Feel bad for the kids who get cut in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t schools ban the practice of cutting kids and just let anyone join the team who wants to?

A baseball/softball team fields/bats 9 players. So, they could take 30 people, but that just means 21 won't play. That isn't very fun.

Can confirm. Our large HS has around 25 kids each on varsity and JV (and still made lots of cuts). Lots of riding the bench or playing a very minor specialized role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you also feel bad for the kids who are cut from youth orchestras or other selective groups when these groups become really competitive, after they've played all their lives?

Good. Nice to know we're not ignoring other activities.

My point was for exercise and companionship. The kids should be able to be healthy and happy. I don’t think they necessarily need to compete against other schools.

The sport that I was referring to was basketball and cuts just happened this week. In our area, rec basketball ends in middle school.

Then you find to friends with to exercise. Welcome to survival of the fittest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry the kids are sad.

Learning to overcome disappointment and adversity is an important life skill.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you also feel bad for the kids who are cut from youth orchestras or other selective groups when these groups become really competitive, after they've played all their lives?

Good. Nice to know we're not ignoring other activities.

Serious question- does this happen? Like you don’t make orchestra at your high school? It wasn’t that way when I was younger but who even knows now.

OP I am already worried about this. Despite our repeated attempts to help him find other interests my son’s great passion is soccer. He is good but it’s very possible he will not be good enough to make a high school team around here. I keep hearing horror stories about kids who do travel soccer starting at age 7 who don’t make the team and just completely stop playing. Are there rec programs for high school students?

Tell me you don't travel in ultra-competitive academic circles without telling me you don't travel in ultra-competitive academic circles.

Kewl response bro

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t schools ban the practice of cutting kids and just let anyone join the team who wants to?

A baseball/softball team fields/bats 9 players. So, they could take 30 people, but that just means 21 won't play. That isn't very fun.

Can confirm. Our large HS has around 25 kids each on varsity and JV (and still made lots of cuts). Lots of riding the bench or playing a very minor specialized role.

And what is the point of that when the kid could instead be learning to play a new rec sport?

[Anonymous]

Just do rowing

[Anonymous]

They used to have "intramural sports" which was like rec team. That way everyone who wanted to play could be on a team. Why don't they do that anymore?

[Anonymous]

My kid did poorly in school so can't play. Their sport was the one thing they were capable of doing well. Seems cruel to take that away from a kid who can only excel at sports and not at academics.

[Anonymous]

I feel that there are far more very large high schools now, but I may be wrong.

I went to a smaller high school and no sport or activity had cuts. However- not everyone played much in games/competitions. Some of those kids did tend to weed themselves out due to lack of playing time. Not all. Seems to be still be the same at smaller high schools based on what I’ve heard from old friends/acquaintances.

But large high schools? Yes, you can play travel or club for many years and still get cut. Happened to my son. He joined a no-cut school sports team and goes to the gym to lift or play pickup basketball with friends year round.

[Anonymous]

One other issue not raised here - to field many teams, you need coaches AND facilities. How many gyms do most big HS have - 2? What about fields? With these huge HS, they simply cannot support many extra teams.

My HS in NY had fewer than 1000 kids. Most things were no-cut. But I still remember being cut from my school musical, and learning how to look for other opportunities instead. It is a part of growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they want to play, they find a rec league and get their friends to sign up with them. While disappointing, getting cut is a relatively low stakes way to learn that you don't always get what you want in life, even if you try really hard.

I know this feels good to say because it would be great if this could happen, but the reality is, it's very difficult to simply put together a team and play rec. You need a coach, for starters. If your friends all made the basketball team, they are not allowed to play rec so you are shut out. Or your friends are all busy training for whatever their year round sport is. It really stinks when a kid doesn't make the cut and it would be great if everyone who wanted to play could have the opportunity to play for their school. The resources--coaches, field/court space, time, money for refs, uniforms etc--are just not there.

We pushed our kids to try out for sports that were less competitive than their primary sport to give them a fall back option. DD ended up making the team for her primary sport, but DS did not. Fortunately he'd tried out and made a fall team and had a great experience. He was disappointed not to make the team in the sport that he's played since he was 5, but the great experience with the other sport lessened the blow a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you also feel bad for the kids who are cut from youth orchestras or other selective groups when these groups become really competitive, after they've played all their lives?

Good. Nice to know we're not ignoring other activities.

Serious question- does this happen? Like you don’t make orchestra at your high school? It wasn’t that way when I was younger but who even knows now.

OP I am already worried about this. Despite our repeated attempts to help him find other interests my son’s great passion is soccer. He is good but it’s very possible he will not be good enough to make a high school team around here. I keep hearing horror stories about kids who do travel soccer starting at age 7 who don’t make the team and just completely stop playing. Are there rec programs for high school students?

Yes of course there are rec programs then. But, just as likely, your son may lose interest in soccer by the time he’s in high school. I know that seems impossible to believe now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you also feel bad for the kids who are cut from youth orchestras or other selective groups when these groups become really competitive, after they've played all their lives?

Good. Nice to know we're not ignoring other activities.

My point was for exercise and companionship. The kids should be able to be healthy and happy. I don’t think they necessarily need to compete against other schools.

The sport that I was referring to was basketball and cuts just happened this week. In our area, rec basketball ends in middle school.

That's too bad. MoCo has a very robust HS rec BB program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t schools ban the practice of cutting kids and just let anyone join the team who wants to?

A baseball/softball team fields/bats 9 players. So, they could take 30 people, but that just means 21 won't play. That isn't very fun.

Can confirm. Our large HS has around 25 kids each on varsity and JV (and still made lots of cuts). Lots of riding the bench or playing a very minor specialized role.

And what is the point of that when the kid could instead be learning to play a new rec sport?

PP here. Can't speak for others but my son loves baseball. He's a pitcher only so doesn't play nearly as much as the position players. He does rec basketball in the winter and has grid other sports too. Just loves baseball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question (because both my kids are still in elementary) - are HS sports still the end all, be all, with year-round $$$ teams being so prevalent? Do the top soccer players, swimmers, or baseball players even play for their HS teams or are they just pure travel/competitive team players? I can see it being a big thing for some sports (football obviously, maybe basketball although private teams seem to be big for that too) but I assumed private teams had taken over the top spots in some of these sports. And then the private sports-oriented HS’s like the St. James Academy are starting to dominate the HS leagues too.

I feel like this may be sport-specific. A friend with a college recruit soccer player told me that in his daughter's experience, players at that level didn't tend to play high school soccer- only for their club. Maybe it was due to injury risk but also he seemed to indicate the club coaches were way better than the HS coaches.

I have a baseball kid who is just in the local baseball travel league. All of those teams don't play in the spring as the assumption is you'll be playing for your HS team and then reconvene do summer and fall travel. I don't know what the super high going pro kids do though as my son isn't at that level.

This is what I was going to say. It will vary for sport, area, public vs. private HS.

My experience is swimming and what happens in the DMV is that club swimmers keep up club practice (maybe pop into a practice with HS once a week if at all - this differs by county and public/private) and then swim meets with their HS team.