Varsity sports at Grinnell

Harvard2400 · 07-25-2005, 11:30 AM

Hey,

if I played varsit baseball for 2 years at high school but was not that exceptional, can I still play D3 at Grinnell? I am not sure how good it is. Personally, I played in a boarding school environment.

snorky · 07-25-2005, 11:00 PM

Yes, you can be on the team. You may not see as much playing time as better players, but it's possible. My daughter plays on a varsity team -- much the same as you she played on a small h.s. team, didn't do traveling teams, etc. She loves the team, gets to play a bit.

Harvard2400 · 07-25-2005, 11:21 PM

oh its not that ultra competitive as other D3 LAC environments like Williams and Amherst. I ask this because Grinnell is in Iowa, perhaps a not so ultra-athletic conference

Father of the Boarder · 07-29-2005, 10:38 AM

This year the Midwest Conference rated the teams overall. The women's champion was Grinnell. The men finished third in the MWC. Hence, it is not an extension of high school sports.

The baseball coach is also more competitive than the coach I had 30 years ago. But, if you show a desire to participate, they will let you in. And, interestingly, as a young person with many developmental items emerging in your late teens, you may buff up and surprise yourself if you work on the sport as you would for your academics. Grinnell allows you to develop as an athlete.

As a sidenote, over 40% of the students participate in varsity sports.

sebastian0622 · 08-15-2005, 04:28 AM

Most of the starters on the varsity teams were all-conference, all-metro, etc. in high school. However, not all of them were. In the smaller sports like tennis, it can be ultra-competitive to the point that those top six guys were probably all #1's or #2's in HS. Swimming is the same way, loaded with some pretty impressive resumes. The football team has a lot of guys who were stellar in HS, but by the sheer numbers that they require, a lot of the guys who play weren't big-time studs in HS.

There is no way to say for sure until you get there. If you think you want to play, the best advice is to give it a try and see if it's for you. Definitely expect the competition to be higher than it was in high school, and definitely expect to have to put a lot of time into it.