice players are very welcome on thirds.
It’s not only for sports with scarce resources (i.e., limited numbers of courts). At my son’s school, the soccer teams are extremely competitive. Last year, I think something like close to 20 boys were cut from thirds soccer, and these were pretty much all kids who’d been playing soccer in the past. The thirds soccer team plays a full competitive interscholastic schedule, usually (though not always) against the same school that varsity and JV are playing. At most schools that I’m familiar with, the non-competitive options for a sport are usually called “club” or “intramural” and in many cases, that will be a better way to get introduced to an unfamiliar sport.
Thirds sometimes do not cut people because they know that some of the kids on the teams have no experience playing the sport! If you have experience, try out for varsity or jv! At my school, if you don’t make varsity you get onto JV and no one gets cut from thirds. However, there are still intramural sport options if you’re looking for something non competitive.
I may have completely lost your point but I will continue. Why are you worried about 'looking bad '?
Are you worried if you look bad on the college application?
Pick whatever sports you like and enjoy. Show passion and you will have sound body and sound mind. That is what colleges look at. You don’t need to be a varsity star in soccer to enter good colleges.