It is definitely a huge downside of huge public schools, and one that we sadly realized too late.

Some sports have freshman teams - and our younger kid is fortunate enough to play one of those sports - but not for soccer and baseball at our humongous school. I was told “oh we would have to find other freshman teams to play” — please, like Fairfax and Alexandria and Arlington couldn’t field three or four more teams! It’s really too bad. Applies to arts too — not as much opportunity for growth and youth development and community building for students.

No, it is not possible at the big high schools

Anonymous wrote:Cross country is usually no cut.

not always. And only the top 14-20 actually compete in a meet

Almost every school has no cut sports. Depending on the school, some cut sports will actually take all the kids that try out because they need the numbers so it just depends on the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school has multiple no cut sports…XCountry, crew, ultimate frisbee (and a terrible football team that will take anyone).

Are you in Arlington Co? I don't know of any FCPS schools that have ultimate frisbee.

MoCo

Anonymous wrote:Our school has multiple no cut sports…XCountry, crew, ultimate frisbee (and a terrible football team that will take anyone).

Are you in Arlington Co? I don't know of any FCPS schools that have ultimate frisbee.

Our school has multiple no cut sports…XCountry, crew, ultimate frisbee (and a terrible football team that will take anyone).

We had 90 girls try out for soccer at the school where I teach. They have a JV and a varsity team, but a full roster is only 20 kids (11 play at a time). They stretched it to 25 with 5 “managers” to allow 60 total girls to participate, but that still left 1/3 of the girls cut completely.

This is the downside to big schools. Far more competition.

Not every kid in HS is at a HS level of at least one sport.

I believe there are safety concerns. I’d have been positively crushed playing just about any competitive girls’ sport in HS in the mid 80s.

Consider that most hs athletes have been involved in their sport (or something related) since they could walk - think travel sports, private lessons, private coaching, summer camps, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Cross country is usually no cut.

So is football, but most girls don’t want to join. It’s a coed sport too.

My kids school has over 3000 kids. Even assuming half have zero interest in sports, I don’t know how you’d gat 1500 kids on sports teams.

Every kid can play a sport but it might not be their first choice

Cross country is usually no cut.

Even with new sports like pickleball or flag football, plenty of kids still get cut. Is it just not possible to accommodate everyone interested?