After so many kids and so many applications. I think it is hard to say exactly what colleges value and don’t in the admissions process. I can say without a doubt that may daughter and many of her friends were varsity athletes and were very involved in many activities on campus. Most were not recruited athletes nor planned to play in college. But all devoted many hours to their sports teams.
If you get a chance to do a mock admissions exercise during college counseling. I highly encourage you to take note of how everything fits together in an application. It was eye opening for us. Basically you break out into small groups and get a chance to read 3 fictional kids complete college application packs. One is supposedly from your BS and the other 2 are not. It shows the value of context through which your kids applications will be viewed. The group must select the candidate who gets admitted. Then all the groups reconvene and pitch their candidate. It’s eye opening to see everyone’s thought process. Next the invited admissions reps from many top colleges- walk you through their thoughts on the candidates- super insightful.
For our kids, the goal was to be involved in sports, arts if so inclined, community service, and an academic club. As an example: our daughter played varsity field hockey (as well as for a local indoor club on Sunday’s and a few tournaments a year , was editor of yearbook senior year (photographer for 3 years) Co head of mock trial (involved for 3 years) tutored middle schoolers once a week for 3 years on campus, co head of a club that volunteered in the child care facility on campus once a week - involved 4 years. Her common app essays did not talk about any of those experiences - rather something simple that showed her personality.