A Small Rant

[Tigris]

Hi, I'm a sophomore in NJ and this is my first year of SciOly. I think I've been doing pretty well for my first year, and i'm probably the best person at my school in Fossils (an event only like three people at my school do) and like second or third at Invasives (a more popular event). And even though I'm really bad at my third event, Protein Modeling, my teammates make up for it and we did really well at one of the hardest competitions in the entirety of SciOly. I was taken to every single competition (except Regionals).

However, when it came to deciding teams for States, I wasn't chosen.Instead, they decided to put a captain on the team, who has never done Invasives before, and who is really bad at Fossils in comparison to me (I am the dinosaur queen!). I talked to the coach about it and his 45 minute lecture basically boiled down to "I have been making state lists for 66 million years, so I would know something about putting a good team together" and "I have known [your replacement] since she was a baby and she is literally the smartest person in this school, aside from myself. She has been doing Science Olympiad for 100 thousand years, so she should know what she is doing, even though she is not as good as you at Fossils and has never done Invasives". The email the captains sent to me also basically said that she was chosen for her seniority, even though in the email where they posted the list, they claimed "This team was determined based on competition results, tryout scores, and consistency, reliability, and work ethic throughout the year."

I find this to be very frustrating, because I literally had to sacrifice AP Chem in order to complete the new Fossils and Invasives binders (I dropped out after getting a 56 the second marking period). My replacement doesn't even like animals and is only leading Fossils because it reminds her of Rocks and Minerals, her favorite event. This makes me feel vastly inferior to her, since there literally was no amount of hard work I could have poured into Science Olympiad to make me be chosen over her.

Does anyone here have any sort of advice on what to do now? I don't know if SciOly forums is the right place to express my emotions, but I've just had so much garbage to deal with. It's been like a week since the team list was published and I am still as angry as I was when I first found out.

[Magikarpmaster629]

I can kind-of understand what you're talking about; I've been doing Scioly for five years and only this month have I made the A team for my school. The head coach at the middle school was a dictator and picked favorites, I was not one of them. There were plenty of situations in which I could have been a better pick than those who were, yet I only made the JV team in eighth grade (although I only really got serious in eighth grade). Last year the C team was really badly organized (I could rant about this for a while like you did), so I did not make it then.

Anyway, I can give you this advice: keep on studying, stay on the scioly forums, and start working on the events coming into competition for next year. Eventually the seniors will graduate and teachers will recognize your strengths, and when you have finally made the team, you will perform outstandingly- most people don't study over the summer, and three months extra really helps. Unless your team doesn't go off tryouts- that will make things harder, but merit should be able to get you through anyway. Best of luck!

[samlan16]

I'll start with the fact that you were not picked for state. It happens and is perfectly normal for rookie competitors. In fact, I was not picked in my 6th grade year for either my school's state team or the reserve (which was frustrating given that all my friends made it), and there are probably several others here who experienced something like this.

Now, I would like to discuss the rest of your post- quite frankly, you write as if you feel entitled to a place on your school's team. Sorry, but you're not.

As a competitor, captain, and coach, I can tell that much of what you have posted here is misleading and intended to garner unwarranted sympathy. Take a look at what you said:

And even though I'm really bad at my third event, Protein Modeling, my teammates make up for it and we did really well at one of the hardest competitions in the entirety of SciOly. I was taken to every single competition (except Regionals).

So in other words, you are bad at an event and rode on your partners to medal. When making our shortlists for A team, we weed out anyone like this because one weak partner could hold an event back from first place. It would be better to put someone in the event who could contribute as much as the other partners could, not a warm body who does not contribute.

Additionally, it appears that you were cut from the team before regionals. Why are you disappointed that you could not make state if you could not make regionals? Your coaches probably faced some difficult choices after that tournament with the pool of students who actually competed. They likely did not want to put forth the energy to consider everyone given that those not selected were not up to par with the rest of the team.

