High School soccer insane expectations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

As a non-American, the way I see it is that academics have been bending backwards for sports for a long time - no teacher would be allowed to act the way many coaches do. I think that in any other country, it would be considered insane to prioritize 2 hours of sports practice *per day* over everything else, unless you're at a national or international level. There are obviously not 22 hours left in the day, given... school, and also like, sleeping, commuting, eating. High schools start before 8 am and most people (unless they're on the swim team) don't believe it's reasonable to schedule things before school starts.

That being said, it's definitely true that once someone commits to something, they should try their utmost to follow through, whether it's sports, tutoring, a birthday party etc. There are times when things conflict and then you have to make a choice, but live with the consequences (like if you miss practice, maybe you'll be benched for the next game.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

Wow. So my kid who tried out for a competitive sports team, got selected against the odds, and is a JV non starter is not welcome on the team if I value his academics over his sport? I love that he tried out. Love that he gets to play for his school. Love that it teaches him discipline, communication, and time management along with being good for him to stay physically active. But 2 hours every day is a lot and if something academic conflicts, I would absolutely make him pay attention to school first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:17:52 again. I’m a parent but also a high school teacher. Students do not miss practice to take a test after school. Ever. They come to Mascot Period. Which school is this that regularly has kids missing practice to make up tests?

Yes ding dong, every school in the world has “mascot period.”

[Anonymous]

Some of you are just plain crazy. I understand not scheduling a weekly tutoring session during practice, but a one-off make-up session should be totally fine. If it isn't, you need to rethink your priorities.

I played Varsity soccer and basketball, and there were times when someone had to miss practice. Unless it was habitual, it was fine. My senior year, my basketball co-captain was behind on her college apps and needed to miss a week to catch up. The coach left it up to the team as to whether he would bench her for that. As a team, we agreed that her future and her mental health were way more important than a week of high school basketball and asked our coach not to punish her for taking the week off.

There are many things that you commit to. That commitment doesn't mean that you never miss a single instance. It means you show up as much as you can and you clearly communicate when you can't.

[Anonymous]

Wow. So my kid who tried out for a competitive sports team, got selected against the odds, and is a JV non starter is not welcome on the team if I value his academics over his sport? I love that he tried out. Love that he gets to play for his school. Love that it teaches him discipline, communication, and time management along with being good for him to stay physically active. But 2 hours every day is a lot and if something academic conflicts, I would absolutely make him pay attention to school first.

I am not PP. How often are we talking? If you mean like once or twice in an entire season, that's likely fine. If it is more frequent, then maybe he's not in a place to balance academics and sports demands - and that is totally ok. But there are a limited number of spots on teams, and they should go to kids who are able to show up. That's basic fairness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are just plain crazy. I understand not scheduling a weekly tutoring session during practice, but a one-off make-up session should be totally fine. If it isn't, you need to rethink your priorities.

I played Varsity soccer and basketball, and there were times when someone had to miss practice. Unless it was habitual, it was fine. My senior year, my basketball co-captain was behind on her college apps and needed to miss a week to catch up. The coach left it up to the team as to whether he would bench her for that. As a team, we agreed that her future and her mental health were way more important than a week of high school basketball and asked our coach not to punish her for taking the week off.

There are many things that you commit to. That commitment doesn't mean that you never miss a single instance. It means you show up as much as you can and you clearly communicate when you can't.

The coach let the team decide whether to punish a player? That’s really not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are just plain crazy. I understand not scheduling a weekly tutoring session during practice, but a one-off make-up session should be totally fine. If it isn't, you need to rethink your priorities.

I played Varsity soccer and basketball, and there were times when someone had to miss practice. Unless it was habitual, it was fine. My senior year, my basketball co-captain was behind on her college apps and needed to miss a week to catch up. The coach left it up to the team as to whether he would bench her for that. As a team, we agreed that her future and her mental health were way more important than a week of high school basketball and asked our coach not to punish her for taking the week off.

There are many things that you commit to. That commitment doesn't mean that you never miss a single instance. It means you show up as much as you can and you clearly communicate when you can't.

The coach let the team decide whether to punish a player? That’s really not good.

His reasoning is that we were the ones affected by the player's absence and if we were okay with it, then he was too. The point is that we were accountable to each other. The alternative is that she would have been punished for missing the time, but that wasn't something that we wanted as a team. On some teams that might be an issue, but it actually worked really well for our team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

Wow. So my kid who tried out for a competitive sports team, got selected against the odds, and is a JV non starter is not welcome on the team if I value his academics over his sport? I love that he tried out. Love that he gets to play for his school. Love that it teaches him discipline, communication, and time management along with being good for him to stay physically active. But 2 hours every day is a lot and if something academic conflicts, I would absolutely make him pay attention to school first.

99.9% of the time, it's not "something academic" that conflicts. In the examples given by the OP, the main "conflict" was the tutor wanted to reschedule. That did not need to happen during soccer practice, find another time. That is not an "academic conflict." Students should be able to learn just during regular class time, and getting a tutor is an extreme situation. If a student is doing so poorly in a class that they need a tutor, they should not have tried out for the soccer team in the first place.

