Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not enough coaches and fields to accommodate extra freshman teams for most sports at the large public schools. Our private has three teams for many sports—essentially expand to accommodate interest, but they also have total control over how the fields are used and can bring in new (and pay) coaches. Our private also has intramural options in each season. Every kid does something physical 2 of 3 seasons/year per school requirements.

They could field freshman teams of they really wanted too. The coaches get paid very little and they could squeeze in the practice time somewhere. Total nonsense.

NP here. Interested in hearing your proposal on how to squeeze in more practice time. Let's try baseball, for example. At our school, varsity practices about 3-6 and JV from 6-9. Would you suggest cutting practice to 2 hours? 3-5, 5-7, 7-9? On game days, varsity is at one school and JV plays the same opponent either home or away depending on whether varsity is home or away. If you mixed in a freshman game, that would preclude varsity or jv games, no?

They don't play weekend games so it all has to be fit into the school week.

Three hour practices don’t have to be done on the field. An hour in the cage or taking bullpens, running poles etc. give everyone 2 hours (or Jv plus freshman get 2 and varsity gets 3). Entirely possible.

Yes our private has multiple teams per sport, and even varsity practices are just 2 hours long. They also mix it up with conditioning and have days when 2 of the teams share a field, depending on the sport. My kids have played something all 3 seasons beginning in 9th, and I promise you they’d happily compromise on having an entire field to themselves if that’s what it took to play.

They really can't. Even kids who have done serious club and travel sports for years don't always end up making our sports teams or don't play if the do "make the team". It's frustrating, but the good thing is that there are high level sports outside of school. I know not everyone can afford or access these, but it does work for a lot of people.

I have one kid who plays freshman football (I don't think he'll continue next year), is hoping to make JV baseball, and will play rec basketball through the county. I have another kid who won't try out (and wouldn't make anyway) any high school sports, but will play rec soccer, rec basketball, and rec flag football in various seasons outside of school.

They go to a giant FCPS school.

Falls Church City

The downside is if anybody is actually good they would likely have to move to a bigger school so they could play at a more competitive level.

But for most kids they can play whatever sport they want at Meridian.

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

That’s why they need intramural sports. Cut half the money spent on football. Football is always the main focus out of all the sports.

They also have to balance boys and girls participating in sports. Football has a huge roster so that means there can't be as many boys sports offered at all levels. At my kids' high school they have three levels of girls sports like girls volleyball (frosh/soph, JV, and Varsity) but only one or two levels of boys sports except for football.

Anonymous wrote:Not with 2,000+ kids. Same issue for band, theater, certain activities like newspaper or yearbook. It’s even an issue for access to certain niche classes if there aren’t enough teachers.

I really don't understand how these are the "top" ranked schools in Maryland.

Not with 2,000+ kids. Same issue for band, theater, certain activities like newspaper or yearbook. It’s even an issue for access to certain niche classes if there aren’t enough teachers.

The effect isn't as noticeable in rural areas. It's these large public schools in urban and dense suburban areas. My high school growing up for example had a graduating class of 213. We were 3a, but we played in 4a schools because our football program was great, they were the 4a state champs two years back-to-back. Pretty much anyone that wanted to play could play. They may not have gotten game time, but they were on the team. Basketball had cuts about a third of the kids that wanted to play made the team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not enough coaches and fields to accommodate extra freshman teams for most sports at the large public schools. Our private has three teams for many sports—essentially expand to accommodate interest, but they also have total control over how the fields are used and can bring in new (and pay) coaches. Our private also has intramural options in each season. Every kid does something physical 2 of 3 seasons/year per school requirements.

They could field freshman teams of they really wanted too. The coaches get paid very little and they could squeeze in the practice time somewhere. Total nonsense.

NP here. Interested in hearing your proposal on how to squeeze in more practice time. Let's try baseball, for example. At our school, varsity practices about 3-6 and JV from 6-9. Would you suggest cutting practice to 2 hours? 3-5, 5-7, 7-9? On game days, varsity is at one school and JV plays the same opponent either home or away depending on whether varsity is home or away. If you mixed in a freshman game, that would preclude varsity or jv games, no?

They don't play weekend games so it all has to be fit into the school week.

Three hour practices don’t have to be done on the field. An hour in the cage or taking bullpens, running poles etc. give everyone 2 hours (or Jv plus freshman get 2 and varsity gets 3). Entirely possible.

You are correct, it is not possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not enough coaches and fields to accommodate extra freshman teams for most sports at the large public schools. Our private has three teams for many sports—essentially expand to accommodate interest, but they also have total control over how the fields are used and can bring in new (and pay) coaches. Our private also has intramural options in each season. Every kid does something physical 2 of 3 seasons/year per school requirements.

They could field freshman teams of they really wanted too. The coaches get paid very little and they could squeeze in the practice time somewhere. Total nonsense.

NP here. Interested in hearing your proposal on how to squeeze in more practice time. Let's try baseball, for example. At our school, varsity practices about 3-6 and JV from 6-9. Would you suggest cutting practice to 2 hours? 3-5, 5-7, 7-9? On game days, varsity is at one school and JV plays the same opponent either home or away depending on whether varsity is home or away. If you mixed in a freshman game, that would preclude varsity or jv games, no?

They don't play weekend games so it all has to be fit into the school week.

Anonymous wrote:Not enough coaches and fields to accommodate extra freshman teams for most sports at the large public schools. Our private has three teams for many sports—essentially expand to accommodate interest, but they also have total control over how the fields are used and can bring in new (and pay) coaches. Our private also has intramural options in each season. Every kid does something physical 2 of 3 seasons/year per school requirements.

They could field freshman teams of they really wanted too. The coaches get paid very little and they could squeeze in the practice time somewhere. Total nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:It is weird how few sports here have freshman teams. My high school in a different area had well under 1000 students and we still had freshman soccer and baseball. Big schools in other metro areas often field multiple freshman teams, maybe even multiple sophomore/JV teams as well.

My school was the same. Lower SES, 2000 kids
Freshman, JV, Varsity for baseball, soccer, football, basketball, swimming
There was essentially no travel sports culture and rec stuff ended around middle school I think. My school didn’t even have their own football field and they still had 3 teams

Not enough coaches and fields to accommodate extra freshman teams for most sports at the large public schools. Our private has three teams for many sports—essentially expand to accommodate interest, but they also have total control over how the fields are used and can bring in new (and pay) coaches. Our private also has intramural options in each season. Every kid does something physical 2 of 3 seasons/year per school requirements.

It is weird how few sports here have freshman teams. My high school in a different area had well under 1000 students and we still had freshman soccer and baseball. Big schools in other metro areas often field multiple freshman teams, maybe even multiple sophomore/JV teams as well.