...i'm probably the best person at my school in Fossils (an event only like three people at my school do) and like second or third at Invasives (a more popular event).

Bro, come on. Only your coach is the judge of that.

How can we trust that you are not being overconfident or that some extraneous factors are not being factored in? As an upperclassman competitor, I can tell you that there is so much less time to practice than in previous years thanks to college, scholarship, and financial aid apps in addition to heavy AP/ college courseloads, jobs, and preparing for adult life. We are not getting the full story and therefore cannot trust that your perceived superiority is true.

Also, coaches DESPISE students who think they are hot stuff. It often ends up that we discount an overconfident student's work after comments like these, and this is probably what happened in your case.

...because I literally had to sacrifice AP Chem in order to complete the new Fossils and Invasives binders (I dropped out after getting a 56 the second marking period).

School comes first. If SO is detracting from your grades, you need to take it down a notch.


In short, stop acting entitled and invincible if you want your coaches to like you and you want to be successful.

[varunscs11]

It's true that coaches dislike students that think they are hot stuff but there's a difference between thinking you are hot stuff and actually being hot stuff. It's not smart for the coach to not put someone on the team simply because they are arrogant when they are very good at their events. Also it's always sketchy when captains get put on events just because they are captains. Captains should be the people who can both put the most time into the administrative aspect and into their individual events. There's no point in having a captain who can't even do well in his or her event and its weird to not have the captains on the A team. I guess my advice to you is wait for them to fail, laugh about it privately, and destroy next year!

[Uncle Fester]

Old news; I encounter this stuff two or three times a year.

S.O. is a person/partner event, but a team competition. The moment you metioned being bad in one event, it all fell into place. By moving othe students around, a coach can realize net improvement in abilities across the board. You can be the best there is in 1 & 2 events, but statistically, a team can't tank more than 1, rarely 2 events and still Trophy, and that one event has to be saved for an accidentally tanked event -- not a deliverately sacrificed one. Coaches arrange theor team for the best results overall.

You failed AP Chem. Ouch. School comes first, and I've heard dozens of stories where someone becomes ineligible two days before States due to grades. Not worth the risk.

It's pretty hard for a Coach to "regret" benching someone. The coach is in charge, and what they say goes. Once someone thinks they can bully their way, the season's lost.

I've always been more impressed (and got better results) with the upper-middle student who knows how to work and study. The hotshots aren't worth the attitude problems or special demands, especially since there's usually an obnoxious parent enabling them.

And worst of all. . .

I sure hope your coach doesn't see your post. You might want to beg and plead with the Webmeaster here to remove it. I DON'T think you're an inherently bad person, just someone who posted while upset. Try to get this fixed.

Better approach: Take notice of the advice given you here. With one esception, it's spot-on. Get your grades up and keep them up. Look over all the events, and next year's events the moment they come out, and make yourself marketable in more events-- knowing two specific events well won't help if a dozen others are too. Always have a Plan B. And C. And D. Better, better, better -- Science Olypiad's bar for first place is set far higher than you think -- get all A's? Big deal, everyone else does too.

You have three options: Quit, blame someone else, or work your hardest at being the best. Guess which one I'm suggesting. Do better next year.

[Unome]

Well, from reading your post it seems like you're more rational than most people who rant about not making the team. If you were dedicated enough to drop AP Chem for SO, you should have no problem with motivation (the way I see it, grades vs. SO is your choice; however, as Uncle Fester said, be aware of any grade-based eligibility requirements for your team/school district, i.e. you must be passing all classes to compete in an athletic/academic tournament, etc.). In that case, my suggestion is to do three things:

1) Ask your coach (politely) and find out exactly why you didn't make the team, and what you can do to get better (<--- although you should probably wait for someone else to confirm that my suggestion actually makes sense before going through with it; the coach might get annoyed)
2) Be good in a large number of events. Whether this is four events or ten, the more events you are good at, the more valuable you are to the team. As everyone else has mentioned above, being the best in one or two event won't guarantee you a spot on the team.
3) If you really want to do well next year, start working right away. Preparing early has helped me a lot, especially the last two years; my placements have gotten much better There is already a tentative events list (note: tentative; last year there were several changes to the list between now and when the less-tentative-but-still-tentative list was posted in June). Almost all of the events have some component that you can start preparing for at any time. As I noted before, it seems like you have the motivation to do well, so the only thing left is to begin.

