Feel bad for the kids who get cut in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

you don’t make orchestra at your high school?

Didn't grow up in DC but in my school anyone could join, if you weren't at least decent then the teacher would make you decent

And if you weren't one of the better players then you simply did not get a leadership position

I assume, although I don't know of anyone who was legit bad, but if you are legit bad at your instrument or legit cannot march in step then you would eventually be removed from performances

People absolutely got cut from band and orchestra in our high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 PP and that’s why I was wondering - a friend of a friend’s daughter is on a very high level club soccer team but doesn’t play for the HS. And I was like, there’s no way she didn’t make the team, so then I assumed that the club team was probably better than the HS team so there was no real point to playing on a worse team, with a worse coach, and risking injury or scheduling conflicts with the club team.

In NoVA the club soccer teams are far better and more competitive than HS. The top players who want to get recruited for college don't play high school. But there are enough travel players that know they wont play in college that switch to HS at that age. If you aren’t playing travel you won't make the HS team. If you are playing travel and you're the best in your club, you won't bother with high school. If you're a bubble player on a travel team you likely won't make your high school team. It's a wild culture.

[Anonymous]

Do y’all weep for the kids that want to be in the advanced classes but don’t qualify?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do y’all weep for the kids that want to be in the advanced classes but don’t qualify?

No because they still get to go to a class. This is about an all or nothing scenario.

[Anonymous]

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

That’s easy - money. Money, not enough fields or teachers willing to do it. The schools should do better though. Intramural programs would be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 PP and that’s why I was wondering - a friend of a friend’s daughter is on a very high level club soccer team but doesn’t play for the HS. And I was like, there’s no way she didn’t make the team, so then I assumed that the club team was probably better than the HS team so there was no real point to playing on a worse team, with a worse coach, and risking injury or scheduling conflicts with the club team.

In NoVA the club soccer teams are far better and more competitive than HS. The top players who want to get recruited for college don't play high school. But there are enough travel players that know they wont play in college that switch to HS at that age. If you aren’t playing travel you won't make the HS team. If you are playing travel and you're the best in your club, you won't bother with high school. If you're a bubble player on a travel team you likely won't make your high school team. It's a wild culture.

That might be true for soccer that in the US is a little kids activity until they’re able to play basketball or baseball. Soccer will never be big in the US so not too many people care how they do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the HS swim team no-cut?

Not usually.

So kids who want to swim with their HS team get cut for the club swimmers who only show up for the meets?

Our high school has over 3k students and has cuts for swimming. My son made it on the team but knows of a club swimmer who did not. He also cannot make high school practice because of club swim practice and the coach said that’s fine. It’s not like it’s a team sport that you need to have dynamics figured out.

This is why some kids get cut and don’t get to participate and play for their school. So club players can go to meets.

Yeah, definitely happens at big schools with lots of swimmers. But also, in MoCo, there are 2h/wk of practice, total! And it might be 5a at a pool nowhere near the HS. It’s not like other sports, with 2-3h per day on campus, so it’s a totally different culture either way.

[Anonymous]

This is how you field competitive teams.

[Anonymous]

Push for more rec programs for HS, but where I live in NOVA, they have never been able to keep a high school rec basketball or volleyball program going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the negative trickle down effect of the American obsession with sports and the cult of the athlete. It poisons the college experience and now the HS and even middle school experience for kids.

Yep. Don’t complain about something that you had a role I creating!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, it’s gotten crazy. The schools are too large and there are just too many kids who have been playing travel ball since they were like 8 or whatever. It’s not just sports, my son debated in middle school and there were schools that had cuts for *middle school debate.* It’s absurd, kids should have more opportunities to participate without specializing from age 6.

Yes is another benefit of private schools. The smaller size gives students the opportunity to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities and sports.

Too bad we have to spend so much money for this to happen but it makes all the difference for my tweens.

[Anonymous]

Today is swim tryouts… my sophomore DS made it on the team last year as a freshman, but this years batch of freshman are honestly faster than him. He is likely not making the team today.
He can continue with his club team, but he probably won’t.
It’s frustrating and sad to watch this. But that is life - you don’t always get what you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today is swim tryouts… my sophomore DS made it on the team last year as a freshman, but this years batch of freshman are honestly faster than him. He is likely not making the team today.
He can continue with his club team, but he probably won’t.
It’s frustrating and sad to watch this. But that is life - you don’t always get what you want.

That stinks, I’m sorry. I went to a small high school and we could take everyone on swim team, even kids with very little swimming experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to come across as contrarian here but try this out: what if instead of frowning upon competition and banning all competitive endeavors in the name of feelings, we instead provided more opportunities for kids to engage in and/or out of school (for free if needed)?

Protecting (typical) kids from rejection their entire childhood to the greatest extent possible deprives them of the opportunity to build resilience and results in young adults who have very poor coping mechanisms, really underdeveloped human skills, and some big deficits in being able to transition to the real world. I'm a college professor, so ask me how I know this I guess.

It’s not the rejection or feelings. It is having to completely give up something you love doing. There simply aren’t many active club no cut team sports in many areas. We wonder why middle and high school boys get sucked into the gaming world and toxic on line world. Well, you kicked them out of their main physical and social interaction activity.

I don't buy this unless you live in an extremely rural or isolated area. This is DC Urban Moms and Dads - this is not the case here at all.

Also, again, maybe controversial, but it DOES build resilience to pivot and start over. That's life: you can't be an astronaut or a doctor or go to the school you want. You HAVE to choose something else. You can make that choice based on available options and by considering what might be a good alternative. 14/15 is not too young to start doing this with uplifting support from parents.

[Anonymous]

^Also what's wrong with rec? If you love it, you'll do it. If you only love it because it's "club" you...don't love "it.".