What is it like for non-sporty kids at Potomac?

[Anonymous]

I feel like you were given the wrong impression by your tour guide. I wonder if you had the boys varsity lacrosse coach? We have several kids who range from standout athlete to not at all athletic there. They all play and love the Potomac athletics, so you don’t at all have to be amazing to play.
In 4th-6th PE, they do units of each sport offered in IS. Then in IS (7th and 8th), they have to do something each of the 3 seasons. So far this year volleyball is the only one that cut and that’s bc of court space. Many kids in school sport have never played it before. Some have a & b or a, b & c teams. For winter they can also do weights & conditioning which is like PE or the musical. IS only has athletics 4 days a week, so if they want to do debate or robotics, that’s on wednesdays, the non athletics day.
In US, they have to do something 2 of the 3 seasons, and one has to be “sweaty”. The musicals count as sweaty or they have weights and conditioning. A lot of kids just do a okay and the musical. Backstage roles count for credit, too. If you want 2 seasons of debate, they can add in running/walking to one of them to make it count as sweaty. There is a running team option each season that really pushes personal improvement and is incredibly welcoming. Robotics counts as one or two seasons, too. I think all the jv teams except tennis and volleyball and boys bb are no cut.
It’s only cliquey to the extent you end up spending a lot of time with the kids who have your same interests in US. For example, many of the theater kids are also in chorus as a class together and they often take theater classes or do the VPAC concentration, so are together a good part of the day. One of my kids does robotics and loves it so much that he goes every conference block and lunch period so does spend a lot of time with his team. For a different season he does a varsity sport so is then with those kids a lot. I guess it could appear that kids divide up by their activity, but there’s really a group for everyone.
My kids who are on varsity sports actually had never played those sports other than PE until 7th grade at school and were stressed at the time for which sports options to pick, so you definitely can still play at a high level at Potomac without already doing the sport outside of school.
I think to be accepted you need to not just have good grades but be a standout at something but that something doesn’t need to be athletics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’ll probably be weeded out in the admissions process like my son was. Admissions people are very good at predicting what type of kid will be a good fit at the school. My son had excellent stats ( GPA, standardized tests scores), great recommendations, interviews,
and more academic extra curriculars ( robotics club, …) and was waitlisted for 9th. All the kids we know who got in were amazing athletes.

They waitlist a lot of amazing athletes as well.

[Anonymous]

I think Potomac is one of those schools where a student *can* be really sporty/athletic, but doesn’t *have* to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’ll probably be weeded out in the admissions process like my son was. Admissions people are very good at predicting what type of kid will be a good fit at the school. My son had excellent stats ( GPA, standardized tests scores), great recommendations, interviews,
and more academic extra curriculars ( robotics club, …) and was waitlisted for 9th. All the kids we know who got in were amazing athletes.

Robotics fulfills most of their athletic requirements.

If they are seriously good at robotics, that should be a +factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We like a lot about Potomac but my son isn’t that sporty. From what I’ve read it’s a very sports heavy culture. Would he not fit in?

There is a requirement that you are on a team for pretty much every season. Usually sports team. But robotics team also fills the requirement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of kids at Potomac who do debate, theater, or robotics and are not sporty. My child’s friend group is a mix of sports kids and kids who do one of these non sports activities.

True. But these non sporty kids are probably lifers who got in in kindergarten where the school couldn’t really gauge how sporty they will end up being. Every kid I know who got into high school there was a super star athlete. I think Potomac cares a lot about recruitment potential so they can brag about how many kids they got into top schools.

Yes, they do admit a lot of strong athletes in 9th. But many of the sports recruits are lifers. Likewise, many of the debate, theater, and robotics kids were 9th grade admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potomac put a big emphasis on the “quality” of sports on their high school tour. —- and made clear they valued that over mere participation and giving kids a chance to try new things. They sounded a bit elitist about it. There’s no simple PE option if you don’t want to be on a team. Some schools we toured either had a pe program and or said they would encourage students to try out new sports and emphasized opps to join teams that didn’t have cuts. Of all the schools we toured (and we did 8 or 9), Potomac was most limiting for the non-sporty kid. Sidwell, gds, Burke, maret, wis, st Andrews and others all had better options/choices for someone who might want to be active or even play a sport but who isn’t necessarily sporty.

