# What Sports did You Participate In?



## Rocky Mountain Breeze (Mar 30, 2015)

I am on the advisory board of our local community college HVAC/R program and we are always looking for ways to maximize the recruiting efforts of the college when addressing high school students. We did a quick informal poll of those who were on the board who either owned a business or were in management of what sports they participated in during their high school years. About 90% of us were wrestlers and the consensus was that since wrestling was an individual sport where you were on your own and owning a service business puts you in the same position that perhaps there was a correlation there. It occurred to me that sailing can also be an individual type of endeavor but the majority on this board seem to be more of the collectivist type so I can't help but wonder what the members of this forum participated in during their high school years. Individual sports like wrestling, tennis, or golf? Or team sports like football, basketball, or baseball, although while pitching for a slow pitch softball team for ten years taught me that the pitchers position on any type of ball team puts you on an island. So, if you choose to participate, were you on any organized sports teams during your youth?


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I was the Captain of both the Football and Lacrosse teams in High School and played in college too. I also played a little tennis, basketball and baseball, in community leagues, when I was young. I picked up golf in college. I'm also a competitive sporting clay shooter. I'm not much into organized buoy sail racing, but bring on a distance race anytime.

I wrestled for one season. Absolutely hated it. In 8th grade, they brought the High School Freshman wrestling team over to the Middle School to demonstrate the sport, during physical ed class. I pinned their star, the first time I ever participated in the sport. The High School coach brought me up and brow beat me into joining the team. It wasn't the individual aspect that I hated, it was the sport itself. It's a very athletic sport, but not the kind of eye/hand coordination activity that I enjoyed better. I really hated the idea of weight management and, in those days, it was extreme. High school kids starving themselves, taking laxatives, wearing sweating bags, etc. I think those practices are banned now.


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

After little league which I recall ended in junior high school I was done with sports... Tennis and Skiing through my 30s. Not interested in contact sports or competition... As a spectator I prefer dance.... and these artists are very athletic.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Wrestling and boxing were banned at our school (and I think the state or the whole of Australia) as they should be banned as they are just fighting.

A schools are predominantly team sports as they are much cheaper and easier to organise.

There's definitely no school sport that cause buisness wealth...


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Sailing, swimming, badminton and tennis, but none were organised by the school they were all external club sports.

Badminton and sailing were my favourites.

EDIT: I consider both badminton and tennis team sports because you often play doubles.


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## aeventyr60 (Jun 29, 2011)

Water Polo and Swimming in High School. Water Polo at the collegiate level too. Turned down the full ride to USC to go to a smaller school..where there was snow for my first passion, skiing.


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## Rocky Mountain Breeze (Mar 30, 2015)

Interesting responses so far. Thanks.
Mark: We were thinking about the mental aspects between a sport and the willingness to step off the edge of the secure feeling of working for a check or being completely at the mercy of your own wits and abilities.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

I'm not sure where one would put sailing on your pole. That was my major sport, but it had nothing to do with school, as I raced a Thunderbird for 7 seasons in Frisco Bay during my HS years. I also crewed on a 65' schooner, teaching college girls to sail (or at least that was what we called it), but maybe that was more biology class than a sport?


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## Scotty C-M (Aug 14, 2013)

Surfing and sailing. Still do both!


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## Towguy (May 8, 2016)

Skiing,,downhill,GS,some slalom,,,,crosscontry and mountaineering for rec in high school ,,,the cross country running team( ind sport I think) ,,,,pioneering,outdoor skills in Scouts definetly team efforts,,,we were certified S/R troop lnterior of B.C.....Ralph


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

Rocky, I think your cause and effect hypothesis is way off.

Over the years I played team sports: hockey, baseball, softball and individual sports skiing, cycling and martial arts.

I never got into wrestling because the guys I knew who did it were mostly assholes (not in any way directed at you) and starving to make weight never looked like much fun. 

In my professional life I've worked for others, managed others, started businesses, sold businesses and now work as a consultant (which is really managing your own business).

For me the road to taking those kinds of professional risks had as much to do with economic downturns and perceived opportunities as anything else.

Like most things in life those decisions are part nature and part situational - difficult to predict in teenagers with accuracy and certainly not based on their preference in sports.


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## chef2sail (Nov 27, 2007)

Soccer- high school ( all state and captain ) and scholorship to large university
Crew- high school and club sport in Philadelphia
Tennis- high school and college
Lacrosse- one year in high school

Both team and individual sports
Both helped me later in life. 
As I currently wind down my career , the last 15 years I have managed large “teams” of 200 plus employees. 

