Anonymous wrote:My children are at a FCPS high school. I was told by our HS athletic director that VHSL (Virginia High School Sports League) which is the governing body for high school sports in Virginia, allows individual school districts to decide if 8th graders will be allowed to play on their [b]JV sports teams but NOT Varsity.[/b] For "individual" team sports, like swimming, cross-country, track and field, if an 8th grader participates and comes in 1st place, then they will not score any points for the team.

The City of Alexandria allows 8th graders to participate. I don't know about Arlington, Prince William and Loudon. Unless something has changed this year, FCPS DOES NOT allow 8th grade participation. It doesn't matter if the school can not field a team because of lack of participation, its a district decision. I know of high schools in FCPS that did not have enough players try out for the baseball programs and the high schools decided to only field a Varsity team.

I agree with this. I had a conversation with an APS high school coach who told me that 8th graders are not allowed on varsity teams, and some hs sports are varsity only.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think FCPS should allow 8th graders to play high school sports

I doubt they do.

Fcps cuts tons of actual high schoolers from their teams (and theater shows) who are very skilled and talented, many of whom play travel sports or in the case of theater, have been performing for years.

I cannot imagine any high school in fcps to allow 8th graders to try out and play whe. They are cutting high school students.

See the post at 20:25. Some schools have trouble filling teams and don’t make cuts.

In fairfac county?

Not PP, but, yes, some Ffx schools have trouble filling teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think FCPS should allow 8th graders to play high school sports

I doubt they do.

Fcps cuts tons of actual high schoolers from their teams (and theater shows) who are very skilled and talented, many of whom play travel sports or in the case of theater, have been performing for years.

I cannot imagine any high school in fcps to allow 8th graders to try out and play whe. They are cutting high school students.

See the post at 20:25. Some schools have trouble filling teams and don’t make cuts.

In fairfac county?

Our district (not FCPS or APS) allows it for JV but an 8th grader cannot be on the team if any HS would be cut. So the most competitive JV teams are all high schoolers.

I'm the 12:07 poster. Many of the high school sports teams train year round. Rising 9th graders can participate in the off-season training.

I have a current freshman and this past spring, when he was still in 8th grade, we went to an orientation at the high school. Most of the sports teams were there and were recruiting students to try out for their teams and join them in off-season training. We talked to several of the coaches and my DS decided he wanted to try golf. The golf team goes to the driving range about once a week during the off-season. My DS was able to join them when he was still in 8th grade.

I also think there is some "allowed cheating." My DS also plays lacrosse. There is a lacrosse league near us that my DS has played on. You have to be in 8th grade to participate. We pay for it. Ironically, the coaches are all the high school lacrosse coaches. The boys are all grouped on teams based on geography, so my son was on the team coached by our high school lacrosse coach and all the players were kids that were either current students or rising 9th graders.

Maybe that is what your 7th grader is talking about.

My children are at a FCPS high school. I was told by our HS athletic director that VHSL (Virginia High School Sports League) which is the governing body for high school sports in Virginia, allows individual school districts to decide if 8th graders will be allowed to play on their JV sports teams but NOT Varsity. For "individual" team sports, like swimming, cross-country, track and field, if an 8th grader participates and comes in 1st place, then they will not score any points for the team.

The City of Alexandria allows 8th graders to participate. I don't know about Arlington, Prince William and Loudon. Unless something has changed this year, FCPS DOES NOT allow 8th grade participation. It doesn't matter if the school can not field a team because of lack of participation, its a district decision. I know of high schools in FCPS that did not have enough players try out for the baseball programs and the high schools decided to only field a Varsity team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think FCPS should allow 8th graders to play high school sports

I doubt they do.

Fcps cuts tons of actual high schoolers from their teams (and theater shows) who are very skilled and talented, many of whom play travel sports or in the case of theater, have been performing for years.

I cannot imagine any high school in fcps to allow 8th graders to try out and play whe. They are cutting high school students.

See the post at 20:25. Some schools have trouble filling teams and don’t make cuts.

Aren't there age guide lines- not only for safety, but to qualify competitively? Wouldn't the HS baseball team be disqualified if they went all the way to State Competition, for example, if there was a 13 yr old playing....or just tbe opposite a 19 yr old playing?
There are rules: age, student must be enrolled (although Honeschooling laws have changed that), proof of residency, etc.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think FCPS should allow 8th graders to play high school sports

I doubt they do.

Fcps cuts tons of actual high schoolers from their teams (and theater shows) who are very skilled and talented, many of whom play travel sports or in the case of theater, have been performing for years.

I cannot imagine any high school in fcps to allow 8th graders to try out and play whe. They are cutting high school students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader told me his travel soccer teammates are planning to tryout for their high school team when they are in 8th. Are there mixed 8th and 9th grades team at your high school?

We are in one of the east Fairfax schools so checking to see what else we don't have in our pyramid.

As recently as a year ago, FCPS did not allow 8th graders to participate in HS sports teams. APS allows 8th graders to participate in sports which are not offered in middle school (like football and lacrosse). Either that policy has changed, or your son is getting bad intelligence from his teammates, or his teammates are in a different school system

I know when our DS swam in HS (graduated in '18), there were 8th graders swimming on high school teams that had difficulty filling the team. They swam but did count in the scoring.

I don’t think FCPS should allow 8th graders to play high school sports

The APS policy is probably a legacy from when their schools were smaller and less competitive.

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader told me his travel soccer teammates are planning to tryout for their high school team when they are in 8th. Are there mixed 8th and 9th grades team at your high school?

We are in one of the east Fairfax schools so checking to see what else we don't have in our pyramid.

As recently as a year ago, FCPS did not allow 8th graders to participate in HS sports teams. APS allows 8th graders to participate in sports which are not offered in middle school (like football and lacrosse). Either that policy has changed, or your son is getting bad intelligence from his teammates, or his teammates are in a different school system

My 7th grader told me his travel soccer teammates are planning to tryout for their high school team when they are in 8th. Are there mixed 8th and 9th grades team at your high school?

We are in one of the east Fairfax schools so checking to see what else we don't have in our pyramid.