Another example was a DIFFERENT sport. Again, not an "academic conflict."

A different poster mentioned that "family travel" should take priority over practice.

If the coach is insisting that players ditch their 10 am math class to come to practice, that's a valid "academic conflict."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are just plain crazy. I understand not scheduling a weekly tutoring session during practice, but a one-off make-up session should be totally fine. If it isn't, you need to rethink your priorities.

I played Varsity soccer and basketball, and there were times when someone had to miss practice. Unless it was habitual, it was fine. My senior year, my basketball co-captain was behind on her college apps and needed to miss a week to catch up. The coach left it up to the team as to whether he would bench her for that. As a team, we agreed that her future and her mental health were way more important than a week of high school basketball and asked our coach not to punish her for taking the week off.

There are many things that you commit to. That commitment doesn't mean that you never miss a single instance. It means you show up as much as you can and you clearly communicate when you can't.

The coach let the team decide whether to punish a player? That’s really not good.

His reasoning is that we were the ones affected by the player's absence and if we were okay with it, then he was too. The point is that we were accountable to each other. The alternative is that she would have been punished for missing the time, but that wasn't something that we wanted as a team. On some teams that might be an issue, but it actually worked really well for our team.

Yeah. - That was a very very very bad approach. Never allow that to happen. It is why you have an adult coaching. The coach can talk to the player, player’s parents, and the school admin folks on how best to approach the issue. Never never never are you going to hear, “the best approach will be to let kids decide”. Letting kids decide was incredibly stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

As a non-American, the way I see it is that academics have been bending backwards for sports for a long time - no teacher would be allowed to act the way many coaches do. I think that in any other country, it would be considered insane to prioritize 2 hours of sports practice *per day* over everything else, unless you're at a national or international level. There are obviously not 22 hours left in the day, given... school, and also like, sleeping, commuting, eating. High schools start before 8 am and most people (unless they're on the swim team) don't believe it's reasonable to schedule things before school starts.

That being said, it's definitely true that once someone commits to something, they should try their utmost to follow through, whether it's sports, tutoring, a birthday party etc. There are times when things conflict and then you have to make a choice, but live with the consequences (like if you miss practice, maybe you'll be benched for the next game.)

also non-American and I will never understand the sports obsession in this country at the HS and college levels. BTW OP-is this a certain HS in Vienna?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

As a non-American, the way I see it is that academics have been bending backwards for sports for a long time - no teacher would be allowed to act the way many coaches do. I think that in any other country, it would be considered insane to prioritize 2 hours of sports practice *per day* over everything else, unless you're at a national or international level. There are obviously not 22 hours left in the day, given... school, and also like, sleeping, commuting, eating. High schools start before 8 am and most people (unless they're on the swim team) don't believe it's reasonable to schedule things before school starts.

That being said, it's definitely true that once someone commits to something, they should try their utmost to follow through, whether it's sports, tutoring, a birthday party etc. There are times when things conflict and then you have to make a choice, but live with the consequences (like if you miss practice, maybe you'll be benched for the next game.)

also non-American and I will never understand the sports obsession in this country at the HS and college levels. BTW OP-is this a certain HS in Vienna?

Why not? We don't have local professional clubs and the professional sports that we do have are aimed at national fanbases. If you want to root for a local team, it's high school and college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

As a non-American, the way I see it is that academics have been bending backwards for sports for a long time - no teacher would be allowed to act the way many coaches do. I think that in any other country, it would be considered insane to prioritize 2 hours of sports practice *per day* over everything else, unless you're at a national or international level. There are obviously not 22 hours left in the day, given... school, and also like, sleeping, commuting, eating. High schools start before 8 am and most people (unless they're on the swim team) don't believe it's reasonable to schedule things before school starts.

That being said, it's definitely true that once someone commits to something, they should try their utmost to follow through, whether it's sports, tutoring, a birthday party etc. There are times when things conflict and then you have to make a choice, but live with the consequences (like if you miss practice, maybe you'll be benched for the next game.)

also non-American and I will never understand the sports obsession in this country at the HS and college levels. BTW OP-is this a certain HS in Vienna?

Why not? We don't have local professional clubs and the professional sports that we do have are aimed at national fanbases. If you want to root for a local team, it's high school and college.

(First non-American poster here.)
I mean, OK, I get rooting for your college team (though college sports have issues as well), but like... middle schoolers waking up at 4 am for club swimming, 15 year olds getting major injuries from overdoing track practice... (again, these are kids who are not going to "make it" in sports.) it all seems kind of crazy. I just don't think it's worth it for any "persistence" or "hard work" they may learn.

I did part of my education in the US and ran cross country my senior year. It was at a small school where anyone could join any sport (and we had no football team) and I was really bad. Some kids were good and our team would sometimes win state in the "small school" division, but no one was gonna do this as a career (maybe a couple kids would run in college if they went to a small colrge.) However, some girls would take 2-3 ibuprofens *before* each race as a way to preempt pain. Really? It seems insane to start doing this at age 14.

