Frail internet weakling verification poll - hey ilxors did you play an organized sport at any point?

where's the option for "yes, but I lettered in something else"

I played baseball for about 9 years, basketball for two...

what does "lettered" mean?

two years of baseball and five of ultimate frisbee, for me.

uh

its the secret option?

yeah im dumb and forgot that permutation sorry.

3rd one should be "Yes and I lettered and bought the jacket which I now have in the back of the closet next to that class ring I was sure I would wear forever"

xxpost lettered is maybe a uniquely american thing where you get sorta a commendation for excelling in said sport, although frankly that often means just showing up

it creates these things that you may have seen in movies or on teens desperate for attention:

http://www.trilakessportswear.com/store/images/products/thumb_Temescal%20Letterman%20Jacket.jpg

I lettered in choir. (only reason I'm brave enough to say that is cuz I know HI DERE will have my back...roight?)

i think it means just showing up and doing so for a specified period of years - like i "lettered" in tennis, basically because i was on the team for 3 years, because it seemed easier and less demoralizing than taking the required number of years of P.E.

I played rec-league soccer for years. Probably for one year longer than I should have, tbh.
And I was on the swim team at the country club for a few years, as well. I always got a "most improved" award at the end of the summer.
Never played on a school sports team, but I did try out for the JV soccer team, I think.

I lettered in choir. (only reason I'm brave enough to say that is cuz I know HI DERE will have my back...roight?)

sorry dude, I lettered in track, as a freshman

(I was VP or President of the concert choir senior year, tho; I can't remember which I was because I was President or VP of like 5 different groups that year)

tbh I don't even remember if we COULD letter in choir

I played tee-ball, basketball and soccer as a pre-teen, then nothing throughout junior high. Played two years on the golf team in high school, never lettered. My school didn't give varsity letters for academic achievement -- the only school in the county not to do so, which, I don't even . . .

I did end up representing my school twice on the local televised HS quiz show, "Academic Challenge." Still no letter.

Little League baseball until I was 15. Jr. high football for 2 years. High school baseball for a few weeks until I told the coach that I signed up to play, not keep the scorebook. Occasional bowling leagues during high school and in early 20s.

i think i also lettered in choir and drama, but I never bought any jacket or displayed said patches ever, because i thought the whole thing was way lame and i was a rebellious punk rock teen.

I played Flag Football one year at the Y but playing any sport at the YMCA is like having sex and blacking out everytime genitalia is about to make contact.

I played little league softball in fourth grade and I was so bad I got kicked off the team.

in high school, I lettered in journalism, but I never got a jacket.

lettered in football and track btw.

and yeah pretty sure that they didnt do letters for choir or any of the other shit HI DERE and I were both in.

we were on the same pathetic all-state 4x100 relay team tho. pathetic mostly because those of us who were not dan were kinda crap tbh

i never bought the jacket either for choir. I lettered three years, then didn't qualify for the fourth as I didn't fundraise the minimum amount. I was ok with this until I found out several other people who had been given letters failed to do the fundraising either.

I quit baseball after a tumultuous year in a super-competitive league where all of my teammates were just hideous bullies. I mean they heckled their OWN BATTERS at the plate.

Oh, I did track in sixth grade, too...I was very, very bad. The coach was kind enough not to kick me off the team, however. My teammates were even encouraging. It was weird!

I like to draw flux capacitors on my hands to make myself go faster. I never got to 88 mph though.

i think i also lettered in choir and drama, but I never bought any jacket or displayed said patches ever, because i thought the whole thing was way lame and i was a rebellious punk rock teen.

ha, my thing was "look, I can conquer all your mainstream shit and STILL be the choir/art nerd braniac who listens to goth and industrial music" so I wanted a letter jacket ASAP to wear over my Cure T-shirts

basically I viewed high school as an exercise in causing cognitive dissonance in others

if marching counts as a 'team sport' then my answer is HELL YEAH

altho i don't think anyone outside of aus/nz understands marching without instruments

lettered in band, yo

(no jacket)

haha wait, I just now processed that there was no "band" after "marching" in your original post, just1ne

damn straight

instruments are for pussies

basically I viewed high school as an exercise in causing cognitive dissonance in others

ha - yeah, most of my fellow tennis teammates and the girls on the other teams in the league didn't really know what to make of the fact i wore safety pins in my ears and did my eyeliner like Robert Smith or Siouxsie.

