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

[Anonymous]

Yes, no one plays sports because the teams are full of people... playing sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No one is disputing athleticism being largely genetic. But WHY do you think only poor kids have athletic genes?

No, it’s not just kids in lower income schools. Athletes come from every type of school. It was another poster who claimed that athletes are only from upper middle class towns. Really stupid comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought that a big part of the American high school experience is playing sports. That is why sports are featured so prominently in any teen movies or TV shows. Yet, it’s basically impossible to pass tryouts at the high school level if you haven’t played the sport from a young age besides cross country/track and swimming. And even for those two sports, you need to start them from a young age to excel at them and make varsity.

It just feels like sports have become unobtainable. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it’s sad that what was once a big American tradition is dying.

If your public high school is well resourced and too big, ie over 350 kids per grade, then yes, it’s very difficult to make any team or club unless it’s your “speciality.” If even that.

They never should have let high schools get 500,700,1000 kids per grade. No one can do anything. And class rank is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No one is disputing athleticism being largely genetic. But WHY do you think only poor kids have athletic genes?

No, it’s not just kids in lower income schools. Athletes come from every type of school. It was another poster who claimed that athletes are only from upper middle class towns. Really stupid comment.

That is not at all what that poster said or implied. You just misunderstood their comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son made two freshman teams this year for sports he had never played before.

And then what? What happens for JV and varsity?

Or is this a small private school like 100 students per grade and mandatory 2 of 3 seasons sports participation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools don't even get enough kids showing up to field lower level teams! Other than Varsity basketball, your kids should make some team. Basketball is tough.

Agree
Such a small team. 5 starters and maybe 5 more and generally fixed positions & plays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

We run out of lane space here. Kids are swimming in circles, 6-12 per lane depending on if they can pace the same speed and do proper flip turns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools are too big around here that is a big part of it.

They should offer more sports that are games that allow everyone to be able to join some kind of team. Frisbee is a good option, but there should be intramural teams for rugby, soccer, basketball etc. this would be possible if schools weren’t so overcrowded. Rec is nice and all, but lots of programs just don’t have high school programs — our soccer team dissolved at 8th essentially.

Track and cross country aren’t anywhere near as fun or have any sense of teamwork — it’s sad that’s the only choice.

This

I went to an extremely urban large high school
So lack of space, bad logistics to practice and too many students per grade all factored in to hardly anyone having a decent HS sports experience after 9th grade.

Much better to go to private school, be well rounded, and have some specialties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is parents want two things that are often opposed. They want the benefits of a big school, lots of class offerings at all levels, huge ranges of clubs, etc. They also want the school to be small so their kid can make a sports team. People simply need to accept that you cannot have both the advantages of a small school and a big school at the exact same time.

There are no “advantages” to a big public county school— unless you mean more budget money can slosh around to admin and sports programs.
All the labs, 25+ AP classes, seasonal sports are at township public schools of 250 per grade or at private upper schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You realize that your personal anecdotal experiences is just that. Many other people can provide examples about how they and their kids loved sports, excelled in academics, and went on to amazing professional experiences.

People here truly love to hate on sports. I don’t know why it matters to so many people if they and their kids have zero interest in it. But to continually imply that the kids who love sports are intellectually inferior to the kids who don’t is insulting.

It also shouldn’t be surprising that in this highly competitive area, sports are competitive as well.

In the Bay Area, high school sports aren’t a big deal, so it’s not hard to make the team. I thought it would be similar here too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought that a big part of the American high school experience is playing sports. That is why sports are featured so prominently in any teen movies or TV shows. Yet, it’s basically impossible to pass tryouts at the high school level if you haven’t played the sport from a young age besides cross country/track and swimming. And even for those two sports, you need to start them from a young age to excel at them and make varsity.

It just feels like sports have become unobtainable. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it’s sad that what was once a big American tradition is dying.

If your public high school is well resourced and too big, ie over 350 kids per grade, then yes, it’s very difficult to make any team or club unless it’s your “speciality.” If even that.

They never should have let high schools get 500,700,1000 kids per grade. No one can do anything. And class rank is a joke.

Large schools support more teams and clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools are too big around here that is a big part of it.

They should offer more sports that are games that allow everyone to be able to join some kind of team. Frisbee is a good option, but there should be intramural teams for rugby, soccer, basketball etc. this would be possible if schools weren’t so overcrowded. Rec is nice and all, but lots of programs just don’t have high school programs — our soccer team dissolved at 8th essentially.

Track and cross country aren’t anywhere near as fun or have any sense of teamwork — it’s sad that’s the only choice.

Schools are big everywhere in America. Most high schools in any suburban parts of America will have 2000-3000 students. Most high schools in Texas have 4000 students

Agree. We moved from NoVa a few years ago, to Mechanicsburg PA - by Harrisburg. The high school has over 3000 students. This isn’t a large city by any stretch.

Wow. I grew up in a town right next to Mechanicsburg that had about 300 kids in its HS. I had no idea Mechanicsburg was so huge.

pp is talking about Cumberland Valley High School most likely. I went to Central Dauphin which is the east shore rival -- CV was always huge but I didn't realize it has grown to be over 3k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You realize that your personal anecdotal experiences is just that. Many other people can provide examples about how they and their kids loved sports, excelled in academics, and went on to amazing professional experiences.

People here truly love to hate on sports. I don’t know why it matters to so many people if they and their kids have zero interest in it. But to continually imply that the kids who love sports are intellectually inferior to the kids who don’t is insulting.

It also shouldn’t be surprising that in this highly competitive area, sports are competitive as well.

In the Bay Area, high school sports aren’t a big deal, so it’s not hard to make the team. I thought it would be similar here too

You mean club sports are year round and don’t want you on other teams? (And you don’t have time due to their practices, games and travel tourneys?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought that a big part of the American high school experience is playing sports. That is why sports are featured so prominently in any teen movies or TV shows. Yet, it’s basically impossible to pass tryouts at the high school level if you haven’t played the sport from a young age besides cross country/track and swimming. And even for those two sports, you need to start them from a young age to excel at them and make varsity.

It just feels like sports have become unobtainable. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it’s sad that what was once a big American tradition is dying.

If your public high school is well resourced and too big, ie over 350 kids per grade, then yes, it’s very difficult to make any team or club unless it’s your “speciality.” If even that.

They never should have let high schools get 500,700,1000 kids per grade. No one can do anything. And class rank is a joke.

Large schools support more teams and clubs.

Not really.

Once over 150 a grade it’s the same number of teams and clubs.

At most a super large high school might allow two JV team for basketball or new club sports like cycling or bass fishing. But they are definitely NOT adding “more teams” just because there are 500-1000 kids per grade of over achievers.

All a big well resourced school means is there will be cuts and run offs to be on the tram or compete in the competitions. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son walked into Varsity LAx w school freshman

Only played one year at a small private before that

Lacrosse is any easy game to learn. I played senior year girls and it was fun but that was enough for me. One year is plenty to learn the game. It just sucks when a school has 3x as many players as they do spots.