I have to say, my kids do some sports but we try very hard to keep it in perspective. For example, they're super into summer swim, which is sometimes 2 hours a day (often because kids like to spend extra time in the pool), but it's OK to skip practice and even have a conflict during the event (as long as you tell the coach ahead of time so you don't mess stuff up for the team). I also like the fact that it's mostly after the end of the school year. (Son would probably have been good enough to join a club as well during the year, but though he loves swimming, he said he wants to do other things as well during the school year, so just does lessons once a week.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes
Sports is the very last place in public school where students are actually expected to adhere to decent values like honoring your commitments to something other than your own self.
You admit practice is only 2 hours out of the day. So the test and tutors couldn't be scheduled for any of the other 22 hours?
My kids have played intense sports and managed to do makeup tests before school, during lunch or free periods and doctors appointments etc during other hours.
I was thrilled to have them get a real life understanding of the commitments and sacrifices that are needed to excel in other areas of life.
Keep your meddling, snowflake coddling Karen hands off sports culture. The meddling has ruined every other aspect of public school.
Please and thanks.

As a non-American, the way I see it is that academics have been bending backwards for sports for a long time - no teacher would be allowed to act the way many coaches do. I think that in any other country, it would be considered insane to prioritize 2 hours of sports practice *per day* over everything else, unless you're at a national or international level. There are obviously not 22 hours left in the day, given... school, and also like, sleeping, commuting, eating. High schools start before 8 am and most people (unless they're on the swim team) don't believe it's reasonable to schedule things before school starts.

That being said, it's definitely true that once someone commits to something, they should try their utmost to follow through, whether it's sports, tutoring, a birthday party etc. There are times when things conflict and then you have to make a choice, but live with the consequences (like if you miss practice, maybe you'll be benched for the next game.)

also non-American and I will never understand the sports obsession in this country at the HS and college levels. BTW OP-is this a certain HS in Vienna?

Why not? We don't have local professional clubs and the professional sports that we do have are aimed at national fanbases. If you want to root for a local team, it's high school and college.

(First non-American poster here.)
I mean, OK, I get rooting for your college team (though college sports have issues as well), but like... middle schoolers waking up at 4 am for club swimming, 15 year olds getting major injuries from overdoing track practice... (again, these are kids who are not going to "make it" in sports.) it all seems kind of crazy. I just don't think it's worth it for any "persistence" or "hard work" they may learn.

I did part of my education in the US and ran cross country my senior year. It was at a small school where anyone could join any sport (and we had no football team) and I was really bad. Some kids were good and our team would sometimes win state in the "small school" division, but no one was gonna do this as a career (maybe a couple kids would run in college if they went to a small colrge.) However, some girls would take 2-3 ibuprofens *before* each race as a way to preempt pain. Really? It seems insane to start doing this at age 14.

I have to say, my kids do some sports but we try very hard to keep it in perspective. For example, they're super into summer swim, which is sometimes 2 hours a day (often because kids like to spend extra time in the pool), but it's OK to skip practice and even have a conflict during the event (as long as you tell the coach ahead of time so you don't mess stuff up for the team). I also like the fact that it's mostly after the end of the school year. (Son would probably have been good enough to join a club as well during the year, but though he loves swimming, he said he wants to do other things as well during the school year, so just does lessons once a week.)

Why do kids go any extra curricular? Most theater kids will not be actors, most kids on the school newspaper will not be reporters... For that matter, why do kids study for hours in AP physics, most will never need to know the material ever again. The same goes for most classes kids will take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are just plain crazy. I understand not scheduling a weekly tutoring session during practice, but a one-off make-up session should be totally fine. If it isn't, you need to rethink your priorities.

I played Varsity soccer and basketball, and there were times when someone had to miss practice. Unless it was habitual, it was fine. My senior year, my basketball co-captain was behind on her college apps and needed to miss a week to catch up. The coach left it up to the team as to whether he would bench her for that. As a team, we agreed that her future and her mental health were way more important than a week of high school basketball and asked our coach not to punish her for taking the week off.

There are many things that you commit to. That commitment doesn't mean that you never miss a single instance. It means you show up as much as you can and you clearly communicate when you can't.

The coach let the team decide whether to punish a player? That’s really not good.

+1

Seriously. That’s messed up.

[Anonymous]

17:52 again. I’m a parent but also a high school teacher. Students do not miss practice to take a test after school. Ever. They come to Mascot Period. Which school is this that regularly has kids missing practice to make up tests? Yes ding dong, every school in the world has “mascot period.”

Our private school doesn't have a free period for everyone, and a student taking the most rigorous schedule, doesn't have a study hall. My HS kid plays two sports and we appreciate all the the fun and values that's instilled. It's just as important to teach your kid to balance priorities and work with third parties. But, we're a academics first house so that's our DC's priority.