Did Lewis Cancel Its Softball Season?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

There is no reason for Lewis not to have a baseball team as the little leagues and middle school/teen Babe Ruth type leagues in that area are all very strong and robust with Lewis bound kids involved in all of them.

Maybe the baseball kids are all chosing travel.

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

We had schools that size and much smaller where I grew up, and they all fielded full teams because they were competing against similarly sized schools where the competition was more even.

There are no smaller division 5 schools left in northern Va. And without local rivalries and the long distance travel needed to play smaller schools, ticket sales would go down, and students who can’t commit the time for all that travel would give up on sports.

What about the larger parochial high schools? Or TJ?

You want Lewis in WCAC with Paul VI and O’Connell? If you think the results are bad now…

Bingo.

But they ought to do more so that kids who want to play baseball and softball have an option to compete against schools like Annandale and Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

There is no reason for Lewis not to have a baseball team as the little leagues and middle school/teen Babe Ruth type leagues in that area are all very strong and robust with Lewis bound kids involved in all of them.

Maybe the baseball kids are all chosing travel.

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

We had schools that size and much smaller where I grew up, and they all fielded full teams because they were competing against similarly sized schools where the competition was more even.

There are no smaller division 5 schools left in northern Va. And without local rivalries and the long distance travel needed to play smaller schools, ticket sales would go down, and students who can’t commit the time for all that travel would give up on sports.

What about the larger parochial high schools? Or TJ?

You want Lewis in WCAC with Paul VI and O’Connell? If you think the results are bad now…

Bingo.

But they ought to do more so that kids who want to play baseball and softball have an option to compete against schools like Annandale and Falls Church.

Lewis currently competes in the same district as Annandale and Falls Church. Lewis (then Robert E Lee) left the Patriot District about a decade ago as demographics were rapidly changing.

[Anonymous]

Lewis has followed the same fate as Annandale, although Annandale still fields complete teams by and large.

Annandale HS used to be a sports powerhouse in the 60s through the 90s winning state titles left and right (especially in football), but after the 2000s, especially after the boundary change over a decade ago, sports teams could no longer compete with the larger Northern Va schools.

Annandale was also a pioneer in introducing lacrosse and had the region’s strongest lacrosse program in the 90s. And it was still top notch through the early 2000s.

So, staffing changes at Lewis might help the program there a bit. Demographics are not all that different from Annandale.

[Anonymous]

Back to the original question, my dd goes to a high school that competes against Lewis and said they had a softball team this year but due to the skill level of the team they played as a JV team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the original question, my dd goes to a high school that competes against Lewis and said they had a softball team this year but due to the skill level of the team they played as a JV team

I wonder if they needed special permission from VHSL to do that. Can see the logic if it helps build the players’ confidence up and makes them more likely to play again the next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was Lewis unable to field a girls varsity softball team this year? It appears that may have been the case, but not 100% sure.

If so, that's a shame. This isn't an expensive sport to play.

Are you kidding me? Softball is pretty expensive.

Quality bats are $400. Helmets another $50. Cleats, gloves another $200 or so.

The bigger issue is demographics. Softball is primarily played by upper middle class white girls. It's unfortunate and the sport tries to diversify, but what do the school's demographics look like?

Ok but you’re being disingenuous. I went to Fred Lynn Middle School, which has a diverse student population in the heart of Woodbridge. Softball tryouts were competitive! We fielded a great team that faced other schools from diverse demographics. No, not everyone had their own fancy bat but we all had gloves we made due with and there were bats around to be used.

Stop making excuses for kids just because you want to be their “ally”. Maybe they just didn’t have enough interested girls. Or more likely, a coach.