Reply to Niche sports and rich-kid affirmative action: The Atlantic

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What really stands out is that some poor kid from the inner city who fills out his college applications doesn't actually know that he's not competing with Fred.  He's competing with Fred's mom who has an MA, and Fred's Dad, and a nanny who does research, and a coach who works for the family and a college admissions consultant and the pilot of the private plane, and some kind of sports strategist, a couple of regular tutors as well as the tutor who 'helped' write the essay.  Also, a couple of psychologists, and the staff of the pricey summer camp, etc.

What stands out to me in all these stories is that this is a kid who is being produced by a team.  It's not really fair that individuals have to compete with conglomerates.[/quote]

My son has participated in three of these sports. Two of them are free or very low cost to inner city students where I live- rowing and squash. [/quote]
Well, that makes all the difference.  :roll: 
Does the free or low cost rowing and squash come with world class coaches who move into the guest house? How about oppo research dossiers on opponents so the live in coach can devise strategies targeted to each opponent? How about the sports psychologist, and the national international tournament and showcase play to ensure the kid taking advantage of the free programs gets much needed time with recruiting coaches at top flight universities? Did you even READ the article?[/quote]

They got free tutoring and free SAT/ACT tutoring. Many got scholarships. Isn't that the end result? Boom![/quote]

You obviously didn’t read the article. [b]The lack of results shown by these programs was discussed.[/b]  How can a kid whoNtslking about  plays with a group once a week compete with a kid with a private court at their home and a former world-ranked professional live-in coach? [/quote]

I did read the article. The rowers earned college scholarships because they rowed 3 seasons a year plus did cross-training in the winter. They rowed 5 days a week. It was an intense program. It worked out well for them.[/quote]

Not sure what rowers you’re talking about. This is from the article:

And yet, according to figures compiled by the Squash and Education Alliance, an umbrella group for these programs, each year only approximately 50 of their students play on college varsity teams. Although several graduates of squash-access programs have reached the pinnacle of the sport—Reyna Pacheco of Access Youth Academy in San Diego became a top-100 world pro; the Bronx player Jessenia Pacheco (no relation) was a two-time All-American at Cornell—no player from an SEA program is currently represented among the top 30 juniors at any age level. Bryan Patterson, the director of CitySquash in the Bronx, says the odds are stacked against his athletes. “My kids have the talent, but they don’t have the means,” he told me. “These wealthy kids are getting a minimum of an hour and a half, five days a week. That’s verging on a pro schedule. We can only do things in groups. We don’t have the ability to do things one-on-one.” In other words, the same squash luminaries who underwrite squash-access programs have installed training regimens for their own children that make it difficult for regular kids to crack the system. There may be no better allegory for our era.
[/quote]

Just because you don't know about doesn't mean it isn't happening. Reach High in Baltimore (pre-Covid) trains HS rowers 5 days a week and many of their rowers have gone on to row in college after having received scholarships.[/quote]

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