Is "marching" similar to Color Guard?

also: our 'display' march - which is basically a kind of 'freestyle' march that each team is allowed to come up with (all the other marches are traditional/set) - was to the amazing and fantastic and awesomely catchy....

LOCOMOTION by KYLIE MINOGUE

Marching sounds like fun! I was always too dumb at music to play an instrument but I love marching band uniforms so much. Did you get to wear cool uniforms?

just1n3 - that sounds like what's called Color Guard in the U.S. - my best friend Freshman year lettered in that.

i loved my uniform but the thing i adored the most and still adore to this day and wish i had a pair were the marching boots.

marching was fun - i was forced into it by my mother, who was convinced it would correct my pigeon-toedness and bad posture (it didn't), but then i enjoyed.

i liked music iirc

i only did it for one season, bc basically my mother thought extracurricular activities were too expensive and inconvenient to her, which is why i never got to live my dream of learning the violin.

I wonder if my letter jacket is still at my parents' house

oh wow, I never knew that about the lettered jackets, and I thought they were awesome when I was a kid from seeing them on American TV shows

ILX = invaluable resource

anyway, me and physical coordination have never been good friends - my P.E. teachers were visibly astounded when we did badminton for a term and for once I was not the worst in the class

pretty sure my parents have my dumb "letters" somewhere with my spelling bee plaques and math contest certificates. They know me well enough not to ask if i want any of these things.

I never got a jacket because it was outside my family's budget and I didn't think it would've flattered my figure...this was a big concern for me. I would have been unhappy in a man's jacket.

Lettering at my schools meant you were a varsity athlete. Of course I am older (not Morbius old but still, mid 30s) and it's interesting to see it included for various extracurricular activities which didn't happen in my days.

it might have just been your school, Steve - i'm in my mid-30s and people lettered in Choir, Drama, Color Guard, and Marching Band

I love how the OP is under the impression that organized sports are only for high schoolers, some ilxors are still competitive in organized sports and even some at a pro/semi-professional level!

you mean like ultimate frisbee?

In my high school you could start a club about pretty much anything, and if you were involved enough in the club you could letter in it. My friend lettered in yacht club (in Idaho), and my friends Sam and Carl started a "philosophy club" called Sam and Carl Club that I also lettered in. That is another reason I didn't get a jacket, is it would've said
JOURNALISM
SAM AND CARL
on the back.

xposts wakeboarding for one...

i think 'cunted' is the british version of lettered

xposts team wakeboarding i mean

little league baseball from about age 8 to 15. never played on any school teams. but i liked little league, it was fun. i was a mediocre hitter but a pretty good fielder, made a couple of all-star teams as a shortstop and third baseman. had a few clutch failures -- i remember striking out to end the game with the tying run on third -- but enough big plays to make it all a fond memory.

Abbott, you have the most amazing stories

i would have loved to letter in journalism

The best jacket of all was the developmentally delayed kid in my school who was everyone liked, and he was really into James Bond so the principal decided to let him put that on the jacket. So the back of his jacket read

RINKY DINK
JONES SODA
007

i remember having to patiently explain to my parents why i was not going to buy or wear a letter jacket for the non-sports stuff i lettered in.

and no, i didn't do any sports in high school

Played soccer when I was 10 and 11, baseball when I was 12. Wasn't particularly good at either.

Soccer wasn't too embarrassing, since I was a midfielder and just kind of ran around a lot. No goals, but a few assists, IIRC.

Baseball was a different story. Our town's Little League (for boys age 10-12) was divided into a Minor League and a Major League, and kids were placed in either division depending on age and skill level. The vast majority of 12-year-olds were automatically placed in the Major League, but since I had never played organized baseball before (not even T-ball), I was put in the Minor League, playing with kids a couple years younger than me. This might've been OK were I one of the best players on the team, but I was not. My main strategy at the plate was to just not swing, on the theory that it was easier for me to get a walk than a hit. Which did happen a few times! But I also got called out on strikes quite a bit. On defense, the coach stuck me in right field, where balls were unlikely to land. My one shining moment was on one of the last games of the season, when I was inexplicably put at third base and I successfully fielded a grounder by throwing to first.

I should note that at the time, I was a huge baseball nerd who probably could've schooled my Little League teammates on World Series winners, MVPs, and other assorted MLB trivia, but this knowledge was not particularly useful on the field.

