Is the traditional American high school experience of playing sports dead?

[Anonymous]

The richer and larger the high school the harder it is to make the high school team for very popular sports.

FCPS high schools soccer and basketball are ridiculously hard to make. But even at these schools football, rowing, cross country, track, wrestling, rifle, and lacrosse have relatively few if any cuts.

My son didn’t make the freshman basketball team at his FCPS high school, but we were visiting my sister and her son plays varsity basketball at their small Nebraska public school, and my son went along with his cousin to an out of season “captain’s practice” for the varsity team. My son was better than all but one of the varsity players despite not making the team here. It’s very much a regional thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is only true in the UMC/wealthy school districts- which on a whole, are are small percentage of American high schools.

Your kid could play on almost any varsity team at a title 1 or even middle class district- and many of these are D1 schools.

That’s a pretty much uneducated opinion from someone who knows nothing. You obviously don’t follow sports. Many of the top names in basketball grew up in poverty. By high school the top are recruited to residential schools specializing in their sport.

Pro sports are also recruiting more international players. Eastern Europeans are playing basketball, Dominicans make up a large amount of baseball players, Canadians play hockey year round.

Students in middle class or low income school districts cannot just play any varsity sport. I can’t figure out why you would even think that.

Exceptions might be swimming, soccer, track, sports that nobody cares about. They might be walk ons.

This is a braid dead take that’s about 20 years behind the times.

[Anonymous]

Most students were not on HS sports teams 20, 30, even 50 years ago. Just because movies and TV shows portrayed it that way does not make it accurate.
Popular HS sports at larger schools have required some previous experience for decades. I didn’t make my schools volleyball team in 1990, even though I played in middle school. (TBH, I was not good at volleyball)
Most teams have a cap on the number of players - only so many can be on the court or on the field, and coaches only want so many sitting on the bench. Students in small schools are more likely to be able to participate in HS sports.
And yes, there’s always track & field or cross country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this mentality. Would you expect your kid to be able to take calculus in high school if they hadn’t taken more than the bare minimum math offered to that point?

Some kids might be able to, but they’re gifted. Similar to the gifted athletes who can easily pick up a new sport. Most kids aren’t like that.

Why would you think a highly skilled based / athletically sport should be any different than a highly skill based / intelligence based class?

It's more analogous to having done well in all the previous math classes and still not being allowed to take calculus. Kids can be very good and still not make the team. But that's the reality at large schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is only true in the UMC/wealthy school districts- which on a whole, are are small percentage of American high schools.

Your kid could play on almost any varsity team at a title 1 or even middle class district- and many of these are D1 schools.

That’s a pretty much uneducated opinion from someone who knows nothing. You obviously don’t follow sports. Many of the top names in basketball grew up in poverty. By high school the top are recruited to residential schools specializing in their sport.

Pro sports are also recruiting more international players. Eastern Europeans are playing basketball, Dominicans make up a large amount of baseball players, Canadians play hockey year round.

Students in middle class or low income school districts cannot just play any varsity sport. I can’t figure out why you would even think that.

Exceptions might be swimming, soccer, track, sports that nobody cares about. They might be walk ons.

Swimming and soccer have tryouts at most schools and make cuts. The only soccer players at my son‘s high school have been on travel teams since elementary.
Swimming, 1/3 of the boys did not make the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is only true in the UMC/wealthy school districts- which on a whole, are are small percentage of American high schools.

Your kid could play on almost any varsity team at a title 1 or even middle class district- and many of these are D1 schools.

That’s a pretty much uneducated opinion from someone who knows nothing. You obviously don’t follow sports. Many of the top names in basketball grew up in poverty. By high school the top are recruited to residential schools specializing in their sport.

Pro sports are also recruiting more international players. Eastern Europeans are playing basketball, Dominicans make up a large amount of baseball players, Canadians play hockey year round.

