Any other aspies ever been on a sports team?

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Tell me your stories. Team sports seem to be a particularly non typical aspie thing and I'd imagine most aspies that have taken them up have had their share of tribulations with it.

I played high school basketball as a center and football as a tight end. I also played college basketball as a power forward during my freshman year. I quit after freshman year even though I was statistically the best player on the team, because the coach and my teammates didn't like me, I'm guessing because of my AS traits.

High school freshman year, softball. I went above and beyond to keep that bench nice and warm.
I am not sure what was the real problem: my astigmatism, or the aspie lack of understanding of team playing,or my general klutziness, or the coach playing his favorites despite the fact that we were a losing team of frosh. (ie, who cares what our win-loss record was?) It all conspired to make me hate all team sports, always and forever.

I suspect that this attitude is not at all unique among those on WP.

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I played football in 9th grade, and wresling for 4 calender years. I was the best at my school. Still had no friends.

I am not very sporty, but sport was compulsory at all the schools I have attended so you didn't just have an A and a B team, you sometimes had lower-down teams as well -- so I ended up the E team for hockey (field hockey for you Americans out there). When I was younger (under 13) I was in the A team in netball for a while.

I also participated in athletics (which Americans call "track"). When I was about 13 I took part in an interschools pentathlon. I was quite good at long jump up to that point, but got worse after that.

I remained pretty fit, though. I cycled 5 km to school and 5 km back on most days, and there was compulsory sport in the afternoons, including swimming and tennis. I also took dancing lessons until I was about 16 (and then also later as an adult).

I was at school in America for a while too (Connecticut, to be precise), and there I was on the riflery team of my school.

I have most defintely not been in a sports team as an adult!

Alphabetania, you mention individual sports, right? Even if done with other ppl, really are individual sports?

I think "we" do better at that kind of athleticism than anything involving teamthink. Just a thought.

I've heard that too, and I am pretty sure it would be true. In team sports, I tended to play the defensive positions, such as goalie. I just don't have enough winning aggression in me. I would have loved to have been a tomboy, but I didn't have it in me, and I was no good at climbing trees. (I have, however, used my first to end an unwelcome personal-space-intrusion by a drunk person on more than one occasion in adulthood.)

Although, there are exceptions to the will-to-win rule. Like trivia quizzes. We played one night at a birthday party and I decided to form a group with all the super-duper high IQ nerds. Baaaad strategy! We knew all the science, etymology, history and geography answers, but none of the entertainment or sports answers! We were so sorry for ourselves when we lost against a bunch of ordinary and average people!

My dad used to play for the Boston Red Sox, in the 60s. 3 older brothers. I was never given an option to not join sports =P.
I was signed up as soon as I was old enough, baseball 'round 5 or 6, and football at 8. Only played baseball till I was around 12. Was never really my sport. Stuck with football till I was a senior. Had some recruiters after me for a few big schools, coulda probably gone fullback/running back. I got injured senior year and I just lost interest. I never really had much interest in playing at a college level in a big conference, it's a huge dedication and the chances of being one of the extreme few who are good enough to go pro is so slim it's not worth it. So I never went back to playing.

I was always a better doubles player than a singles player at tennis. Primarily a matter of positioning, I think.

I have also played piano / keyboards in a band or backing up a vocalist and have never had any problems of working in a "team" this way.

I think this kind of teamwork is not a problem for aspies because it is not really a "social interaction" and it's clear here what the objectives are.

Cycling team

I did gymnastics (on a team) for 12 years and loved it, because I could support my teammates, but whatever we all did was individual and one person couldn't change how another person (or the "team") did, because we never competed for a team prize, just individual prizes. Gymnastics is awesome because you can push yourself mentally and physically, and you can depend on your teammates and they still treat you like a team member, but in the end, its all down only to you. I was never very good. (I got to about level 7 with 12 years of work... actually with 8 years of work, then I plateaued and the level I was in wouldn't allow most of the skills I had, then I got sick/injured, and now I'm about a level 6/7 and have been for the last 4 years. I think my lack of motor-coordination had a lot to do with the fact that I could never get any better...)

