College sports

 I didn’t play any intercollegiate sports while I was in College. But I kept pretty physically active. It was a requirement.

I did go to tryouts for the football team my freshman year. My thoughts were I might be able to play wide receiver. I was pretty damn skinny and there wasn’t much else I could even have a shot at. Unfortunately, I figured out pretty quickly that I wasn’t nearly fast enough to be seriously considered for intercollegiate level football. Didn’t bother me a bit, in fact it just put that question to rest, so there were no regrets or questions later. The Academy was so many challenges wrapped up in an all-consuming life - one less mountain to climb was more of a relief than a disappointment.

The Academy was much like my Dad: play sports or play sports. If you weren’t playing for a team sport, you were required to play intramurals in the afternoons between classes and dinner formation, two to three times a week. There were three seasons of intramurals and each Squadron fielded teams in several sports, depending on the season. As a freshman you got dumped into the teams all of the upperclassmen avoided (Which I did too, when it became my time…!), so I played things like boxing, wrestling (I was a referee my Sophomore year. Hated that), soccer, volleyball, flag football, team handball, rugby and flickerball.

Rugby was a Club sport at the Academy. Still is. They play other colleges, but also city league teams around Colorado. I joined up on the B-side (Jr. Varsity) my sophomore year, I played out on the wing and had a great time. The team traveled on the weekends, going as far as Aspen and Denver and all over Colorado Springs. The problem was it took up entire weekends, and I realized quickly I got NO studying done those weekends between travel, games, parties, and travel back Sunday night. My Junior year I went to a couple of pre-season practices and realized I didn’t have the ability to handle all that and get decent grades. The coach was not happy, but I didn’t care. Rugby was not a goal in any scenario I had for the future.

But in intramurals, having played the game, I was a pretty good player/coach for our Squadron rugby team, and we did pretty well.