Learning how to facilitate and motivate others I attribute to examples I had in coaches I had. 
Leadership was also learned through sports. 
The need to work hard to achieve came from endless practice hours. Helped in my profession 
Learning how to lose as well as win 
Respect for others who are on teams with you from all colors, backgrounds religions etc. as well as your opponents

Sports was a very positive influence in my life


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## ianjoub (Aug 3, 2014)

SanderO said:


> I was done with sports... Not interested in contact sports or competition... As a spectator I prefer dance.... and these artists are very athletic.


Why does this not surprise me?


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## ianjoub (Aug 3, 2014)

ianjoub said:


> Why does this not surprise me?


The first time I played organized hockey the coach said "you are a big guy, you are a defenseman. When someone comes down the ice with a puck, TAKE THEM OUT. Don't worry about the puck, the fast guys will get it".

I was hooked!


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## contrarian (Sep 14, 2011)

Had there been a girls wrestling team I might have participated in that if they would have let me. Then again I suppose girl wrestlers would have looked a lot like their male counterparts with hairy legs and underarms and snarly looking faces.


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

contrarian said:


> Had there been a girls wrestling team I might have participated in that if they would have let me. Then again I suppose girl wrestlers would have looked a lot like their male counterparts with hairy legs and underarms and snarly looking faces.


It's co-ed now.

Lynbrook Girl Is Beating Boys On The Wrestling Mat « CBS New York


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## mikel1 (Oct 19, 2008)

Hockey and Track . . . .enjoy tennis now . . .


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## jcwhite (Apr 7, 2011)

Soccer through HS, but never organized leagues and mostly only because my friends did it. For me it was climbing, skiing, mountaineering, whitewater canoeing - all sports where you control your own destiny, and all sports that put you (possibly with a friend or two) against nature. I was never one for competing against other people, I never really understood that. Let them do their own thing, and I'll do mine.

I do a lot of sailing but almost no racing, so I guess that opinion has stuck with me.


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

There is a concept that some compete only against themselves, ie do better next time, beat their personal best. Others compete against the course, as in golf. However, they don't like to compete against others. 

More to the point of the thread, it is a real debate in the academic academy on whether sports (and education, for that matter) train their skill or only provide a filter to identify those with the skills. Think about college. Professors are often the worst teachers, they are simply experts in their field. The student mostly teaches themselves. A top college grad is often an inherently good learner and self starter, which are really the life skills that allow one to excel, with a college degree. Does that degree teach those skills or just identify those that have them?

Do sports teach leadership, teamwork, persistence, rising above defeat? How to work with both those you do like and those you don't. Perhaps. I thought they did. However, there is a school of thought that says they simple attract those with the skill inside, but didn't know it. 

No one knows.


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## Slayer (Jul 28, 2006)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Wrestling and boxing were banned at our school (and I think the state or the whole of Australia) as they should be banned as they are just fighting...


I think your perspective is like someone looking at the night sky from the middle of the city as opposed to seeing the deep, rich sky from the middle of the ocean. There is soooo much more to the sweet science than fighting.

Anyway, I played hockey in the youth leagues, wrestled in high school and college, and boxed in the Army. I also skied recreationally.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

When I was in Jr. High and High School I ran track (badly), played soccer (only so-so), and raced sailboats.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Slayer said:


> There is soooo much more to the sweet science than fighting.


Yes, the sciences of thuggery; barbarianism; and brutalism that gives the body and mind brain damage, permanent soft tissue injuries and bones leaching juvenile onset arthritis...

Yes, indeed, sweet science of madness.

:nerd


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## Slayer (Jul 28, 2006)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Yes, the sciences of thuggery; barbarianism; and brutalism that gives the body and mind brain damage, permanent soft tissue injuries and bones leaching juvenile onset arthritis...
> 
> Yes, indeed, sweet science of madness.
> 
> :nerd


I could go back and forth with you all day with your skewed view of these sports, but then that would be madness.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Slayer said:


> I could go back and forth with you all day with your skewed view of these sports, but then that would be madness.


*
The largest study yet of dead former NFL players found that over 99% had permanent brain damage
*

Facts don't lie. :angel

https://qz.com/1038120/over-99-of-n...-players-have-cte-permanent-brain-damage/amp/


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## Slayer (Jul 28, 2006)

I was also going to cite American football as a sport resulting in more injury than boxing and wrestling: Rugby, Australian rules football, gymnastics and numerous other sports too.