On the note of traditional "team sports", I did soccer for about 3 weeks when I was little. (I think I was 5 when my mom signed me up, just like the rest of the young kids in my town, for the youth soccer program.) I loved the first 2 weeks. We all had our own balls, and learned how to dribble and stop the ball. Then we learned how to pass it to another teammate. Then the 3rd week, they took everyone's balls away and made us all chase after one. I suddenly ceased to see the point, because it suddenly became extremely loud, confusing, and kids were crashing into everyone and everything and pushing in order to get to this one ball. So I refused to go, and that was the end of my team sports career.

Special Olympics team sports for me. I am quite a team player since I have leadership skills but I am a motivator for my teammates. With Mason Special Olympics, everyone see me as the team leader but someone who can make plays work with teamwork. Though the team usually gives me the ball in basketball but I will passed the ball around to make plays for my teammates to score.

I played a few team sports. I can catch things quite well - that is the limit of my sporting skills. So, this meant I played goal keeper in netball for a few years when I was in primary school. I loved playing netball but my teammates were awful to me. I don't know why, but I got bullied a lot. The final year I played, I was put in a different team, the least skilled team at my school, which I was disappointed by as I was actually very good as a goal keeper and didn't know why I got "demoted" - my height meant I could stand over people and catch the ball when they tried to shoot for goal. I found out a few years later that my mother had requested that I be put in the badly skilled team as she knew the girls were nicer in that team and she knew I was being bullied. Anyway, they were all lovely to me and I had a great final year of netball before knee injuries sidelined me from sport for two years.

At high school I played in the soccer team and did very well as a goalkeeper until I was injured (damaged ligaments in both wrists during one game). I played in the hockey team as a goalkeeper too and was decent at that until I was injured (broken fingers), and I also played tennis as a spare person for my sister and brother's doubles teams. If someone was sick, I would fill in. I hated it but felt obliged to help out my siblings as they loved tennis - if you had too many forfeits you would get disqualified. I was truly AWFUL at tennis - one team I filled in for was the little kids' team (I was about 15 and they were 10) and they totally destroyed me My 10-year old doubles partner would say "what is wrong with you??" Quite funny in hindsight. Both my grandmother and sister have been state tennis champions! Clearly I missed out on the tennis gene

I was playing soccer pretty much year-round from age five to fourteen. It was fun, it made sense to me. My play control was never that good, but I was played defense and was good at stopping people. It made sense. show up to practice; run, stretch, drill, etc. There was a pattern and a steady set of rules. We were never very good, but hey, it worked. My high school team was very good, and I was not. So that stopped.

Clarification on the idea of "team". There are sports that are kind of individual and kind of team, where individuals performances are combined to make a team win. Like swimming, where the races are individual. Or wrestling, or track.

Fencing is like that. Sure, my bout impacts how my team does, but when I'm up, it's just me and my opponent. There is no equivalent of 'passing' in fencing. Yet it's still considered a team because we gather together under the university's banner and practice together, travel together.

I've had a harder time with the social aspects of fencing then I ever did with soccer. When something is heavily individual, it's harder to find cues, guides.

I was on the swim team for 4 years in highschool. I wasnt very fast but it was a really good experiance for me to in learning how to stay in shape and it helped give me a start in learning how to socialize with other people. I worked really hard to become a decent swimmer, I had to work harder then most people but it was soo worth it. I cant imagine my life today if I was never on the swim team all those years. I know its more of an individual sport as opposed to a real team sport. I never really tried any team sports cause I was too shy.
Sometimes in PE when we used to do team like sports I would almost always stay on the side and let everyone else play when I was younger. It was only near the end of highschool, occationally we'd play waterpolo for fun during swim practice and I would chase other people which didnt really get anywhere but it was more funner when I actually tried to participate.

Well i have been playing cricket since i was 14 and i enjoy every minute of the game given that i was the only aspie in the club.

Varsity wrestling, Jr. High and College.
Also off-season intermural football in College (as kicker),
and if church league basketball counts, I did that in my teens to help fill a team with enough guys, although I'm super short and diden't actually play on the court all that much.