Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So strange that this is allowed. High school extracurriculars should be for high school students.

+1

It was originally allowed because rural high schools did not have enough kids to field an entire team. Its mean to make sure high school kids can have a team, not for middle school kids to take a HS kids spot. The rule is being abused.

+1. It's also not fair to schools in the same league (Fairfax) who do not have this rule. Having the experience of an entire HS season before 9th grade is a huge leg up on other teams.

is Fairfax not allowed to for some reason?

Fairfax doesn't even have middle school
sports. (Besides a half-hearted running program).

Yikes. That’s terrible.

I think it’s great to have more opportunities for kids to play sports, especially ones that are not easily accessible. Crew, field hockey, etc.

We should be adding sports, not taking them away.

Anonymous wrote:In this area there is absolutely no reason to have 8th graders on JV. Period. If you are in 8th grade and your middle school doesn’t have a team in your sport of choice, join a travel or Rec team. Try out for the HS team in HS. If the JV isn’t very good because the pool of 9th and 10th graders is not strong, so be it.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our cross country and crew teams have some awesome 8th graders. Those teams have enough spots for everyone who puts in the work. My daughter did XC as an 8th grader and it was a great experience.

It's not for every sport, just the sports without a team at the middle school level.

This. It’s not fair that the middle schools don’t have all of the sports.

Feel free to fund more coaches and Field space – seriously go ahead.

The schools have plenty of money, they just waste it on admin. Why should there be like 75 soccer teams and no baseball or lacrosse?

WTF are you talking about? There are 5 middle school soccer teams.

And one million travel ones.

One has nothing to do with the other. We’re talking about public school sports here.

In this area there is absolutely no reason to have 8th graders on JV. Period. If you are in 8th grade and your middle school doesn’t have a team in your sport of choice, join a travel or Rec team. Try out for the HS team in HS. If the JV isn’t very good because the pool of 9th and 10th graders is not strong, so be it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our cross country and crew teams have some awesome 8th graders. Those teams have enough spots for everyone who puts in the work. My daughter did XC as an 8th grader and it was a great experience.

It's not for every sport, just the sports without a team at the middle school level.

This. It’s not fair that the middle schools don’t have all of the sports.

Feel free to fund more coaches and Field space – seriously go ahead.

The schools have plenty of money, they just waste it on admin. Why should there be like 75 soccer teams and no baseball or lacrosse?

WTF are you talking about? There are 5 middle school soccer teams.

And one million travel ones.

Anonymous wrote:It does seem like they should be developing 9th graders on the JV teams and not throwing them over for skilled 8th graders. Or if they NEED more bodies (like they can't field a team) then it would make sense. But if enough 9th/10th graders show up to fill the team, they should work with them.

Mine are younger so I don't have a dog in this fight yet.

Just wait. You will understand. Your thinking would be the equivalent of circa 1995 thinking. If you want your kid to play in HS in the big HS, he or she better be playing on some level of travel team to start the development process. HS don't want to work that hard in the starting stages, they want kids on their way.

I don't like it as much as you do but that's the game now...particularly in a county like Arlington.

Anonymous wrote:It does seem like they should be developing 9th graders on the JV teams and not throwing them over for skilled 8th graders. Or if they NEED more bodies (like they can't field a team) then it would make sense. But if enough 9th/10th graders show up to fill the team, they should work with them.

Mine are younger so I don't have a dog in this fight yet.

Exactly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So strange that this is allowed. High school extracurriculars should be for high school students.

+1

It was originally allowed because rural high schools did not have enough kids to field an entire team. Its mean to make sure high school kids can have a team, not for middle school kids to take a HS kids spot. The rule is being abused.

+1. It's also not fair to schools in the same league (Fairfax) who do not have this rule. Having the experience of an entire HS season before 9th grade is a huge leg up on other teams.

is Fairfax not allowed to for some reason?

Fairfax doesn't even have middle school
sports. (Besides a half-hearted running program).

Hello from Falls Church City, where the physically connected MS and HS and the unified bell schedule (not to mention the small size) make eighth graders on JV a regular thing.

Not sure if it’s a feature or a bug. Coaches have more options during tryouts and larger teams (swim, XC, track, football) can be more robust. Players get a chance to really step up their skills. Parents enjoy one year less of having to drive their kid to practices and games. But coaches have to be careful about injury prevention (8th grade JV football players vs. 10th grade football players???). And the looooong bus rides to away games are tough on study and sleep habits.

Parents of 8th graders, go into this with your eyes open.

It does seem like they should be developing 9th graders on the JV teams and not throwing them over for skilled 8th graders. Or if they NEED more bodies (like they can't field a team) then it would make sense. But if enough 9th/10th graders show up to fill the team, they should work with them.

Mine are younger so I don't have a dog in this fight yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So strange that this is allowed. High school extracurriculars should be for high school students.

+1

It was originally allowed because rural high schools did not have enough kids to field an entire team. Its mean to make sure high school kids can have a team, not for middle school kids to take a HS kids spot. The rule is being abused.

+1. It's also not fair to schools in the same league (Fairfax) who do not have this rule. Having the experience of an entire HS season before 9th grade is a huge leg up on other teams.

is Fairfax not allowed to for some reason?

Choose not to.

Quite probably has something to do with middle school getting out so much earlier and the county being so much bigger with bus constraints already. And split feeder middle schools. And all the rest of the complexity. Fairfax can't figure out much simpler things than this.

Probably chose not to because it's unnecessary in large districts where there are plenty of kids to field all the teams. This is good in rural communities where the 8th graders are needed to fill teams. APS shouldn't do it.

Anonymous wrote:Eighth grade parents, just so you know the high school parents are not rooting your students on. If it’s already a full team, your kid does not belong there.

Good thing parents have absolutely nothing to do with this process.

Let the best kid make the team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our cross country and crew teams have some awesome 8th graders. Those teams have enough spots for everyone who puts in the work. My daughter did XC as an 8th grader and it was a great experience.

It's not for every sport, just the sports without a team at the middle school level.

This. It’s not fair that the middle schools don’t have all of the sports.

Feel free to fund more coaches and Field space – seriously go ahead.

The schools have plenty of money, they just waste it on admin. Why should there be like 75 soccer teams and no baseball or lacrosse?

Tell me how this middle school bb team would work when you have 11/12-year-olds versus 14 year-olds… where half the kids are already playing on a full field and half on the little kid Field. Where exactly would they play and which size Field? How many of our middle schools have full-size baseball fields?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our cross country and crew teams have some awesome 8th graders. Those teams have enough spots for everyone who puts in the work. My daughter did XC as an 8th grader and it was a great experience.

It's not for every sport, just the sports without a team at the middle school level.

This. It’s not fair that the middle schools don’t have all of the sports.

Feel free to fund more coaches and Field space – seriously go ahead.

The schools have plenty of money, they just waste it on admin. Why should there be like 75 soccer teams and no baseball or lacrosse?

WTF are you talking about? There are 5 middle school soccer teams.