Is it not possible to accommodate every interested high school kid on a school sports team?
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Anonymous
My kids rec teams managed on grass ES fields |
Anonymous
You should bring your complain to the Fairfax County Supervisor Board. FCSB can make Fairfax County Public School to make the football field, softball & baseball field available during the summer to accommodate the demand. |
Anonymous
Our HS doesn't allow non-school teams to use their baseball fields, while other HS do. I guess it's up to the principals' discretion? |
Anonymous
That's why I said the County Supervisor Board should make the change to allow HS fields to be availalbe during non-season, and during the summer. |
Anonymous
I think it's the athletic directors. |
Anonymous
So you're forcing every league to move their primary season to the summer? That won't work for Little League baseball/softball at a minimum, because of all-stars. |
Anonymous
There aren't enough of those to go around. Trust me. Or park fields. And any time you want to convince the county light the ES fields (and the neighborhoods not to freak out), go for it! But many of these leagues have to stack practices until after dark. |
Anonymous
How large is your school? The larger the school, the fewer, if any, no-cut activities there are. It's a shame because interested kids get shut out of ways to connect because schools are too large. I live in a county where there has been a disparity in school sizes, so you have one school with around 1200 students with more accessible activities and another with 2000, where every sports-related activity plus others have cuts. |
Anonymous
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At our huge HS school there are often freshman teams but those freshman programs are constantly in danger of being cut. The district doesn’t provide any funding for freshman coaches/uniforms so that $ has to be raised by the boosters. Field time/gym time is often scarce as well. The biggest factor is the perception that most kids “on the freshman team, not considered for JV as a frosh” are usually considered not to ultimately be candidates for varsity down the road- usually this is more or less true. Many of the coaches (and parents of better players) would rather see more cuts happen freshman year and consolidate all the best underclassmen on JV. Parents of “weaker players” obviously prefer to have a freshman team and have their kid play 1-2 more years (and at least get a chance to improve enough to be considered for varsity down the road). So at our school there is actually pressure AGAINST having freshman teams by some coaches and parents.
And when I say “weaker players”- those are often kids who would start even potentially on varsity at smaller schools. But our HS is just really, really tough. Lots of elite D1 commits every year in several of the team sports- just really really competitive. By the time kids enter freshman year, the field has often separated a lot already- the handful of elite players are known and barring a giant growth spurt or something from another player, usually doesn’t change much. I say that as a parent of “mediocre” athletes- mine made the freshman/and or JV teams but then found other things to do. |
Anonymous
Most high schools in FCPS seem to have freshman baseball teams. |
Anonymous
DP. I looked at the 4 closest high schools to me and none had freshman baseball. What schools are you thinking of? |
Anonymous
NP. There are plenty of fields, they're just not lit. Talk to your local politician. Rec is usually easier to justify than private clubs. |
Anonymous
I'm the person who wrote that original reply and our large FCPS high school doesn't have freshman baseball, nor do the surrounding schools- so no freshman baseball at Robinson, Lake Braddock, West Springfield, and South County- or in talking to friends who attend Woodson and West Potomac. |
Anonymous
And they have no one nearby of similar size to compete with so are on a bus 1-2 hours each way for each game for many sports. |
Anonymous
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I think the bottom line with high sports is: if playing in HS is important to your child, choose a smaller high school or consider a smaller private if you can afford it.
My kids are in a huge suburban HS that is excellent for academics but there is a nice smaller HS in a nearby suburb that is also quite good (just doesn’t offer quite as many APs and foreign language options as ours). We didn’t even consider the sports angle until our kids were in middle school- and we certainly weren’t going to move at that point JUST for that reason. Also the kids had long established friends etc. But maybe we should have considered it earlier on. It is one thing I’d recommend parents consider well ahead of time if their kids enjoy team sports & think they may want to continue in HS. Obviously very few will play in college anyway, but many kids do enjoy the high school sports experience |