Do middle school sports have tryouts?

[Anonymous]

Soccer girls and boys
Cross country co ed
Baseball
Softball
Basketball
Volleyball
Flag football(?)

Other?

Tryouts or do they take on all students who are interested? Do all 40 middle schools have each sport?

[Anonymous]

Basketball does (at least it did 4 years ago when my daughter was trying out)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basketball does (at least it did 4 years ago when my daughter was trying out)

And soccer?
Ice hockey?

[Anonymous]

It looks like MCPS changed it's athletics page and the middle school athletics schedule is posted here to give you a general idea of the sports and when they're offered:

https://www.mcpsathleticzone.com/middle-school-schedules/

Or you can go to your school's website and go to the athletics page for your school.

But I'm pretty sure it's the same for all schools in MCPS:

Fall: Boys Softball, Girls Softball, Cross Country
Winter: Boys basketball, Girls Basketball
Spring: Boys Soccer, Girls Soccer

The competitiveness/how hard it is to make the team would depend on your area. In our area, it's hard to make the basketball and soccer teams due to how big aau basketball and travel soccer is. I heard there are 80 to 100 kids that show up to tryouts for some teams.

Cross country takes everyone but only a select few that make the cut run in the main heat/event. Everyone else runs in some sort of secondary group.

From what I heard boys softball is more lowkey and just for fun at some schools.

[Anonymous]

They do at our school.

[Anonymous]

23:13 is on target - everyone can do cross country, the other sports are brutal. For soccer and basketball, our experience was mostly 8th graders taken, with a small number of 7th graders so the team has some experienced players the next year. Never 6th graders

[Anonymous]

It’s unfortunate how few kids at MCPS middle schools get to play on sports teams. There are so few teams and so few are selected, particularly in the larger middle schools.

I went to public school long ago and there were a lot more sports offered, and anyone who really wanted to be on some form of a team could find something to do. Not the case for MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:23:13 is on target - everyone can do cross country, the other sports are brutal. For soccer and basketball, our experience was mostly 8th graders taken, with a small number of 7th graders so the team has some experienced players the next year. Never 6th graders

Our school didn’t allow sixth graders to do sports (at least they weren’t allowed to play soccer). I’m not sure if that is common across all sports at all schools.

Similar to others, soccer at our school had 120 kids try out for the team.

[Anonymous]

Obviously it depends on the school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s unfortunate how few kids at MCPS middle schools get to play on sports teams. There are so few teams and so few are selected, particularly in the larger middle schools.

I went to public school long ago and there were a lot more sports offered, and anyone who really wanted to be on some form of a team could find something to do. Not the case for MCPS

If you want sports, you need lots of coaches. Coaches are usually teachers. When teachers are overloaded with non-instructional duties, they start dropping their extracurriculars. We haven’t been able to keep coaches at my middle school as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23:13 is on target - everyone can do cross country, the other sports are brutal. For soccer and basketball, our experience was mostly 8th graders taken, with a small number of 7th graders so the team has some experienced players the next year. Never 6th graders

Our school didn’t allow sixth graders to do sports (at least they weren’t allowed to play soccer). I’m not sure if that is common across all sports at all schools.

Similar to others, soccer at our school had 120 kids try out for the team.

7th and 8th grade only. Soccer and basketball were EXTREMELY competitive

[Anonymous]

No 6th graders

Soccer and basketball extremely hard to get on team

XC everyone can join, but competition is fierce for the top spots that can actually run at meets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:23:13 is on target - everyone can do cross country, the other sports are brutal. For soccer and basketball, our experience was mostly 8th graders taken, with a small number of 7th graders so the team has some experienced players the next year. Never 6th graders

softball isn't brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s unfortunate how few kids at MCPS middle schools get to play on sports teams. There are so few teams and so few are selected, particularly in the larger middle schools.

I went to public school long ago and there were a lot more sports offered, and anyone who really wanted to be on some form of a team could find something to do. Not the case for MCPS

If you want sports, you need lots of coaches. Coaches are usually teachers. When teachers are overloaded with non-instructional duties, they start dropping their extracurriculars. We haven’t been able to keep coaches at my middle school as a result.

Our middle school offers intramural soccer and basketball. They are run by a PE teacher and 6th graders can play (and there aren't tryouts)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No 6th graders

Soccer and basketball extremely hard to get on team

XC everyone can join, but competition is fierce for the top spots that can actually run at meets

This wasn't our experience with 7th and 8th grade XC. There was no "cap" on how many kids could run at a home meet. But for away meets, they could only take as many kids as could fit on the bus (which was still a lot of kids).