Private School Soccer Thread
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Anonymous
That is interesting – – I was the person who went to the girls championship at Georgetown last year, stayed to watch some of the boys game, and was startled by the behavior of the WIS parents' section. Unsportsmanlike and honestly sort of unhinged. It sounds like maybe some of the same crew is still in the cheering section giving the same impression. Perhaps WIS could try to have some senior admin sit with the cheering section and help guide their behavior. Embarrassing look, certainly, but perhaps that sort of behavior has been normalized these days. I don't recall the student section being out of control last year, though, it was really some parents that had gone off the deep end. (I do recall that somebody on the WIS team was red carded for leaping into the opposing fan section to taunt the opposing fans at one point.) |
Anonymous
| WIS students and parents were well-behaved at this year's Semifinals (against STA) and Finals. Enthusiastic but not obnoxious. |
Anonymous
| CAn a kid get a scholarship to one of these privates thru soccer if they are a top player??? |
Anonymous
If you are a top area soccer player who can help a school's team, I have no doubt that many an area school will give you the financial aid necessary for you to be able to afford their school. |
Anonymous
Exceot that all the "top area soccer players" are on club teams that bar them from playing on their school teams. Its a completely messed up system. |
Anonymous
"All" is not correct. There are many, many national team pool players, Region I ODP level players, ECNL players, etc. in this area who play for their HS teams. |
Anonymous
| Went to a Madiera open house this weekend and they specifically said they require girls to be on the school team but that practice is over at 6 and they have girls to go to club practice after that. I'm sure it can be hard to juggle but the athletic director helps make it work out. |
Anonymous
Highly doubtful, for the following reasons. 1. Most private schools do not give athletic scholarships. Financial aid is based on need. 2. To the extent posters are suggesting that schools will go away from their models of need-based financial aid and give financial aid that is really an athletic scholarship, it is true that this can happen. But it does NOT happen in soccer programs in this area. For one thing, soccer is not seen as a marquee spectator sport like football, basketball, or lacrosse (this last is more specific to the DMV). For another, there are lots of soccer players in this area in the regular private school cohort and schools do not need to go out and recruit hard to have athletes in the program. Financial aid money is a resource, and that resource, to the extent it is linked to athletic talent even in a "wink-wink" sort of way, is not expended on soccer. 3. As other posters have noted, the prevailing viewpoint is that the top soccer players are already in the Academy system. Even expecting soccer talent to weigh heavily in admissions, let alone help get additional money, is a more dubious proposition now, as schools assume that star middle-school aged soccer players may well play Development and be ineligible for the high school team. So the "thumb on the scales" that basketball or lacrosse may provide is just not there for soccer -- let alone incentive to offer scholarships. |
Anonymous
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"I think the WIS students and parents are out of control soccer "fans" and anyone who claims the lacrosse parents in the DC metro area are the worst should attend a WIS soccer game against a strong opposing team. WIS behavior, verbal taunts and "cheering" is ugly, vitirolic, and displays the worst type of sports "fan" behavior. Local lacrosse and football (and frankly all other sports) "fan" behavior truly pales in comparison."
I'm not involved with either WIS or STA but have two kids who have played various sports in soccer, baseball, football, lacrosse and wrestling. Landon has the worst-over invested parent base by far in every sporting event I have witnessed. I've also been surprised by the folks at Mater Dei. I read in the Washington Post comments section about last year's STA/WIS game. If what I read in there is true, STA behavior was egregious. It does not reflect what I have personally seen at STA throughout the years. |
Anonymous
WIS students and parents can be over-invested and obnoxious in their "enthusiasm" for soccer. And as the only sport in which the relatively small, International School is truly competitive, who can blame them? (Even non-soccer WIS parents and students sometimes feel excluded from that prevailing clique.) However, I believe that after last year's controversial and contentious DCSAA Finals against St. Albans, the WIS community of faculty, parents, and students, did engage in self-reflection and questions about whether their actions reflect the values, spirit, and outreach of an International community. As a result I have personally witnessed a positive behavioral adjustment, good sportsmanship, and openness towards others within the School's community, and of course with respect to opponents, that may have been lacking before. In truth, last year's Senior Class of WIS soccer parents and students were viewed by some within the School's community as particularly invested and a bit insufferable in their belief that their players were exceptional "stars" in the "best" team that WIS had ever fielded. Ironically, this year's WIS soccer team filled with lesser egos and more "team" players outperformed those stars and overachieved them in finally winning the DCSAA Finals. |
Anonymous
As a parent with kids (who are strong athletes) at other privates, this is the best anecdote about school sports I have heard in a while. Thanks for sharing. |
Anonymous
You are welcome. |
Anonymous
I was at that game last year (stayed to watch after going to the girls game) and did not see bad behavior by STA. The STA kids had a red white and blue theme, and the WIS kids had many international flags that they were waving. The STA fan section had a number of adults monitoring it and cheers were clean and not inappropriate. As I recall, the WIS parents made comments on a Post article that they thought the STA students were "jingoistic" because of the red white and blue and USA theme. To me, it seemed a fairly basic and good-natured response to playing "Washington International School," and as noted above, the WIS cheering section had many flags from other countries so it seemed like they were embracing the "international" label. Honestly, after being there at the game I read the comments and just thought it was sour grapes from fans of the losing side. I also had to move my seat away from some WIS parents who were screaming throughout at officials and opposing players (which in itself I thought was unseemly). I will say that that after I moved other people from WIS came over to me and apologized for the behavior of their fellow parents, so it was probably just a minority group of people that are not good fans. Moreover, the only red card awarded in the game was to a WIS player who jumped into the St. Albans fan section to taunt the fans after a goal was scored. |
Anonymous
| As I discuss above, the more boisterous cohort of WIS soccer parents and players graduated and moved on last spring. What remains and has grown is a good-natured, sportsmanlike, team-oriented squad. |
Anonymous
I would agree -- and congrats again to this year's WIS team for the big DCSAA win. |