25/26 MCPS High School Athletics thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is girl's flag football resonating in your schools? We're going into the second season. Our school lost almost every game but now has a new coach who seems really dedicated to building a strong team.

Very popular in year one at my DD's school. Hoping to see same level of interest to have strong team this year. Personally I've been really impressed with the school-level organization and county-wide support. Hope it keeps expanding - my DD loves it and hopes to keep playing in college - seems a fair number of schools have club level (both co-ed and women's) teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes MCPS, unfortunately, doesnt really care about athletics -- it wants rainbows and unicorns instead. A competitive sports program is hard to maintain, complaining parents (for all sorts of reasons), finding /keeping great coaches, as well as the facilities issues, etc. ADs would strongly prefer less complaints than more competitive teams for job security reasons. As a result, more competitive sports are drifting to private schools which are willing to make the investment as a differentiator. School spirit and pride suffers, IMO.

I think one of the big issues is the decline of youth sports here in the county. When I was growing up in the 90s every town had a thriving youth sports organization. Over the years they started folding and now it seems like most of the youth sports options are gone.

Students who are talented in sports generally peal off to private schools. Or, their travel team coaches advise them not to play on their public HS teams, to avoid injury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher here in MCPS and a big fan of HS sports I thought maybe we could have a thread here dedicated to the upcoming year's HS athletics here in MCPS. Judging by a lot of the posts I read here, this thread will likely go untouched and buried but maybe there are a few of us who want to talk about whats happening in the county athletically.

First big news: Baba Oladotun, the country's #1 HS basketball player for the Class of 2027, is officially reclassifying up to the Class of 2026 and will remain at Blake HS for his third and final year before graduating early. This is big news as there was a ton of speculation that he would be transferring to the newly opened St James Academy down in Springfield, VA. What's also big is that MCPS typically doesn't see a lot of kids reclassify for athletics. If you weren't planning on going before, you might want to make sure you get a chance to see a Blake HS basketball game this winter.

Don’t most elite athletes reclass down instead of up?

[Anonymous]

The sad thing about the rise of flag football at the HS level is that it might be a death sentence for Field Hockey. A lot of schools were already having difficulty recruiting for it and now with a new growing and popular fall sport it's bound to cause more issues there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher here in MCPS and a big fan of HS sports I thought maybe we could have a thread here dedicated to the upcoming year's HS athletics here in MCPS. Judging by a lot of the posts I read here, this thread will likely go untouched and buried but maybe there are a few of us who want to talk about whats happening in the county athletically.

First big news: Baba Oladotun, the country's #1 HS basketball player for the Class of 2027, is officially reclassifying up to the Class of 2026 and will remain at Blake HS for his third and final year before graduating early. This is big news as there was a ton of speculation that he would be transferring to the newly opened St James Academy down in Springfield, VA. What's also big is that MCPS typically doesn't see a lot of kids reclassify for athletics. If you weren't planning on going before, you might want to make sure you get a chance to see a Blake HS basketball game this winter.

Don’t most elite athletes reclass down instead of up?

No. The truly elite ones almost always reclass up to jumpstart their pro eligibility windows. A player like Baba can add 10s if not 100s of millions to his eventual net worth by starting that window earlier

[Anonymous]

Not ok to name kids especially as Mcps staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sad thing about the rise of flag football at the HS level is that it might be a death sentence for Field Hockey. A lot of schools were already having difficulty recruiting for it and now with a new growing and popular fall sport it's bound to cause more issues there

Yup. They said flag football was mostly new athletes, but even losing a few field hockey players can leave schools without enough players for JV and make it harder to maintain a program.

[Anonymous]

Some notable non-county football matchups this fall

Quince Orchard
8/30- @ Dunbar HS in Washington DC
9/19- vs Stone Bridge(Ashburn, VA) Stone Bridge is led by former Washington Redskins DL Kedric Golston and his son Kedric Golston II is heading to Tennessee as an Edge rusher

Damascus
10/11- vs Westminster(MD)

Seneca Valley
8/22- vs St Johns Catholic Prep(Frederick, MD). This game is a scrimmage and probably won't count officially

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sad thing about the rise of flag football at the HS level is that it might be a death sentence for Field Hockey. A lot of schools were already having difficulty recruiting for it and now with a new growing and popular fall sport it's bound to cause more issues there

Yup. They said flag football was mostly new athletes, but even losing a few field hockey players can leave schools without enough players for JV and make it harder to maintain a program.

Gaithersburg HS Field Hockey had like 10 total players last year and this year it sounds like they might not even have that many. Pretty sure Watkins Mill didn't even field a team last year

[Anonymous]

Forgot to mention that Watkins Mill HS will be playing Thomas Johnson(Frederick, MD) in football on Saturday 8/23 at BCC's field for some reason

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes MCPS, unfortunately, doesnt really care about athletics -- it wants rainbows and unicorns instead. A competitive sports program is hard to maintain, complaining parents (for all sorts of reasons), finding /keeping great coaches, as well as the facilities issues, etc. ADs would strongly prefer less complaints than more competitive teams for job security reasons. As a result, more competitive sports are drifting to private schools which are willing to make the investment as a differentiator. School spirit and pride suffers, IMO.

My kid is a QO and the opposite going on last few years.
Hoping new administration better but it's been football football football.

I love Ms Thomas. She is a great person and solid administrator. Wish her the best in retirement

I am sure she meant well but unfortunately many kids education suffered due to her lack of focus on academics

She was so focused on social media likes and football to the detriment of improving academic performance.

[Anonymous]

NP here and just want to give a shout out to the OP. MCPS needs more attention on sports for sure! Keep this thread going!!

[Anonymous]

https://www.si.com/high-school/maryland/10-can-t-miss-montgomery-county-high-school-football-matchups-in-2025-01k1rrekmj5p

Sports Illustrated named their best matchups for the upcoming MCPS HS Football season.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone figured out how to import the new calendars into Google? I don't see the ability to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes MCPS, unfortunately, doesnt really care about athletics -- it wants rainbows and unicorns instead. A competitive sports program is hard to maintain, complaining parents (for all sorts of reasons), finding /keeping great coaches, as well as the facilities issues, etc. ADs would strongly prefer less complaints than more competitive teams for job security reasons. As a result, more competitive sports are drifting to private schools which are willing to make the investment as a differentiator. School spirit and pride suffers, IMO.

I think one of the big issues is the decline of youth sports here in the county. When I was growing up in the 90s every town had a thriving youth sports organization. Over the years they started folding and now it seems like most of the youth sports options are gone.

Community youth organizations are shrinking and folding due to "travel" sports starting earlier and earlier. There are still plenty of youth sports - but only in "travel" leagues.

The emphasis on travel leagues at earlier ages encourages children to specialize at an early age (giving up other sports) and also dilutes both the pool of players for youth community leagues and coaches for the rec leagues.