When did it get so hard to play at the high school level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sports that cut need to evaluate if they need more JV sports or practice teams. I call it practice teams, but this doesn’t exist. You know what I mean .. inventing something where people get to play at a practice level because they are obviously interested.

Problem is $$ for coaches and field space

+1

I agree.

However; why is it setup this way? A public high school with enrollment of 700 kids will have a JV and varsity and one field. A public high school with enrollment of 4000 kids will also have a JV and varsity and one field. And the same number of coaches as the small school. So small schools are spending massively more $ and resources on sports per student.

It won’t change, obviously, but it isn’t really setup well- and is a major contributor to overuse/overspecialization in youth sports (and at increasingly young ages).

Our large HS doesn’t have more room for fields even if they wanted to add more. Most don’t. Perhaps something that could be considered with new builds. Even offering freshman or JVB teams through the school goes a long way- some schools in our area do, some don’t.

Field availability is going to be a problem in increasingly urban areas. In theory the schools can adjust by going upwards (e.g, adding pickleball / tennis / basketball courts to roofs) or adding sports with less space constraints (e.g., yoga / ballet studio, karate dojo). Allowing for 5-6 competitive soccer teams that all play full field is going to be hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the term for this is sour grapes. It’s ok to say “my kids aren’t into running and wrestling” and leave it at that. No need to be insulting. They might be no cut, but like any other sport they require grit and talent to succeed and very few people excel at them.

Yes, honestly those are two of the most physically demanding sports to do at a high level.