Reply to A "nationally recognized locale for competitive high school sports"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ugh, this is extremely dumb. The STRUCTURAL barriers to this becoming anything other than a funnel of money to consultants are completely ridiculous.

Question 1: How many high schools in DC can field a competitive team in sport XXX? How many can field a semi-competitive team? They all play/compete against each other. That takes 6 weeks, with weekly games. Then what? Do teams from other counties/states play us? No, they all have their own leagues and their own high school athletics structures.

Dumb dumb dumb.
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There are structural issues, but not the ones you are thinking of.  There are 15 DCPS high schools, and even discounting the specialized programs with relatively weaker sports, they have a decent size for an athletic conference.  Also, yes, of course DCPS high schools play schools from other states as well as privates.  In DC, publics and privates play in DCSAA games throughout the season and in tournaments at the end of the season.  Also, they play teams from other states.  At Wilson, my kid's team played non-conference games in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania (in addition to out-of-state tournaments).

The structural issue is that talented DMV athletes from anywhere but Wilson have a tool to use to get out of DCPS, and they use it.  If you're a standout athlete in DCPS, you are going to hear from WCAC and other high school coaches in middle school, and they have financial aid.  In 8th grade, my not-superstar kid and his friends heard from WCAC schools and schools as far afield as Sandy Spring Friends School.  If you're a standout athlete in-boundary for Dunbar and you get an offer to attend Gonzaga or St. John's you're probably going to take it.  A kid on my son's travel team not only got an offer from a WCAC school, they offered his dad a job.  It's impossible for DCPS schools to compete with that.

I totally agree that facilities are not going to solve this issue.  Several DCPS schools have excellent athletic facilities (e.g. Ballou), but the nice facilities don't translate to better teams.  
Kids with options would attend Wilson or Roosevelt, but they would not play for other DCPS schools -- they would take a free ride at a private school instead. 
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What exactly is the issue you feel needs to be solved?[/quote]

I’m the PP you asked this question.  The only issue I see is that the notion of turning DCPS into a national sports powerhouse is dumb, and it reflects misplaced priorities.  I think DCPS admin should focus on improving education, or if they must do something sports related, focus on increasing participation, especially for girls.  [/quote]

I'm the PP who asked the question, and I agree.  I'll go ever further and say it's beyond dumb, it's destructive. [/quote]

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