New STA parent seeking advice, suggestions, or just plain "I wish I had known X" info

[Anonymous]

For those 4th grade, I mean C Form parents, how did the 1st week go? Happy to report only 1 lost item of clothing this week for our DS.

[Anonymous]

Can someone give us the lowdown on A Form fall sports? DS loves all sports. I told him to go with whatever he wants to do. He's come back to me for advice. So I in turn am turning to you DCUMers. I suppose I'd like to know what are the most popular, competitive, and well coached teams. If left up to me, I'd vote soccer. But that's only because I think there are fewer injuries in the sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give us the lowdown on A Form fall sports? DS loves all sports. I told him to go with whatever he wants to do. He's come back to me for advice. So I in turn am turning to you DCUMers. I suppose I'd like to know what are the most popular, competitive, and well coached teams. If left up to me, I'd vote soccer. But that's only because I think there are fewer injuries in the sport.

This is an upper school centric view, but here goes. First, your son would be in luck with any of the big three sports at the Upper School level: soccer, cross-country, and football. All are well-coached and have seen good success. The cross-country program is arguably the best overall sports program in the school -- it is phenomenal and something like 1/3 of the boys in the Upper School are running cross-country this fall. Regardless of talent level, the kids seem to love the experience (they also train with NCS so it's a nice way for boys to make good friendships with girls despite being at an all-boys' school). Does not cut.

Football has also been very good at STA -- the current head coach has won 3 league titles in 6 years, and the coaching style is positive. Lots of camaraderie, the games on Saturdays in the upper school are events, and the coaches take safety seriously (for example, lots of teaching of head-up tackling technique). Does not cut.

Soccer, because of its popularity in this area, is most competitive in terms of getting a roster slot -- there are cuts. (A number of excellent Upper School cross-country runners over the years originally came from soccer backgrounds.) Again, very strong coaching staff with a very positive style. The soccer program has had relatively modest success, but has some good talent and in recent years has done fairly well.

[Anonymous]

This is an upper school centric view, but here goes. First, your son would be in luck with any of the three fall sports* at the Upper School level: soccer, cross-country, and football. All are well-coached and have seen good success. The cross-country program is arguably the best overall sports program in the school -- it is phenomenal and something like 1/3 of the boys in the Upper School are running cross-country this fall. Regardless of talent level, the kids seem to love the experience (they also train with NCS so it's a nice way for boys to make good friendships with girls despite being at an all-boys' school). Does not cut.

Football has also been very good at STA -- the current head coach has won 3 league titles in 6 years, and the coaching style is positive. Lots of camaraderie, the games on Saturdays in the upper school are events, and the coaches take safety seriously (for example, lots of teaching of head-up tackling technique). Does not cut.

Soccer, because of its popularity in this area, is most competitive in terms of getting a roster slot -- there are cuts. (A number of excellent Upper School cross-country runners over the years originally came from soccer backgrounds.) Again, very strong coaching staff with a very positive style. The soccer program has had relatively modest success, but has some good talent and in recent years has done fairly well.

(*edited from prior post to remove reference to these as the "big three sports" at STA overall -- they are the fall options; there are obviously other excellent programs in the other seasons)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give us the lowdown on A Form fall sports? DS loves all sports. I told him to go with whatever he wants to do. He's come back to me for advice. So I in turn am turning to you DCUMers. I suppose I'd like to know what are the most popular, competitive, and well coached teams. If left up to me, I'd vote soccer. But that's only because I think there are fewer injuries in the sport.

FYI
The youth sport that requires treatment at hospitals more often than any other is soccer. Head injuries and concussions are more prevalent and there are studies showing that early dementia occurs more often in former soccer players than football players.
Soccer is a wonderful sport for anyone to play. It's just your notion that there are fewer injuries that I'd like to correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give us the lowdown on A Form fall sports? DS loves all sports. I told him to go with whatever he wants to do. He's come back to me for advice. So I in turn am turning to you DCUMers. I suppose I'd like to know what are the most popular, competitive, and well coached teams. If left up to me, I'd vote soccer. But that's only because I think there are fewer injuries in the sport.

FYI
The youth sport that requires treatment at hospitals more often than any other is soccer. Head injuries and concussions are more prevalent and there are studies showing that early dementia occurs more often in former soccer players than football players.
Soccer is a wonderful sport for anyone to play. It's just your notion that there are fewer injuries that I'd like to correct.

Soccer requires more treatment than football, but football far outpaces soccer in terms of head injuries. According to the American Association of Neurological surgeons, the top 10 sports-related head-injury categories among children ages 14 and younger were:

Cycling: 40,272
Football: 21,878
Baseball and Softball: 18,246
Basketball: 14,952
Skateboards/Scooters: 14,783
Water Sports: 12,843
Soccer: 8,392
Powered Recreational Vehicles: 6,818
Winter Sports: 6,750
Trampolines: 5,025

[Anonymous]

Is that all bike riding or dirt bike / cross riding ? 40,000 seems like a lot . Does that include any kid hit by a car while riding a bike ( in other words non helmeted kids hit by cars while out of bike ride) or is that Lance Armstrong wanna bee kids competitive bike racing as a sport ? Your numbers seem awfully high for the latter.

