My son plays basketball for his high school, and a buddy invited him to play on their rec basketball team for fun. The team was mostly good athletes from other sports, but they had 3 HS basketball players on the team. They ended up playing several other teams that had HS players. I was very surprised.

When kids hit middle school, many come back from travel to rec. More homework, maybe another activity or sport taking priority. In soccer, rec teams may end up better than low-level travel teams.

As pp have said, the kids that play rec it snusually their secondary sport for off season. .. our kids friend plays travel and select in baseball and rec in winter basketball. (He’s actually really good in basketball)

My son plays high level travel soccer, but still loves playing rec basketball in the winter. He's a junior in HS now, and has been playing in the Montgomery County rec league with the same team since kindergarten. There are actually 3 or 4 teams from his HS/grade who still play winter rec ball.

My DS plays rec basketball in middle school. There are some really good players still playing as it's really hard to make the select/travel team in McLean. It's his secondary sport, so he just plays it for fun. He's OK, but definitely nothing to write home about. He plays travel in another sport and basketball season is during his "off-season". I would say go for it. If he doesn't like it, he can always drop it the next year.

My son played rec basketball through middle school. Honestly he wasn’t strong enough to play a higher level but there were some really talented kids on his team. They played rec because it wasn’t their primary sport. A few were playing travel soccer, baseball or swimming competitively. Rec allowed them to continue playing something they enjoyed. We also heard from friends that rec soccer improves in middle school for the same reason.

Thank you, PP. OP here, clarifying my words. Most of his friends are continuing to play soccer and-or basketball, just in a more selective league, although a few have dropped it altogether to focus more on sports.
I know he can't be the only one who still dabbles in different sports for fun but it sure seems that way where we are in Moco.

My son will be in 6th next year which is middle school in Arlington. I think he is done with rec soccer, but will probably still play indoor soccer in winter and rec baseball in spring (he also plays travel baseball). He also may play flag football. In my experience, most kids do not stop when they move onto middle school, but they may go down to just 1-2 sports.

All of DS's friends have moved on so it's just him. He really enjoys both sports but is not particularly good at them. He wants to continue on a rec team and we're wondering what types of kids continue to participate in rec leagues in MS and HS? Are they other kids who work hard but might not be good? Kids whose parents force them to go? We'll have to drive him so there's a big cost for us. His rec practices used to be at the school.