Students in middle class or low income school districts cannot just play any varsity sport. I can’t figure out why you would even think that.

Exceptions might be swimming, soccer, track, sports that nobody cares about. They might be walk ons.

I know because my kids go to one. You know nothing. Sure a 1-2 kids from a couple high poverty schools get recruited, but most of them don’t and the rest of the team players are average at best. Look at which schools consistently with D1 states. It’s rarely the middle class or title 1 schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is only true in the UMC/wealthy school districts- which on a whole, are are small percentage of American high schools.

Your kid could play on almost any varsity team at a title 1 or even middle class district- and many of these are D1 schools.

That’s a pretty much uneducated opinion from someone who knows nothing. You obviously don’t follow sports. Many of the top names in basketball grew up in poverty. By high school the top are recruited to residential schools specializing in their sport.

Pro sports are also recruiting more international players. Eastern Europeans are playing basketball, Dominicans make up a large amount of baseball players, Canadians play hockey year round.

Students in middle class or low income school districts cannot just play any varsity sport. I can’t figure out why you would even think that.

Exceptions might be swimming, soccer, track, sports that nobody cares about. They might be walk ons.

I know because my kids go to one. You know nothing. Sure a 1-2 kids from a couple high poverty schools get recruited, but most of them don’t and the rest of the team players are average at best. Look at which schools consistently with D1 states. It’s rarely the middle class or title 1 schools

*win

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The richer and larger the high school the harder it is to make the high school team for very popular sports.

FCPS high schools soccer and basketball are ridiculously hard to make. But even at these schools football, rowing, cross country, track, wrestling, rifle, and lacrosse have relatively few if any cuts.

My son didn’t make the freshman basketball team at his FCPS high school, but we were visiting my sister and her son plays varsity basketball at their small Nebraska public school, and my son went along with his cousin to an out of season “captain’s practice” for the varsity team. My son was better than all but one of the varsity players despite not making the team here. It’s very much a regional thing.

It’s just so frustrating because it takes so much work and money to even live in this part of country. When your kids do get the privilege to live here, everything is super competitive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Swimming and soccer have tryouts at most schools and make cuts. The only soccer players at my son‘s high school have been on travel teams since elementary.
Swimming, 1/3 of the boys did not make the team.

That sucks. In SoCal, most swim teams don’t cut, and swimming is way more popular there

[Anonymous]

Blame the "non-profit" sports organizations that took over all sports from the county. Before they convinced the parks and recreations departments that they were non-profits and were essentially given all the permits to all field and court space and promised to run rec leagues, they convinced all families to sign up for Club ball or travel ball in order to gain access to all the good facilities while rec teams were given grass fields. They recruit kids out of rec and convince them to go travel. Now, only the travel kids who pay $3k per year have a chance of making most high school teams and the rec kids usually quit the sport because of crappy seasons.

[Anonymous]

I went to high school in the US in the 90s and did not play sports. I did play sports before that, in fact played all MS sports available to me (basketball, track, volleyball). But in HS I wanted to focus on other activities (music, theater, speech & debate, student government) and sports took up too much time.

Only a handful of my friends played sports. I had a friend who was a dancer but also ran cross country. I think she also ran track for a couple years but gave it up because the meets overlapped with dance recitals. I had some friends in marching band, which was treated as a "sport" at my high school. But few athletes.

Yet my friends were the ones who went on to top schools and pursued advanced degrees and more challenging industries like law and medicine. The athletes did fine but were more likely to take over the family car dealership or become realtors. Some of them went to college but not all. Playing sports at my high school was considered a cool and worthwhile thing to do, but it was not something most serious, ambitious students did because it took up a lot of time.

I am continually surprised by how obsessive many parents are about athletics given this experience. I know some HS athletes go on to be very successful, but it doesn't seem essential to me at all. My own DD is a swimmer and is debating whether she will swim in HS. She loves swimming but hates the hours. We are neutral on it -- she has other extra curricular that she is better at. She's not going to swim in college. If she winds up swimming I'm sure it will be a good experience but she could do other things and that would be good too.

