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

[Anonymous]

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?

This was standard at my HS in the late 80s/early 90s.

Now, for my kid's sports, the team usually picks something for game days. Sometimes it's dressing up. Sometimes it's wearing uniforms. Sometimes it is some other silly thing ("business on top, shorts on the bottom") or some dumb thing. Frankly, the dressing up is the least annoying thing they require.

[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.

Then don't do it. Because you're not gonna change it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

The first game of the season for fall sports is before homecoming--about a month or two before homecoming at our school. Boys aren't thinking about what they will wear to homecoming months in advance like girls might be--at least, not my boy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, your DS doesn't have a dress shirt? Don't you go to church or a funeral or a school dance? To answer your question, my DS dressed up on game days, but it was 10 years ago.

This will be hard for you to imagine, but plenty of families do not go to church. And do your kids really go to so many funerals that their funeral clothes still fit them?!

At this age teenagers are going to plenty of events that would require a dress shirt and dress shoes. Things like job interviews, school events, dances, funerals (yes, funerals) etc. where it would be expected to have some level of dress requirements higher than a t-shirt and shorts and crocs and that it would require at least putting on a dress shirt/shoes. It wasn't even a jacket. Give me a break. There is nothing wrong with asking a kid that wants the privilege of playing a sport to dress up (and we are really talking about high end business casual with a tie) to demonstrate they want to play that sport. It sets a tone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s sad that your high school student won’t dress up to support his team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

The first game of the season for fall sports is before homecoming--about a month or two before homecoming at our school. Boys aren't thinking about what they will wear to homecoming months in advance like girls might be--at least, not my boy.

What does your kid wear when they have to go to a wedding or funeral? Have them wear that - without the jacket.

[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 don't think the school requires it. I think it's the coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I'm thinking about this for the first time in 30 years

Me too!

This was pretty common in the 90s. Our basketball coach was very into having us look nice (aka: dressed up) for arriving at away games, and then we'd change in the locker room. Thinking about it now I feel like it's a very old fashioned idea, especially because teens dress so casually! My mom wore a jumper skirt/blouse combo when she played basketball in the 60s which seemed nuts to me at the time, but now this "dressing up to travel to a different high school" thing also feels old school....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, your DS doesn't have a dress shirt? Don't you go to church or a funeral or a school dance? To answer your question, my DS dressed up on game days, but it was 10 years ago.

This will be hard for you to imagine, but plenty of families do not go to church. And do your kids really go to so many funerals that their funeral clothes still fit them?!

At this age teenagers are going to plenty of events that would require a dress shirt and dress shoes. Things like job interviews, school events, dances, funerals (yes, funerals) etc. where it would be expected to have some level of dress requirements higher than a t-shirt and shorts and crocs and that it would require at least putting on a dress shirt/shoes. It wasn't even a jacket. Give me a break. There is nothing wrong with asking a kid that wants the privilege of playing a sport to dress up (and we are really talking about high end business casual with a tie) to demonstrate they want to play that sport. It sets a tone.

OP here
This is about the first game of the fall season freshman year. These boys are 13 or young 14 years old. "Job interviews" are walking to over to the neighbor's house to discuss mowing their lawn or walking their dog--no tie needed. Middle school dances do not require ties at his middle school. Not everyone has tons of people close to them die by the age of 14.
Like I said, this was a couple years ago, so in my son's case he and his classmates were just coming out of that virtual school for Covid year--no one was going anywhere fancy. So even if he had those clothes for events prior to covid, a year and a half later they wouldn't still fit him because most boys grow a lot in the middle school years.

Of course he had stuff that was nicer than a t shirt and shorts--he had things like polo shirts and khakis...but that was not acceptable. It had to be a dress shirt, tie, and dress shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

The first game of the season for fall sports is before homecoming--about a month or two before homecoming at our school. Boys aren't thinking about what they will wear to homecoming months in advance like girls might be--at least, not my boy.

What does your kid wear when they have to go to a wedding or funeral? Have them wear that - without the jacket.

My son had never been to a wedding or funeral by his freshman year of high school. Weddings in our family are typically "child free" and all of his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. were still living.

[Anonymous]

This is interesting. I played sports back in high school in the '90's and no one did this. Must be a regional thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s sad that your high school student won’t dress up to support his team.

He supports his team by attending every practice, offering support and encouragement to his teammates and playing his best. His teammates don’t care if he dresses up. He wears team gear daily.

[Anonymous]

We did this in the late 90s in my suburban MD school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s sad that your high school student won’t dress up to support his team.

He supports his team by attending every practice, offering support and encouragement to his teammates and playing his best. His teammates don’t care if he dresses up. He wears team gear daily.

If his teammates are dressing up and he’s too immature to dress up, they definitely notice and care. Luckily they aren’t saying anything to him.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a shirt for under $9 on Amazon. We look there when we need quick dress clothes for my fast growing son. There’s no need to spend a lot since it won’t fit him in 3 months. https://www.amazon.com/Hanes-X-Temp-Performance-Black-Large/dp/B0132MFSUY/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?c=ts&keywords=Men%27s%2BPolo%2BShirts&qid=1691845004&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011&rnid=2470954011&rps=1&s=apparel&sr=1-7&ts_id=1045640&th=1&psc=1

In a high school teacher and this is the least of the issue. Worse are the sports that have themed days. My kids don’t have Hawaiian shirts or other very specific items and buying for those seem very wasteful. They don’t participate.

I don’t mind them always having one shirt with a collar, even if it’s a polo, and a pair of pants in their closets. They end up getting worn. There will be a dinner or some event they need to be in clothes other than athletic gear.