In high school, I lettered in theatre. The letter probably went straight into the box where I kept photos, programs, and other junk from school plays. I don't remember whether I lettered in choir, but I suspect not, since I only did it sophomore and junior years.

lettered in bowling, no joke

also lettered in various less-athletic extracurricular activities

i played pretty much every sport i could possibly play from ages 5-13 or so -- baseball, soccer, volleyball, basketball. played soccer/ran track in high school, but something happened to me age 16 or so where i completely lost my competitive drive in sports.

Ugh. Yes. Parents were sports players (dad football, tennis, bowling; mum tennis champion, squash champion, badminton champion). Saw sport as good social outlet, important for exercise, fun etc. Except i was ridiculously uncoordinated, uncompetitive and shy. And all the mean people at school played sport too, so it just prolonged the hell. Not playing sport wasn't really an option. Not forced into exactly, but strongly encouraged.

Netball all through primary school. Instrument of torture for the awkward & uncoordinated.
Tennis for a couple years in early high school. Similar torture, spent most of my time calculating # of points I had left to play til I could go home.
Badminton all through high school. That I enjoyed. Less overt jock presence, people were pretty nice and I could suck and no-one would be particularly upset.

came nowhere close to a letter. the organized sport i played the most was basketball in middle school, mostly for my dad's benefit. i was so terrible. one season i scored one (1) basket, which was the worst part bc the asst coach, who was a really sweet guy, made a big deal out of it, but i was like pleeease don't draw attention to my embarrassing awfulness

In the course of my football career i wen from being the biggest kid on the team to being the second smallest person on the team, beaten only by a borderline dwarf named Bucky.

This goes hand in hand w/being the only 7th grader in school with a wispy grody mustache. AWESOME.

No sports. Lettered in band and chorus and drama.

I played school netball in intermediate (age 11-13), and club netball through high school.

that borderline dwarf killed a dude, I wouldn't mock him too much

well okay I would but I'm in another state

played about every sport in school, have a 4-letter sweatshirt (lol i didn't een know letterman jackets were still a thing, how '50s) sitting in my closet at home. still play intramural sports at school now and pickup basketball almost every day. i'm a jock *shrugs*

lettered in cross country, and (I think) track. also lettered in concert/marching band and got a fuzzy orange musical note which I never stitched on my jacket.

dunno about lettering w/e but went to nationals (hey, we're a small country) in first year in 5 diff athletics events, placing in the high jump (specialty). then we moved to somewhere where the only sports equipment/infrastructure was a spare pair of boots and two footballs (gaelic) so kinda fell by the wayside.

Is Cricket a sport? If so, yes. Also, briefly played Australian Rules Football but was terribly shit at that.

It's an insect that chirps iirc

I went to a h.s. with a highly athletic profile where letters were not given for choir or band. It's just as well, at that school it would have looked like an insult.

I ran cross-country (long distance for kids, really about 3 mile meets) from grades 5-8.

Did no sport until university when I started running. I guess I did the equivalent of lettering, no jacket though.

surf brat w/much sponsors and contests and such.. no school sports tho

I wrestled all through Junior High. I wasn't that good — the best I ever did at a tournament was 2nd place. I mainly did it so I wouldn't get shit for being 70 lbs in 6th grade.

aw, we don't have letters in canada. well, hs school didn't.

i played basketball and volleyball until grade 10 (16 yrs old), also did track & field until grade 11 - pretty dedicated really, played a lot of games, tournaments. then didn't have enough time for those + heavy academic studies, acting!, extra-curricular clubs for scholarship-getting purposes, boyfriends, the essential need to not be in highschool bc it got really small feeling sometime in gr 11. still played casually, went swimming, lots of walking (lol hs w/o a car).

i really need to brush up on my organized-sports skills. i was asked to join a winter bball pick-up league, but it's on a night that doesn't really work for me. but i enjoy the friendly competition. and exercise.

literally every boy where i grew up played australian football. I was nostly terrible, but enjoyed it, played at half time of a proper AFL match once. 80000 spectators! Still play from time to time in a disorganised ramshackle pub comp

ever kill anyone playing?

couldn't stick a tackle. i fancied (fancy)　myself a slippery little goal sneak

I also took Tae Kwon Do for a year, again at the YMCA, so it was more like Tae Kwon Do lite in that people changed belts way too fast

I lettered in band, drama, forensics, and academics. I think my high school was a little too eager to give out letters. Never had the school spirit needed to wear one of those ugly jackets though.

