Sidwell Basketball Article

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it has more to do with being well rounded across as many disciplines as possible. I have no idea what the "embrace our nerdiness" is all about.

You sound uptight. If you don't know what the phrase is, then you're also not as smart as you think you are. I think what the pp basically means, nerdiness is what got you to the place in life where you can send your kid to Sidwell. So be happy. Don't try to be, through your kids, something you never were in high school - i.e., a jock. We former and current nerds now run companies that employees, sometimes, those former gods of the high school world.

You sound like an ass, and I'm not even the PP you're responding to. You registered a 3 on the Jerk Meter. Instead, how 'bout a nice explanation for a poster who obviously isn't as sophisticated and worldly as you want us to think you are?

[Anonymous]

If you look at the make up of Marets basketball team you would think Maret is a predominantly an inner city school. The same could be said for Bullis. Both teams are 80% black when I suspect both schools are more or less 75% white. It seems like a some schools in the MAC (Maret and Saint Andrews) are really trying to improve their athletic image by building a basketball program. The same can be said at Bullis. If you saw their football team play this Fall you would have thought the school was from PG county.

Sidwell's basketball team is 80% white with one HELL of a basketball player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is saying something when almost the entirety of your basketball team shows up in 9th grade or later, and looks a whole lot different than the vast majority of your student body.

First, this is the nature of private school recruiting (i.e. 9th grade or later): it happens at most DC-area private schools in competitive athletic divisions. Nothing new. Second, the Maret basketball team has returned all five of its starters, so we are not talking one-year mercenaries here. Third, Maret has a diverse student body, i.e. ~ 40% of Maret's students are non-white. As such, the Maret lacrosse and baseball teams look "a whole lot different than the vast majority of the student body," so no need to pick on basketball.

[Anonymous]

You all better be careful where you start taking this thread ... there are plenty of students of color who are at private schools well before 9th grade who end up playing sports, plenty of students of color who come in at 9th grade who are not athletes, and plenty of white students who are recruited at 9th grade for athletics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is saying something when almost the entirety of your basketball team shows up in 9th grade or later, and looks a whole lot different than the vast majority of your student body.

First, this is the nature of private school recruiting (i.e. 9th grade or later): it happens at most DC-area private schools in competitive athletic divisions. Nothing new. Second, the Maret basketball team has returned all five of its starters, so we are not talking one-year mercenaries here. Third, Maret has a diverse student body, i.e. ~ 40% of Maret's students are non-white. As such, the Maret lacrosse and baseball teams look "a whole lot different than the vast majority of the student body," so no need to pick on basketball.

Don't even try and compare the lacrosse or baseball teams to the basketball team. It's not even close. The basketball team is 85% black. The school is probably 10% black. 100% of the black students on the basketball team were at different middle schools. I would assume that isn't true for even 50% of the black students in the high school.

Sidwell has non-recruited athletes playing basketball. Maret does not.

And who cares about one-year mercenaries? No one in the league has one year mercenaries. The point is Maret is recruiting much more extensively than any other school in the league for basketball.

If you want to talk about "one year mercenaries", then how about the fifth year senior on the basketball team, who really should have only been at Maret for one year if he hadn't repeated a grade? That's a contemptible practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all better be careful where you start taking this thread ... there are plenty of students of color who are at private schools well before 9th grade who end up playing sports, plenty of students of color who come in at 9th grade who are not athletes, and plenty of white students who are recruited at 9th grade for athletics.

Why "be careful"? There are issues of race, socioeconomics, and academic-preparedness that it doesn't do anyone any good to ignore. I think it's much more important to "be careful" not to pussyfoot around those issues. Really, don't you think the athletes, the other student and school administration recognize the issue? Everyone can see the racial differences. it should be discussed, openly, as all such issues should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all better be careful where you start taking this thread ... there are plenty of students of color who are at private schools well before 9th grade who end up playing sports, plenty of students of color who come in at 9th grade who are not athletes, and plenty of white students who are recruited at 9th grade for athletics.

Why "be careful"? There are issues of race, socioeconomics, and academic-preparedness that it doesn't do anyone any good to ignore. I think it's much more important to "be careful" not to pussyfoot around those issues. Really, don't you think the athletes, the other student and school administration recognize the issue? Everyone can see the racial differences. it should be discussed, openly, as all such issues should be.

I mean you need to be careful not to make assumptions. There are plenty of students of color that others look at and assume they were recruited for athletics in 9th, when they are lifers. Plenty of white students others look at and assume they were admitted for their academics, when they are athletes with weak academics. I do not deny that there are issues related to race, socioeconomics and academic pressure, I am just pointing out that overgeneralizing hurts our youth.

[Anonymous]

People will make generalizations from your specific scenarios is to the broader population. That's all.

[Anonymous]

Aren't there any white kids at Maret who were rejected by Sidwell? Doesn't seem like much of an indictment.

[Anonymous]

What is so awful about entering Maret, or Sidwell or any other private school, in the ninth grade?

Lots of kids enter at that point from public, and for all sorts of reasons.
Some need a little extra academic help, or support with the social adjustments, since there can be a world of difference between public and private.
But for the most part they tend to make it over the hump, if there is one, and do just fine.

They're not interlopers, and -- having been admitted by the admissions committee after all -- have just as much right to be there as the kids who are lifers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there any white kids at Maret who were rejected by Sidwell? Doesn't seem like much of an indictment.

I know a white kid who was accepted at both Maret and Sidwell, and chose Maret. FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[
Sidwell has non-recruited athletes playing basketball. Maret does not.

News Flash: DC-Area privates recruit for athletics. So do colleges. Get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[
Sidwell has non-recruited athletes playing basketball. Maret does not.

News Flash: DC-Area privates recruit for athletics. So do colleges. Get over it.

Yes, they do and there is nothing wrong with that. But it points out the hypocrisy of Sidwell whose parents tout it as a school that has high academic standards that aren't lowered for anyone when it clearly does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell has non-recruited athletes playing basketball. Maret does not.

News Flash: DC-Area privates recruit for athletics. So do colleges. Get over it.

Yes, they do and there is nothing wrong with that. But it points out the hypocrisy of Sidwell whose parents tout it as a school that has high academic standards that aren't lowered for anyone when it clearly does.

Where do you see Sidwell parents making that claim? I have never heard it. Are you sure you're not projecting a little bit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there any white kids at Maret who were rejected by Sidwell? Doesn't seem like much of an indictment.

Of the 10 basketball players, only 2 (the two white players) were there before high school. So there's no way the white students could have been rejected by Sidwell. That's the only reason for the black/white gap in reported rejections here.

It's clear that Sidwell, all else equal, is the preferred choice among DC private schools. So it's not surprising that many of Maret's recruited athletes applied to, and were rejected by, Sidwell. Being recruited doesn't get you into Sidwell.