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## aeventyr60 (Jun 29, 2011)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Yes, the sciences of thuggery; barbarianism; and brutalism that gives the body and mind brain damage, permanent soft tissue injuries and bones leaching juvenile onset arthritis...
> 
> Yes, indeed, sweet science of madness.
> 
> :nerd


Couldn't be any worse then what's happening in the schools now. Maybe if the kids got to beat the crap out of each other in the ring then there would be far less angst, bullying, depression, suicide and school shootings...

I was always too worn out from five hours in the pool everyday to get in trouble..


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

aeventyr60 said:


> Maybe if the kids got to beat the crap out of each other in the ring then there would be far less angst, bullying, depression, suicide and school shootings...


Maybe if Snowflakes would stop telling Millennials they can Do Anything, Be Anything, You'll Change the World, You can be XXX.

When not everyone can.

Forced into a ring when you know you don't have the makeup to be a fighter is devastating. And you're going to get pulverised in front of the whole class.

As is coming last in every athletics race.

People should stop forcing kids to be better than what they can be.

There's some dingo-ugly stupid fat kids out there that really don't like being hauled out in front of class and the Teacher saying "No one bully Stinky the fat ugly kid".

Boxing ain't gunna gunna fix them.


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## troy2000 (Apr 7, 2013)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Wrestling and boxing were banned at our school (and I think the state or the whole of Australia) as they should be banned as they are just fighting.
> 
> A schools are predominantly team sports as they are much cheaper and easier to organise.
> 
> There's definitely no school sport that cause buisness wealth...


Oh please...  Obviously, you know nothing at all about wrestling.

I wrestled three years varsity in high school, and one year varsity my first year in college. I've also been in my share of fights, I have the scars to prove it, and I guarandamntee wrestling and fighting are nothing alike. In fighting, the objective is to hurt your opponent fast enough and hard enough to keep him from hurting you. Whereas high school and collegiate wrestling is a contest of skill, agility and strength within strictly enforced rules; trying to injure your opponent will get you thrown out of the ring immediately.


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## Rocky Mountain Breeze (Mar 30, 2015)

Mr Big Hat will probably have a coronary but I agree with him. Wrestling, as I experienced in the early 1970's, was not a brutal sport but a contest of conditioning and strategy. I feel sorry for those of you who do not understand the education and betterment that comes from either striving for the best you can do or learning to improve your best by being bested by someone else. I was only a mediocre wrestler in high school but came to a real understanding of the individual duel while coaching baseball and pitching in softball. It is such a mental roller coaster ride you would never need chemical based excitement. Of course, you can also say the same about racing 20 year olds on BMX bicycles while in your 40's.......


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## KayakerChuck (May 4, 2017)

No organized sports for me. However, I was a RABID Windsurfer, and all around water rat. Water skiing, knee boarding, swimming, anything on the water or ice.

Fast forward and I now run a marine canvas shop, am a big builder of custom kayak paddles, and just started another biz CNC cutting sheet goods.

Is there a correlation? Maybe- I learned that bumps & bruises shouldn't stand in the way of, well, anything.


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## troy2000 (Apr 7, 2013)

Rocky Mountain Breeze said:


> Mr Big Hat will probably have a coronary but I agree with him. Wrestling, as I experienced in the early 1970's, was not a brutal sport but a contest of conditioning and strategy. I feel sorry for those of you who do not understand the education and betterment that comes from either striving for the best you can do or learning to improve your best by being bested by someone else. I was only a mediocre wrestler in high school but came to a real understanding of the individual dual while coaching baseball and pitching in softball. It is such a mental roller coaster ride you would never need chemical based excitement. Of course, you can also say the same about racing 20 year olds on BMX bicycles while in your 40's.......


Don't worry about it. It was bound to happen eventually; the odds just caught up with you.


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## troy2000 (Apr 7, 2013)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> *
> The largest study yet of dead former NFL players found that over 99% had permanent brain damage
> *
> 
> ...


Not sure what that has to do with boxing and wrestling.


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## troy2000 (Apr 7, 2013)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Maybe if Snowflakes would stop telling Millennials they can Do Anything, Be Anything, You'll Change the World, You can be XXX.
> 
> When not everyone can.
> 
> ...


Who's the snowflake here? Seems to me you're projecting a little, and maybe scratching at some old scars. No one in this conversation has suggested that we should shame and bully fat ugly kids, or force anyone into a boxing ring...