Forensics!

I played soccer as a kid, and in retrospect wish I played it in hs.

we had letterman jackets but I don't remember seeing very many.

- played soccerball until about 13 when you had to have, like, dribbling skills
- played baseball from wee small through high school/legion ball, then again in a wood bat league in my early 30s
- played basketball through high school. highlight of my career was taking a charge against a dude who later played at wake forest (and was on buffy the vampire slayer) with seconds left in the state quarterfinals
- got letters, plus jackets and a watch and stuff when our hs basketball team won the title; also signed autographs for little kids(!)
- lightly recruited to play baseball in college
- currently playing rec league ice hockey
- probably dream about sports more than anything else -- rather than being in school naked my classic anxiety dream is playing third base having forgotten to wear a cup

Does chess count?

From where you're from you should be asking if pistol shooting is a sport :)

played about every sport in school, have a 4-letter sweatshirt (lol i didn't een know letterman jackets were still a thing, how '50s)

Letter sweatshirts seem way more antiquated to me!

http://collectableivy.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dscf4452.jpg

Nobody messed with our chess team, I'm tellin' ya (xp)

I did play chess too in middle school, but I really sucked

really one of the only people I could beat consistently was my dumb friend who thought you won by physically capturing the king.

From where you're from you should be asking if pistol shooting is a sport :)

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Saturday, 9 October 2010 17:33 (55 minutes ago)

dunno if this is lol ghetto or lol prussian aristo military academy....guessing the former

won school tennis tournament when i was abt 10 but ultimately my greatest work was reserved for handwriting forgery, including once writing three successful sicknotes (out of maybe five ~sick~ ppl) on a single afternoon

presumably you ust forged the relevant letter on to your jacket

saddest thing was when a friend's note wd fail....i mean i didn't offer any guarantees or take payment, was strictly amateur in the truest corinthinian sense, but i'd failed them nonetheless ;_;

jj, dp: pretty sure lettering in band/choir/drama/etc was a thing during my tenure at HHS fyi

I played soccer (7-8th grade), and did alpine racing from ages 7-16. actually considering doing some adult racing this winter but I doubt I'll have the time.

where you race adults?

- played soccerball until about 13 when you had to have, like, dribbling skills

these days you can play attacking midfield for brazil w/out any discernable dribbling skills

http://i.imgur.com/Hos9o.jpg

xp yes.

superb

I can't remember if it was Academic Decathlon or Academic Bowl, but at my school I actually lettered in being a nerd. They gave us a real, actual letter for it.

hockey 5-16, 20-23, 32-present
soccerball 6-10, now drunkenly in parking lots

btw I lettered in Academic Challenge Quiz Bowl (whatever you call it) and band

think I played some kiddie baseball in there too, but never actual little league

i think 'cunted' is the british version of lettered

― HOOS' THE BOSS (ken c), Friday, October 8, 2010 9:29 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm.

i went to a school that didn't really do competitive sport outside of p.e. think this was true of most uk state schools in the 90s (and probably 80s and 00s tbh). i was on schools 15 to 1 if that counts.

played college darts at a pretty high level as an undergrad. never good enough for the blue, but captain of my college team, etc. played lower division college football most of my time as undergrad and postgrad. played football for the university in australia. standard is shit there though. i was centre half despite the fact that i couldn't (still can't head the ball), am not tall, and weighed about 9 stone at the time. refereed football for a few years. will likely pick this up again after christmas.

have played organised pool (university b team, 1 cap), also organised field hockey
have played organised football for 13 years and would back myself as one of ILX's better players
will fully destroy all yall @ organised cricket, especially pato

louis thrashed me at pool the time we played but he was very lucky

Played gaelic, soccer, hurling in teams at school, didn't mention that.

