Did Lewis Cancel Its Softball Season?

[Anonymous]

Lewis HS is nearly 50% Latino/Hispanic.

Latino/Hispanic girls don't tend to play sports, much less softball.

I used to be involved with softball in Arlington and we tried a lot of outreach to that community to no avail. There were myriad reasons -- cultural, fear of immigration, etc.

The high school softball programs are fed by robust rec and travel leagues. Spend any time at a complex during a tournament and you'll see about 90% of the girls playing are white. A few black girls and a few Asian girls. Almost no Hispanic/Latino.

So it follows that a 50% Hispanic school probably isn't going to be able to field a varsity softball team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lewis HS is nearly 50% Latino/Hispanic.

Latino/Hispanic girls don't tend to play sports, much less softball.

I used to be involved with softball in Arlington and we tried a lot of outreach to that community to no avail. There were myriad reasons -- cultural, fear of immigration, etc.

The high school softball programs are fed by robust rec and travel leagues. Spend any time at a complex during a tournament and you'll see about 90% of the girls playing are white. A few black girls and a few Asian girls. Almost no Hispanic/Latino.

So it follows that a 50% Hispanic school probably isn't going to be able to field a varsity softball team.

Justice, Herndon, and Falls Church all field varsity softball teams and have similar percentages of Hispanic students as Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the inability of Lewis to offer basic girls sports (the girls basketball program has teetered on the edge for years now, too) will eventually motivate the dullards within FCPS to either change the boundary with West Springfield or get rid of IB at most of the schools in southern Fairfax and make Lewis an IB magnet.

[Anonymous]

Lewis has roughly 1700 students in total and has continually gotten smaller over the past decade. It is technically a Class 5 VHSL school although they compete in Class 6. They aren't able to form any level of baseball or softball teams and field hockey is probably next. They had 7 active players for field hockey last season.

It's a very sad situation because sports are pretty important as far as attracting families. Being the smallest school by a significant margin in the area means they will always be at a disadvantage in sports and most teams will have losing seasons. 1700 kids can't compete with schools that have 2600+ as is so common in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the inability of Lewis to offer basic girls sports (the girls basketball program has teetered on the edge for years now, too) will eventually motivate the dullards within FCPS to either change the boundary with West Springfield or get rid of IB at most of the schools in southern Fairfax and make Lewis an IB magnet.

Right now, they are begging for a title IX complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the inability of Lewis to offer basic girls sports (the girls basketball program has teetered on the edge for years now, too) will eventually motivate the dullards within FCPS to either change the boundary with West Springfield or get rid of IB at most of the schools in southern Fairfax and make Lewis an IB magnet.

Right now, they are begging for a title IX complaint.

Someone really should sue FCPS. Their neglect of Lewis - while they built additions that weren't needed at other schools like West Springfield and West Potomac - is criminally negligent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lewis has roughly 1700 students in total and has continually gotten smaller over the past decade. It is technically a Class 5 VHSL school although they compete in Class 6. They aren't able to form any level of baseball or softball teams and field hockey is probably next. They had 7 active players for field hockey last season.

It's a very sad situation because sports are pretty important as far as attracting families. Being the smallest school by a significant margin in the area means they will always be at a disadvantage in sports and most teams will have losing seasons. 1700 kids can't compete with schools that have 2600+ as is so common in FCPS.

Lewis like most surrounding FCPS schools at the time was around 1600 students 30 years ago. The exceptions were the mega sized secondary schools. Lewis (then Robert E Lee) was a very competitive school in most every sport at the time. The size of the school doesn’t necessarily matter regarding competitiveness, it’s the demographics. But the magic recipe of demographics plus a large size creates the superstar sports schools like Robinson, Lake Braddock, Yorktown, Torrey Pines HS (the top sports hs in the country), etc.

[Anonymous]

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…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lewis HS is nearly 50% Latino/Hispanic.

Latino/Hispanic girls don't tend to play sports, much less softball.

I used to be involved with softball in Arlington and we tried a lot of outreach to that community to no avail. There were myriad reasons -- cultural, fear of immigration, etc.

The high school softball programs are fed by robust rec and travel leagues. Spend any time at a complex during a tournament and you'll see about 90% of the girls playing are white. A few black girls and a few Asian girls. Almost no Hispanic/Latino.

So it follows that a 50% Hispanic school probably isn't going to be able to field a varsity softball team.

Justice, Herndon, and Falls Church all field varsity softball teams and have similar percentages of Hispanic students as Lewis.

Travel programs around there, populated by white girls, feed those programs.

[Anonymous]

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…

Correlation. Not causation

[Anonymous]

So what are the options for parents and kids who want to play these sports that get cancelled? Can they try out for another school?

This seems actually horribly unfair to some kids who have played little league sports growing up and now find themselves unable to demonstrate their abilities for sports scholarships to college scouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what are the options for parents and kids who want to play these sports that get cancelled? Can they try out for another school?

This seems actually horribly unfair to some kids who have played little league sports growing up and now find themselves unable to demonstrate their abilities for sports scholarships to college scouts.

Options are limited, since the VHSL does not allow transfers to other high schools for sports.

Maybe rec leagues, intramurals, trying out for other sports are okay alternatives .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what are the options for parents and kids who want to play these sports that get cancelled? Can they try out for another school?

This seems actually horribly unfair to some kids who have played little league sports growing up and now find themselves unable to demonstrate their abilities for sports scholarships to college scouts.

If it was my kid, call the principal and ask why there aren't equal spaces for girls to participate in high school athletics. Give them a week to fix it and then find a title IX contingency firm (they exist because the cases are easy and provide for attorneys fees)

[Anonymous]

Maybe they can be allowed to play on neighboring teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they can be allowed to play on neighboring teams.

As previously stated, The Virginia High School League VHSL which oversees all interscholastic sports does not allow that. You are limited to the offerings at the high school that serves your neighborhood.

OR, get a AP transfer to a neighboring school then do sports. Since it’s an academic transfer, you can still play sports. Eligibility does get tricky if you transfer in the middle of high school however.