[log in to unmask] (Spraguer) on Fri, 23 Sep  3:56
PM wrote:
 
>Technically, every Cadet at West Point is on a full
>scholarship, so I guess you'd have to say they DO award
>athletic scholarships.  Although it is first and
>foremost a military academy, albeit substandard
>compared to my beloved Annapolis (sorry, Paul
>Armstrong), athletes are recruited for all of the
>service academies, and once they are in, they, like
>everyone else, attend at no cost (except, of course,
>for the service commitment after graduation.)  I know a
>bunch of people who came here essentially to compete in
>their sport at the varsity level in college.
 
I stated that Army does not give athletic scholarships because
it is true.  The scholarship is for attending the academy, not
for the ability to play a sport.  Also, all colleges recruit
athletes, it is just that a number of them do not give the
athletes a scholarship based on their ability to excel in a
sport.
 
Furthermore, the service commitment is a very big cost for
players who want to make it into the pros.  Why else did Army
drop out of the ECAC and become an independent like Air Force?
Those two academies can not compete with the top colleges in
the nation in any sport, not just hockey.  Even those
midshipmen Brain knows at Annapolis are there because they were
not offered full scholarships anywhere else.  When was the last
time one of the service academies was in the top ten in any
sport?
 
Are we having fun yet?
 
Sean Pickett     -     Go BU Terriers, 1994 Hockey East
Champions!
 
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