[Anonymous]

This topic comes up frequently, and it is often a surprise to consider that the sport that (sometimes) seems less violent, soccer, actually has pretty high injury rates. It is often more meaningful to look at rate of injury rather than just incidents such as from 2010 NCAA Injury Data:

"...concussions account for about seven percent of game injuries in the five fall sports studied (football, men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball, and field hockey) and five percent of practice injuries. They are the second most common game injury in both football and women's soccer. Concussions are most common in football with 2.7 concussions per 1,000 exposures meaning for every 1,000 players who took to the field for a game, 2.7 would suffer a concussion.
Although most of the discussion on concussions has been focused on football, women's soccer is not far behind with a concussion rate of 2.1 per 1,000 exposures. Men's soccer reported a rate of 1.1 per 1,000.
....It may come as a surprise that when practices and games are combined, football did not have the highest injury rate or even second highest. Women's soccer had the highest combined injury rate with 10.9 injuries per 1,000 exposures, with strains and sprains accounting for nearly half of the injuries. Men's soccer had a combined injury rate of 10.7 and was followed by football at 10.5. Field hockey players suffered 9.2 injuries per 1,000 exposures and volleyball players had 7.9."

There are other studies of course, so slice and dice the numbers however you want. And everyone already knows about the possibilty of injury in football, but soccer should not be considered low risk.

[Anonymous]

What actually happens at the Lower School "Prison Yard." My son wants me to delay picking him up from school because he wants to spend time there. Is it just random, unsupervised play?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What actually happens at the Lower School "Prison Yard." My son wants me to delay picking him up from school because he wants to spend time there. Is it just random, unsupervised play?

There is another place to discuss this, for safety sake, please don't comment here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give us the lowdown on A Form fall sports? DS loves all sports. I told him to go with whatever he wants to do. He's come back to me for advice. So I in turn am turning to you DCUMers. I suppose I'd like to know what are the most popular, competitive, and well coached teams. If left up to me, I'd vote soccer. But that's only because I think there are fewer injuries in the sport.

FYI
The youth sport that requires treatment at hospitals more often than any other is soccer. Head injuries and concussions are more prevalent and there are studies showing that early dementia occurs more often in former soccer players than football players.
Soccer is a wonderful sport for anyone to play. It's just your notion that there are fewer injuries that I'd like to correct.

Include references to those "studies," please? I happen to work in applied neuroscience, and nothing I have come across suggests that soccer is anywhere the serious risk factor as football (or boxing) is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What actually happens at the Lower School "Prison Yard." My son wants me to delay picking him up from school because he wants to spend time there. Is it just random, unsupervised play?

There is another place to discuss this, for safety sake, please don't comment here.

Hahaha.

To answer the question, yes, it is just unstructured play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Lower school entry way is too small for kids and parents milling around.
2. The school thinks they are old enough to walk in on their own and experience seems to support that. They seem happy with their growing independence.
3. It sounds harsher than it is--Mr. Herman greets everyone outside as they enter, so it is a friendly start to the day for the boys.

1 may be true, but the boys are always milling around (and running, and yelling, and throwing, and jumping, and wrestling, etc., etc.) anyway.

2 is absolutely true. After a while, if you don't speed away after drop off, you'll get a frown from your DS.

3 is one of the reasons (at least I say to myself) that paying 30K for what could be free is "worth it." Mr. Herman, greeting your DS at tne entry way -- by name -- with a handshake and a bon mot is inspiring.

New to school. 3 is so spot on. And DS has such a vanilla name and vanilla look. Impressed that Mr. Herman nailed it the very first day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, lots of kids go on to play at both the Division I (Navy, Yale, UVA, Johns Hopkins, Brown, and Villanova in the past few years, for example) and Division III level (good NESCAC schools like Middlebury and Bowdoin are a favorite). Not as many Division I players as Landon or Prep, but a very good record. Strong coaching staff with good values for the kids to model.

Does STA play in recruitment tournaments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, lots of kids go on to play at both the Division I (Navy, Yale, UVA, Johns Hopkins, Brown, and Villanova in the past few years, for example) and Division III level (good NESCAC schools like Middlebury and Bowdoin are a favorite). Not as many Division I players as Landon or Prep, but a very good record. Strong coaching staff with good values for the kids to model.

Does STA play in recruitment tournaments?

Their players play in showcases and recruiting camps as individuals as part of their non-school summer clubs, as far as I've observed. At least three current players at STA have committed to Ivies (Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard), and they play on standard area club teams in the summers.