Middle school boys and sports
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Anonymous
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Our local rec league (SYA) seems to offer sports all the way up through high school age.
The local middle schools have after school sports clubs where they can play with friends. |
Anonymous
You can easily create your own team through Jelleff basketball or another sport. Ask some of your sons friends and if you don’t have enough for a team expand it and ask more. |
Anonymous
I’m in my mid-40s, and I had the same experience. I was a good athlete but didn’t start playing organized sports until age 10–and even then, only one organized sport and only one season each year. But I played three varsity sports in high school, two of which I had never previously played in organized fashion outside of gym class. We had JV and varsity for all teams, and across all of the sports in the school, pretty much every kid who really wanted to be on a team, was competent, and could commit could probably make at least JV of at least one team. Sports were a huge part of my HS experience, but they didn’t feel super high-stakes; I hadn’t been training my whole life for them, and I didn’t really spend time on them outside their assigned seasons. I had time for other extracurricular activities. The team camaraderie was great, the competition was fun, I was proud to represent my school, and I stayed in great shape. But that’s about it. Sports had appropriate relative weight in my life. It feels completely different today, with kids starting so young and pushed to commit/specialize so early. It raises the stakes and narrows the field, with the result that HS sports are accessible to a very small portion of a school’s population. |
Anonymous
You are calling me ignorant, and then making claims with no data to back them up. Here are several articles discussing the fact that youth sports participation is declining: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/recruiting-insider/wp/2017/09/06/youth-sports-study-declining-participation-rising-costs-and-unqualified-coaches/?utm_term=.83720a2b3dff https://www.si.com/more-sports/2015/08/11/american-youth-sports-participation-drop-decline-statistics-study https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakewilliams3012/2016/06/15/youth-sports-participation-continues-to-decline-and-congress-may-have-a-solution/#6ed498a0177d The only major sport with rising participation is ice hockey. Baseball, on the other hand, is one of the sports hit the hardest. I am relying on studies/data...what are you relying on? As for doubting that many of the people I knew in high school played sports in college or professionally, you are wrong. I grew up in Southern California where the sports are in a different league than in this area (especially baseball). I'm not sure why you want me to name those people. You do understand that not everyone who plays sports in college or even professionally becomes famous, right? I mean, the vast majority of people in this country don't even know who Mike Trout is (https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/baseballs-dilemma-mike-trout-is-mlbs-ultimate-all-star-and-yet-he-is-not-a-star/2018/07/16/bc17e36c-8490-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html?utm_term=.d09957fe04ad), so you're certainly not going to recognize any of the names of the people I grew up with who played professional baseball and other sports. |
Anonymous
I forgot to say that the article you cite is clearly just saying that participation in 2017 (or 2018, not clear) has grown over the previous year. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about participation now compared to, say, 10, 15, or 20 years ago. The fact that more people are playing baseball this year vs. last year doesn't prove that BB is booming. It only proves that it's suffering a little less than it was a year ago, in large part because of efforts that have been made bc so few kids are playing baseball. Are you starting to understand now? |
Anonymous
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Back to the original post:
Middle school is a traditional weeding out period for sports -- it has been forever. That's not to say that there are no opportunities to keep playing sports. There are, and I would say they currently are stronger for middle school kids than 25 years ago, because the lasts major recession took out lots of middle school sports as school systems made budget cuts. In many areas those sports have not returned at the middle school level. Still, the middle school years are (and have always been) years when kids begin to focus more on education, and on sports/activities that specifically interest them. School music, theatre, and lots of different clubs can be tried out. And, of course, grades start to become a big focus for kids and families. From the parent side of things -- you do need to keep up on what is going on with your kid, and you need to be thinking about and planning what they may be doing through their high school years. Do start checking out sports and activities at their likely high school. They will get there far sooner than you can imagine. I will say though that as a parent you do need to be really flexible and encouraging. My oldest went into high school as a football/baseball kid, and graduated as a music kid. He took choir because it was an easy "no homework" class his sophomore year, and he is now a high school music teacher. |
Anonymous
masanutten and Bryce as well. Basically all of them. |
Anonymous
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On the question of youth sports numbers improving, declining or staying the same - I would note that the numbers are, and always have been, suspect. There really is no good accumulation of participation numbers out there when it comes to youth sports. Take baseball as an example. You might be able to group Little League and Pony League figures, but you are going to be estimating large numbers of community organizations that sponsor and run their own leagues and report to no one and that has always been the case. That goes on across all sports really.
One resource that is pretty consistent, but not perfect, is the NFHS and its participation figures. It does not include all private schools though as private schools in some states elect to form their own organization and not be part of the NFHS. Still -- the numbers date back to 1969, and are always interesting. Looking at Baseball in NFHS high schools in 2017/18 you had 16,196 schools fielding teams and 487,097 participants. In 85/86 that total number was 393,805, and in 95/96 it was 444,476. In 05/06 it was 470,671. So -- slow and steady growth in high school baseball participation. |
Anonymous
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My kid (formerly an adequate soccer player on a losing "travel" team) discovered rowing in 8th grade and never looked back. We don't have a high school team so she rows for Baltimore Rowing Club's youth team, and there's a similar club in MoCo called Blair Rowing (open to all with winter practice at Montgomery Blair HS). Maybe something to try?
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