Does your high school kid's sport require they dress up (for class) on game days?

[Anonymous]

Is this just for the big team sports like football? This is not a thing for either my son (XC) or stepson (tennis) at two different large public schools.

[Anonymous]

My kid’s golf team is expected to wear their team polos to school on days that they’re competing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our MCPS HS, my son’s soccer team did this. He opted out after the 1st game and nobody seemed to care. No teammates gave him a hard time. The coach doesn’t work at the school during the day so I doubt he would even know. I did notice a lot of football players doing it but again I don’t know what would happen if they simply said no.

Why opt out?

[Anonymous]

This was a really big deal at my Midwestern public school in the 90s. We rotated our game day apparel which included:

-dress up
-jersey day
-tie day- this was for girls and m was 1992 and somehow dressing up + adding a men’s tie was considered witty and daring?
-crazy day- always during freshman hazing, and you’d show up early at school and senior teammates gave you crazy hair and makeup and covered you in Mardi Gras beads or children’s jewelry. You would have to carry a volleyball/water polo ball/kick board/field hockey stick and if an upperclassman caught you putting it down or could grab it from you, there was a punishment at practice.

[Anonymous]

Yes at our public HS. You can get inexpensive pants/shirt/tie at Target or Kohls. It's a respect thing

[Anonymous]

At my kids school her team wears their team tee shirts or jackets in game day. I bought her big dangly earrings in school colors to make it fun plus matching nail polish.

At my HS in the 80s, I remember this bring a thing for the boys sports but not the girls. But they were lax about it — boys wore topsiders and khaki shorts with a button down and either a regular tie or a bolo tie. (Remember Duckie’s bolo tie? We should bring back bolo ties. I might start wearing them to work as a woman.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes at our public HS. You can get inexpensive pants/shirt/tie at Target or Kohls. It's a respect thing

respect? what? why do schools require this? it is insanity to expect public school kids to buy dress clothes to wear to school. it is such a waste.

reminds me of the dumb black and white outfits required for 3rd grade violin.

[Anonymous]

This was totally a thing where I grew up (New England)

[Anonymous]

I remember this from high school. The football players were in sport coats and ties on Fridays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my son's school, the sport teams he has participated in require that they dress up (dress shirt, tie, nice shoes, etc.) for class on game days.
His first year, they didn't give us much notice-told us the night before! My son was able to borrow a shirt and tie from my husband, but we had to hurry over to the local DSW and buy him some dress shoes. We weren't the only ones, my son saw several of his team mates at the shoe store, also buying dress shoes.

Is this dress up thing pretty standard in high school sports?

Complete B.S. That is not required even at McLean or Langley HS, schools in expensive neighborhood.

Yes it is. Your kids must not do sports. It is expected on game days for multiple male sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes at our public HS. You can get inexpensive pants/shirt/tie at Target or Kohls. It's a respect thing

respect? what? why do schools require this? it is insanity to expect public school kids to buy dress clothes to wear to school. it is such a waste.

reminds me of the dumb black and white outfits required for 3rd grade violin.

Why would you have to buy them? Don’t they already have some in their closet? This is high school. What do they wear to homecoming?

[Anonymous]

Yes, and the last minute notice was likely because the captains decide what the theme/dress is, and they’re teenagers. Now you have the clothes and can give the freshmen parents a heads up next year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes at our public HS. You can get inexpensive pants/shirt/tie at Target or Kohls. It's a respect thing

Same for my hs in the 90’s in the Deep South. It was a trick to get the kids in game mode and encouraged them to behave well. Many kids at the school had history of discipline problems which would have gotten them kicked off the team. I think studies now show that uniforms don’t influence behavior, but back then, the coaches thought that requiring button down shirt and tie on game days did remind their kids behave well. I know the basketball coach had a closet of donated clothes and ties at the gym that kids could choose from, assuming the same for other teams. Girls sometimes wore their jerseys on game days, but not always.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our MCPS HS, my son’s soccer team did this. He opted out after the 1st game and nobody seemed to care. No teammates gave him a hard time. The coach doesn’t work at the school during the day so I doubt he would even know. I did notice a lot of football players doing it but again I don’t know what would happen if they simply said no.

Why opt out?

He simply dislikes dressing up as he finds the clothes uncomfortable. Since this wasn’t a funeral, formal event or job interview, it seemed silly to force the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes at our public HS. You can get inexpensive pants/shirt/tie at Target or Kohls. It's a respect thing

respect? what? why do schools require this? it is insanity to expect public school kids to buy dress clothes to wear to school. it is such a waste.

reminds me of the dumb black and white outfits required for 3rd grade violin.

I played a team sport in high school in Fairfax (admittedly 20 years ago, my goodness time flies!) and we dressed up (home game) or wore our jersey (away) on Game Day. It was not a school mandated requirement, it was the culture within the team. The Captains explained to underclassman or new teammates at the beginning of the season what to wear--I understood it as mostly a bonding/camaraderie exercise and, to answer your question about respect, acknowledging that Game Day is a special occasion and we were about to implement all the hard work we'd been practicing together to open a can of whoop-ass on another school.

As far as "dress" clothes are concerned for home games, I'm pretty sure everyone just wore what they considered their nicest clothes. For some that was shirt/slacks or khakis/tie/others that may have been a polo and maybe they had Mom iron their jeans that day. If they got called out the response was usually something like "this is my nicest sh!+, what more do you want from me?" and everyone moved on.