I don't see how sports are an essential part of the "traditional American high school experience." Most students don't play sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is only true in the UMC/wealthy school districts- which on a whole, are are small percentage of American high schools.

Your kid could play on almost any varsity team at a title 1 or even middle class district- and many of these are D1 schools.

That’s a pretty much uneducated opinion from someone who knows nothing. You obviously don’t follow sports. Many of the top names in basketball grew up in poverty. By high school the top are recruited to residential schools specializing in their sport.

Pro sports are also recruiting more international players. Eastern Europeans are playing basketball, Dominicans make up a large amount of baseball players, Canadians play hockey year round.

Students in middle class or low income school districts cannot just play any varsity sport. I can’t figure out why you would even think that.

Exceptions might be swimming, soccer, track, sports that nobody cares about. They might be walk ons.

I know because my kids go to one. You know nothing. Sure a 1-2 kids from a couple high poverty schools get recruited, but most of them don’t and the rest of the team players are average at best. Look at which schools consistently with D1 states. It’s rarely the middle class or title 1 schools

You know because you have an anecdote about your school. So now you think that all of the kids with natural athletic abilities are living in wealthy towns where their parents are bureaucrats for the federal government.

And middle class kids who are 6’5” at 13 years old and play basketball at their schools and have mastered the three pointer won’t be noticed by a coach. That’s what you think?

Johnson Middle School, a Title 1 school has a championship football team featured by New Balance in a commercial. They are recruiting 8th graders from that school.

Public schools with Championship teams come from wealthy schools, middle class and lower income schools. Each team is limited to the amount of players on the teams so big schools leave a lot of kids out. A lot of rec teams stop in 8th grade so it’s tough to keep playing sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is only true in the UMC/wealthy school districts- which on a whole, are are small percentage of American high schools.

Your kid could play on almost any varsity team at a title 1 or even middle class district- and many of these are D1 schools.

That’s a pretty much uneducated opinion from someone who knows nothing. You obviously don’t follow sports. Many of the top names in basketball grew up in poverty. By high school the top are recruited to residential schools specializing in their sport.

Pro sports are also recruiting more international players. Eastern Europeans are playing basketball, Dominicans make up a large amount of baseball players, Canadians play hockey year round.

Students in middle class or low income school districts cannot just play any varsity sport. I can’t figure out why you would even think that.

Exceptions might be swimming, soccer, track, sports that nobody cares about. They might be walk ons.

This is a braid dead take that’s about 20 years behind the times.

Some of you wish this wasn’t the case. So many brag about their high IQs and your children all have high IQs. There’s also genetics that involve athletic ability most involving the legs and running. Height is genetics. Muscle tone is genetics. Kids with determination might be able to overcome what they are naturally lacking and play competitively but it’s not as easy as naturally athletic.

What exactly do you think is from 2005?

[Anonymous]

Where I lived, being on a HS team was not a big deal. I am not even sure if we had a football team and don't think we had cheerleaders. I know there was a basketball team, but never went to a game and can't think of any of my HS friends ever mentioning going. Where I lived in NY, band was big (NYSMA), the Intel Science thing was big, MetMUNC was big. In sum, we were more academic than athletically focused. And this was late '90's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this mentality. Would you expect your kid to be able to take calculus in high school if they hadn’t taken more than the bare minimum math offered to that point?

Some kids might be able to, but they’re gifted. Similar to the gifted athletes who can easily pick up a new sport. Most kids aren’t like that.

Why would you think a highly skilled based / athletically sport should be any different than a highly skill based / intelligence based class?

It's more analogous to having done well in all the previous math classes and still not being allowed to take calculus. Kids can be very good and still not make the team. But that's the reality at large schools.

Fine. Sounds like you’re going to be in for a shock when it comes to college admissions.