Students who don't want to be on a sports team, but want physical activity, often participate in lifetime sports or weights & conditioning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We like a lot about Potomac but my son isn’t that sporty. From what I’ve read it’s a very sports heavy culture. Would he not fit in?

There is a requirement that you are on a team for pretty much every season. Usually sports team. But robotics team also fills the requirement

In 7th & 8th, they do need to do something every season, but sports are part of the school day and done at 3pm.
I posted above, but in US, it’s 2 of the 3 seasons. Robotics is offered fall & winter (and teams that have qualified for worlds continue on in the spring). At least one season a year needs to be “sweaty”. There are non-team sports options, such as the musical or weights & conditioning that satisfy the sweaty requirement. Some robotics kids combine weights & conditioning (which is essentially PE) with robotics for winter to get the sweaty credit.
If your child is interested in robotics, I’d encourage them to meet the head of robotics. He’s great, and it’s a well run, welcoming program. He’ll work with the kids to figure out how to do robotics with other sports, etc. One year one of my kids did a varsity sport 3 seasons but still fit in a good robotics team by going every lunch and conference block. The head of robotics also opens the lab many Sunday afternoons.

[Anonymous]

If Potomac cares so much about athletes, why do they not have better teams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Potomac cares so much about athletes, why do they not have better teams?

This is the correct answer. Potomac teams have largely been non-elite for as long as I can remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Potomac cares so much about athletes, why do they not have better teams?

This is the correct answer. Potomac teams have largely been non-elite for as long as I can remember.

Uhm, ok, you might want to check your facts.... In the past year alone...

Girls LAX- State champion
Girls Softball- State Champion
Cross Country- State Champion
Girls Soccer- Conference Champ
Boys Soccer- State Runner Up, Conference Champion
Track- State Runner up
Golf- Conference Champion

[Anonymous]

I think some of the posters are missing the OP’s actual question which I read as “how hard is it to find your people or have a good experience if you are a non sporty boy at Potomac?” Yes, of course there are non sporty options like robotics and that’s great, but kids do need a “sweaty” sports option and, speaking from experience, that can be pretty painful if your son is not an athlete and the school is one that takes athletics seriously. HS boys on the balance are not nice to boys on the team that are not at a minimum somewhat decent contributors.

Potomac plays in the MAC division and many of its teams do very well, many players go on to play in college. Athletics are a big part of the culture at Potomac. IMO a nonsporty girl would have an easier time floating or treading water so to speak on a team to fulfill their requirement. Girls’ social status seems to be less tightly aligned with their athletic prowess.

[Anonymous]

Your child will be fine. I always laugh about outsider’s view of Potomac being a sports school. Like most top independents in this area they don’t for sports and many of their programs are not very competitive overall. No serious athlete chooses Potomac if that’s all they care about. For this reason, many different types of kids do well there. I have two kids at Potomac since kindergarten. One is a sporty kid, one is not. They both found their people and thrive in different ways. Your kid will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your child will be fine. I always laugh about outsider’s view of Potomac being a sports school. Like most top independents in this area they don’t for sports and many of their programs are not very competitive overall. No serious athlete chooses Potomac if that’s all they care about. For this reason, many different types of kids do well there. I have two kids at Potomac since kindergarten. One is a sporty kid, one is not. They both found their people and thrive in different ways. Your kid will be fine.

I’m PP that said it’s painful to watch nonsporty boy try to find their place. Agree Potomac isn’t a powerhouse athletic school like some of those in the IAC or WCAC, but in our experience the social pecking order for boys is indeed tied to athletic prowess (and wealth).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We like a lot about Potomac but my son isn’t that sporty. From what I’ve read it’s a very sports heavy culture. Would he not fit in?

There is a requirement that you are on a team for pretty much every season. Usually sports team. But robotics team also fills the requirement

It should but it doesn't.

Robotics kids STILL have to do 10 seasons of sports in high school