I don't remember anyone ever being mistreated when I was in school, just because they didn't go out for wrestling. But shame on me for shaming all those fat kids by earning my varsity letter...


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## Ulladh (Jul 12, 2007)

I tutored maths and science along with other non-sporty students.

Some of the students we tutored were somewhat thuggish and took delight in the sport of beating the crap out of any of the sporty types that threaten their tutors. A win win as I see it.

So yes I participated in an organized sport.


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## Knot Again (Apr 26, 2016)

I never played sports in high school. I worked after school and had 2 jobs in the summer. I saved enough (including a year off between sophmore and junior college years) to pay for a full university education with no loans, or parental assistance.

I did have a terrible sports accident in college, though. I blew out my thumb moving a rook in a chess team tournament; quashed my dream of hitchhiking across the country after graduation! ;-)


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## seabeau (Oct 5, 2014)

Played high school baseball, tennis. Rifle and pistol marksmanship teams.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

LOL, ******** I hear more than a little Al Bundy here. Lighten the hell up guys 

I don't know about any of you but I played sports because I enjoyed it. I played hockey and did martial arts because hitting people and getting hit was fun!!! Now that may not sound politically correct but a lot of young guys just like being physical and banging each other around. Sports were an outlet for that energy. Afterward we all hung out, told lies and were obsessed with teenage girls. It's called being young and it was a lot of fun most of the time.

Playing ball didn't teach me major life lessons and mold my character. That's a crock of sh!t. My parents did those things.

Sports were just how we burned off all that extra energy we had back then. The rest is all just Al Bundy, glory days psycho babble crap.


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## chef2sail (Nov 27, 2007)

Jim while I agree with many things you post I think this is very myopic. 

While I guess you were lucky that you had parents who taught you EVERYTHING you needed in just a short time. 

First not everyone has parents like that. Second I will bet many people have different people , things in their lives which teach and shape their personalities. I’ve been fortunate to have that. That not psychobable or pc either ....that understanding and reflective thinking. 

While you were busy having fun hitting people and getting your aggression out. My participation in soccer was not a fleeting thing. Over 14 years invested. A means to get my college paid for ( well some of it). The pleaseure of meeting and being influenced by some remarkable coaches. ( not just soccer but in life). Not everyone engaged in sports had a shallow view. Of course I loved playing in sports as you did. 

Professionally I was mentored and influenced by a top French Chef for over 14 years who tremendously influenced my professional life after. Earning a Masters in college. I thank my lucky stars he took such and interest in me. It helped me achieve professionally the first half of my working life in the culinary field before I moved on to upper management in a large corporation. 

While many of us can point to parents ( assuming we had them or they were good parents) , I would be that many also can attribute to other people , influences which shaped their personalities and skills. 

Sports had a great influence in mine. Not pschobabble At all. Just a retrospective honesty to the fact that I am made up of many people who helped influence me.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

chef2sail said:


> Jim while I agree with many things you post I think this is very myopic.


Fair enough, I was shooting from the hip and more than a little skeptical of how much gravitas some posters were placing on youth sports - especially the original poster - so maybe I was being a bit provocative.

Our experiences with sports can be formative - both good and bad, but sports are only one of many things that influence us.

I do get a little put off when guys (it's always the guys) get so caught up in justifying the "glory days" that they forget we played sports because we enjoyed it. And to be honest when you're a kid that's what you're really thinking about.

I also coached and saw too many super serious "glory days" dads take the joy out of sports for their kids.

I do believe having an outlet for all that youthful energy is important. If it's not dissipated through sports or work that energy can become destructive.

Now back to sailing...


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## reeddsail (Mar 25, 2020)

In high school: football, basketball, baseball
In adulthood: running, cycling, sailing


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## jb cruzan (May 24, 2015)

Soccer and volleyball


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## Lanealoha (Mar 5, 2017)

I'll play. Started with soccer and baseball, stuck with baseball, snow skiing. The 'toy' skateboard' we all got as 5 y/o became a big 'sport' for me, then surfing and wind surfing, then drugs. Drugs are a sport no one has mentioned from their youth  (here goes) From about 20 on its been rock climbing, ice climbing, big wall climbing and still skiing, skateboarding and surfing. Now at 47, its still skateboarding, surfing, skiing, all the variations of climbing, sailing and Briazillian Jiu Jitsu. I'm also a small business owner, dont know how all that other stuff played into it. Maybe not having a coach is the same as not having a boss? .... I am married how ever


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## Frank_R (Jun 11, 2020)

Basketball and Baseball!


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