Hurling is the best out of everything, obviously.

i scored more goals than he has done though, the few times we played football together. he was in goal one time tbf. and i have played organised football for 0 years.

gaelic and rugby 13-19

did my best to bunk off the lot

gaelic and rugby rule 21 surely

actually i was about 15 or 16 when i started playing rugby. would have got into far deeper shit with my dad (die hard GAA) if i played soccer. there was war in my house when my older brother quit the gaelic team to concentrate on the rugby instead.

tell the truth now- has your dad ever shot anyone?

haha some crows

i think being shite athletically was a godsend now that i think back

tiocfaidh ar caw

haha...

played loads of sports, i think though i probably lacked the killer instinct or real gut commitment and i look back and think i actually was good and should have stuck with one or two, or given more to them.

gaa-bit of hurling but there wasn't a great team, loads of football. i have a leinster champions gaa medal for under 9s, quite cool, official gaa medal. we were in the irish times i think. i played half forward, could score a goal. my memory of it was that the scores were inverse to top level gaa, eg 8-3, 8 goals and 3 points or whatever. you only got a point if you blazed over by accident.

rugby-quit gaa about 10/11 to play rugby for the local team, who were SHIT. if you scored a try (after conceding 12) there'd be a mass celebration. i did really enjoy it though and i think i was better than at gaa too. played as out half and scrum half and towards the end i think as hooker (the interchangeable nature of rugby.) i can remember one game where i scored two tries and then almost ran the pitch, like a ridiculous slaloming run before somebody high tackled me to the neck. afterwards the chairman of the rugby club was like "you'll play for ireland one day" and shit...i was never consistent enough though and i was in no way tough enough, too afraid of getting hurt. quit to play football at 13...

football-never really got my game enough with the football team, despite coming to training every week etc. to this day it sort of mystifies me, we'd be losing 5-0 or something and he still wouldn't bring you on, even if there was like you and one other kid as subs. i scored goals when i came on too sometimes, but he just never really gave a chance. i played right wing mostly. at about 14 i got glandular fever and i was out for ages, never went back. this experience really took the wind out of my sales as regards team sports, i thought if i trained hard and took it seriously i'd eventually get a chance, and i didn't. what was annoying was i'd play in the park with the same people on the team and they all knew i was good enough too. fucking rafa benitez of schoolboy managers...tho he is actually a dead nice bloke, see him in the pub at xmas, and slag him off about losing out on my skills.

also along the way:

tennis-played this through the years from 7-13 or so, always really enjoyed it, very sociable and you could just play with your friends and then hang out for several hours afterwards under the pretext of playing. the only highlight i can remember is playing in the under 16 doubles when i was 11, with my friend, cos there was no under 11s, and beating some older kids, sort of dickheads, who were really humiliated.

golf-played from 12-16 or so, the course was quite far away and getting a bus with golf clubs as a 12 year old fucking kills you, which meant i never practised enough, you need to be playing every single day at that age. so i never lost shots. i really want to play again now though, but perhaps will need a car and a big salary first!

meant to say the interchangable nature of u11s rugby...not sure an outhalf would go to hooker in the pro game

oh yeah i do golf, yeah you need a car, but out west here all you need financially is the 100-200 quid it takes to get beginner membership of the c.10 clubs close enough. live next to the driving range too :)

tho i dunno does it count as 'organised' tbh

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basketball and baseball, sucked at both

soccer for one day, gymnastics for about four years. and i have a marching band letter.

tennis is the best for macking chicks, too

lettered in cross country junior and senior years, almost lettered in it sophomore year but the day of State, this asshole lied about not being injured (i was #1 alternate) (he ended up walking part of the race)

i played tennis and ran track in high school and college and still play in a club squash ladder. no team sports since i was about 15 though because im sorta a bastard. before that my parents put me in p much every sport but baseball was the only one i was even okay at

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played hockey and baseball since age 5 until recently age 36.

Nope! Hated team sports, poor eye-hand coordination, pretty much I just rode my bike a lot!

Tried track & field one year when we were still young enough that you didn't have to TRY OUT or anything, you just had to show up. No one ever, like, coached us in running or how to run, they just kinda said, "GO!" and let the chips fall where they might. Got bored, stopped going.

I played football through college.

what college? what did you play?

I played tennis through (i think) 10th grade...played football + b-ball in jr high but sucked...did cross country in jr high...

not real great at anything, was actually a decent tennis player and might have been actually good if not for laziness and more of a desire to play nintendo or bass guitar

I played defensive end at U of New Hampshire from 88-91. I also wrestled from 5th grade through HS.

Freshman year of college I was put in a dorm suite with the following dudes:

1. Football player
2. Football player
3. Basketball player
4. Tennis player
5. Young Republican

Not sure how that happened. They were decent enough guys, but I mostly hung out with the girls next door.