Sidwell football article in post....what are the parents saying?
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Anonymous
| How are they expecting to finish the season? They have not even played the really good teams on their schedule (flint hill, maret, Potomac). They should play a jv schedule the rest of the way instead of canceling games on a weekly basis. |
Anonymous
What an ignorant comment, and how consistent with the victim mentality. As I recall, within the past several years Sidwell had played and beaten both of the schools they lost to by large margins this season. Football schedules aren't made at the drop of a hat, and if you drop a non-conference team because your team is not strong they won't necessarily put you back on your schedule when you decide you can beat them. Sidwell is in a down cycle for football right now, no question. Many factors come into play, with increasing specialization being a big one that hurts the co-Ed schools. Sidwell has some excellent athletes on its basketball team, for example, and not one chooses to play football. Sidwell has a Phys Ed option that the "specialist" athletes can do rather than play a sport, and many of their best athletes use this. Also, the previous Head just did not emphasize sports--he was rarely seen at ANY sporting event. And who is to say there is something wrong with not going overboard in emphasizing athletics? Parents who want the loftiest academics, want their relatively unathletic 150 pound kid to be a starter, and then whine when their kid's team doesn't win are at best obtuse and at worst delusional. harvard and Yale don't play against Alabama and Florida, or even against JMU. You want more of a sports emphasis? Send junior to DeMatha or Prep or Landon or even STA. Oh, but then he won't make the team? Well, sometimes you have to make choices. Good for the Sidwell AD for having the moral courage to accept a forfeit. Too bad |
Anonymous
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My kid had a concussion recently, although not from football. It takes more than a week to recover from one. My kid's headaches went away after 4-5 days, but the doctors were strict about no sports for 2-3 weeks.
The real risk is from having a second concussion on top of a first that hasn't really healed. This is huge compared to the somewhat smaller risk of long-lasting injury from a single concussion. So unless there was only one concussion and the rest were minor flesh wounds (can't tell from the article), one week isn't conservative at all. |
Anonymous
| Anyone who thinks this is an embarassment to Sidwell is out of their mind. What a bunch of meatheads! |
Anonymous
I will speak as an alum and say that while I am not a Sidwell booster and do not have my children there, forfeiting a football game does not cause me the least bit of embarrassment. Heck that's what it was like when I was there and my class actually had some pretty good football players. The team and the sports program wasn't good in those days either. |
Anonymous
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Sidwell's schedule is not the issue. Their schedule is not a Murderer's Row of opponents:
Hyde Charter Pope John Paul Baltimore Lutheran Avalon Flint Hill Potomac School Frederick County St. James Maret The five teams in addition to their MAC schedule is hardly imposing. You can't fault the AD for this schedule. You have to fault the school for failing to have a legitimate sports program. And to the poster who suggested Sidwell should only schedule JV teams? LOL. If that is on the table, the entire football program should be scrapped. Which actually isn't a bad idea. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Why does anybody have to be "faulted" here? |
Anonymous
Why did the seniors quit? That is unusual. |
Anonymous
| The first game against Hyde, a DC public charter school, was an incredible physical mismatch. The average weight of the players was about 50 pounds higher for Hyde (they gave out the roster with weights, and some Hyde players were over 250lbs, many over 200, and only one on the entire Sidwell roster was over 200, most were around 150). No wonder so many got hurt, how can 150 lb freshmen block 250 lbs older players? In a small school where there is a very strong soccer program, no recruiting of athletes (and a very small high school entry of 20-30 kids total, so only 10-15 new boys), there can be very fallow years for kids that have the interest and physique to play football. Maret and the other MAC schools have relatively larger high school entries, and do appear to be more interested in recruiting athletes. I hope the school thinks seriously about dropping football, that would be more congruent with a Quaker approach, and go with GDS, another school without a football program (and at least one or two other MAC schools, since only 5 seem to play football). The boys on the team are heartbroken at what has happened, it has caused enormous stress among them and between them and the AD, coaches and other students, but clearly in this case it was ridiculous and dangerous to play the game this weekend. |
Anonymous
| Of course its humiliating and embarassing for a high school student, but if they are really that physically mismatched then the correct deicsion was made. The coach/AD should play a light out of conference schedule or should have downgraded to a jv schedule as soon as their numbers became obvious this summer. the poster who suggested that football be discontinued is prob right. it's not the type of sport that you can just offer to keep some happy. it requires a real committment from the institution to not only succed, but more importantly to keep your students prepared and safe. |
Anonymous
| Sidwell boys sports are a joke. Their recent soccer success is an anomaly, as evidenced by their current slide. As one famous alum has said: "it's a girls school that happens to have boys". |
Anonymous
Soccer is violent at the high school varsity level and there is no protection. Sidwell has a thriving wrestling program . Go watch that close-up sometime. Clearly there is something going on in recent years since Sidwell usually had football teams: http://www.sidwell.edu/athletics/teamschedule.aspx?TeamID=755 |
Anonymous
| While there is great concern among the Sidwell community about the safety of the boys on the football team, and a lot of empathy for these kids, who have worked so hard to prepare for the season, that doesn't mean it's an "embarrassment" or that the sports program is not "legitimate" or a "joke" to quote Sidwell-bashing PPs. The fact is that Sidwell fields two other very strong fall sports teams for boys -- soccer and cross-country. There's enough interest and ability in soccer to have both varsity and jv teams, and cross-country, because of the nature of the sport, can absorb an almost unlimited number of runners. (At meets, each team is limited to 7 varsity runners, but can have an unlmited number of JV runners. Additionally, cross-country attracts many strong winter and spring season athletes trying to builld strength and edurance. The result is that the team has more than 30 boys running this year.) Finally, the school also offers a number of PE classes for kids who aren't playing on sports teams. All of this is good -- it means that the school's sports program offers lots of opportunities for kids of varying body types, interests, ability levels and temperaments. A few of the teams enjoy great success --and a few kids in many different sports are very strong athletes who go on to play in college. The fact that the football team is having a rough season is a problem to be solved -- with as much compassion for all involved, including the kids on the team, their coaches and parents, as possible (that's where the Quaker values, not to mention human decency, should kick in) -- but it's not an "embarrassment". Jeez -- somebody's been watching way too much of "Friday Night Lights". |
Anonymous
| If each class has approximately 50 boys, that means that they have about 200 boys at the school. If 30 are on football, 40 on soccer and 30 on cross country, the other 100 are doing classes? sorry but it sounds like a lack of interest in supporting your school. |