[jyl]

Looking for comments on the various high school sports.

My son will start HS next year and is interested in joining a sports team. Not real set on a specific sport - I think it is more for the fun of being on a team. So, which sports to consider?

I'm thinking:
- A sport based on athleticism rather than specific technical skills, since this is a large HS with competitive teams which mostly require tryouts, though some are no-cut sports
- A short season, for reasons I'll explain later
- Ideally something he can continue doing, for fun or competitively, later in life

The choices are basically all the usual HS sports. Track & field, XC, basketball, football, crew, sailing, lacrosse, soccer, skiing, water polo, wrestling, swimming, equestrian, snowboarding, golf, tennis, racquetball.

He is average height, slim, athletic, fast, agile, excellent balance. He is an advanced dancer, good at parkour, decent on skateboard, excellent on Ripstick. He has good endurance and rode a century w/ me last year. He has no particular background in any sport other than non-competitive swimming, some soccer back in grade school and a smattering of tennis.

He is going to be doing theatre and, I hope, continuing in dance. Hence my interest in a sport with a short season.

My initial thoughts - based on very limited research - are:
- track (spring; season is only Mar-May; practice 5 afternoons/wk)
- XC (fall; season is Aug-Oct; good preparation for track distance events)
- crew (year-round but people seem to participate on and off)
- swimming (winter; daily practice for 1.5 hrs)
- sailing (a fall and a spring season; they sail "Club 420" and "FJ" boats on the river)

What do you think?