[varunscs11]

Well, from reading your post it seems like you're more rational than most people who rant about not making the team. If you were dedicated enough to drop AP Chem for SO, you should have no problem with motivation (the way I see it, grades vs. SO is your choice; however, as Uncle Fester said, be aware of any grade-based eligibility requirements for your team/school district, i.e. you must be passing all classes to compete in an athletic/academic tournament, etc.). In that case, my suggestion is to do three things:

1) Ask your coach (politely) and find out exactly why you didn't make the team, and what you can do to get better (<--- although you should probably wait for someone else to confirm that my suggestion actually makes sense before going through with it; the coach might get annoyed)
2) Be good in a large number of events. Whether this is four events or ten, the more events you are good at, the more valuable you are to the team. As everyone else has mentioned above, being the best in one or two event won't guarantee you a spot on the team.
3) If you really want to do well next year, start working right away. Preparing early has helped me a lot, especially the last two years; my placements have gotten much better There is already a tentative events list (note: tentative; last year there were several changes to the list between now and when the less-tentative-but-still-tentative list was posted in June). Almost all of the events have some component that you can start preparing for at any time. As I noted before, it seems like you have the motivation to do well, so the only thing left is to begin.

This is true. But the number of events depends on what state you are in. Like I made the LASA A team last year with 2 events which I was the only ones I could do (but it was my 5th year in SciO). For Texas State you cannot bomb any events if you want to qualify for nationals. While for state's like Ohio, you can bomb 1 or 2. Also for AP Chem there are quite a few books out there that are amazing (Sterling is esp good)! Good Luck!

[samlan16]

Well, from reading your post it seems like you're more rational than most people who rant about not making the team. If you were dedicated enough to drop AP Chem for SO, you should have no problem with motivation (the way I see it, grades vs. SO is your choice; however, as Uncle Fester said, be aware of any grade-based eligibility requirements for your team/school district, i.e. you must be passing all classes to compete in an athletic/academic tournament, etc.).

Do not heed this advice. If you are struggling in your advanced science courses, you need to take the time to work that out. Dropping an AP does NOT demonstrate motivation to your coaches; rather, it demonstrates a lack of discipline, which also may have been a factor in not shortlisting you.

[azuritemalachite]

Well here's one thing you may not have known before, life's unfair. I don't think your coach will change the team members and teams are based on event availability since there's only 15 people and you need partners for ~23 events. Don't beat yourself about it because if you work hard, but you don't succeed, you can't really change the situation especially in your case. I think the best option is to accept rejection which shows character and think positively about it like the release of pressure to do well and the newfound time to work on studies. SO is fun, but it shouldn't control your how well you perform in school. Focus on the present and keep your goals and priorities in line. Rejection is awful, but keep working at it and I'm sure you'll exceed!

(P.S.- The higher the pedestal you place yourself on, the harder you will fall.)

[awesome90220]

While it is true many times, this is almost always the argument people have when not being selected for a team(personal experience ). However, placement on a team, especially in competitive events(I guess there wouldn't really be a team that wasn't competitive) should be based on your own merits and not of others. Sure, it is possible that this person who was placed in those events was weaker than you. However, there are still 14 other people on your team. The coach didn't simply remove you because he had a personal vendetta against you. While you could very well be smarter than those 14 people, the coach isn't worried about who is smarter or better at events. He/She is looking for results. What group of people garner the best results. Simply put, you didn't prove yourself a valuable enough asset to be kept. As soon as there's even a possibility that you may lose your spot on the team, it is essentially a blessing if you remain on the team. Work hard, and bounce back next year