Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Was the turnout for the girls tryouts the same as boys? I heard there were 40+ 8th grade boys today with another tryout tomorrow for 6th and 7th graders.
No - because the girls were told that Deal has no problem having a title ix violation and they are only having 1 girls BB team - but Deal has the ability to have 2 boys BB teams. The girls were told the reason is there is not enough gym space for both the girls and the boys.
This is not true and you must not have history of this or how it works in DC and Deal. A couple of points.
1. Basketball is very popular around DC at all middle schools and no middle school has issues fielding competitive Bball team. Deal is not even a top 2 bball team in the city.
2. Historically there has been a 6th grade only boys team that plays K-8 middle school teams so schools like Browne, Leckie, Oyster-Adams, Walker-Jones, Wheatley, formerly Takoma. Whereas the 7/8 grade boys team plays the DCIAA middle school only teams (Hardy, Jefferson, Hobson etc).
3. The last time they had basketball at Deal 2019-2020 year, it was the same exact set up for girls as boys (there was a 6th grade girls team and a 7/8th grade team). Jefferson won DCIAA that year for boys and Deal girls won. I think for the 6th grade teams, Takoma boys won that championship (not sure if the girls) and not sure who won the girls but Deal 6th grade girls went pretty far (maybe finals). Keep in mind you have 6th grade Deal boys AND girls playing 6-8th grade teams.
I’m wondering if they will keep same model as last few years or maybe have a 6/7th grade team and 8th only for boys and girls. This would be good for the current 8th graders that lost a year of playing time so more 8th graders can make a team and the lower division can be more competitive.