This is a good place to mention that MCPS grants academic waivers to all 9th grade students for the entirety of their freshmen year. 9th graders are allowed to participate in sports all year without maintaining a 2.0 GPA.

It used to just be fall sports got the waiver because middle school performance could not be used. After COVID they extended it to the entire year so Winter and Spring Sport athletes could get the same benefits.

9th graders are required to have a 2.0 GPA in MP4 if they want to play in fall sports as 10th graders though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does a kid new to MCPS for HS find out about these workouts and practices? And you do these before you even tryout and know if you made the team?

I coach football. Pretty much everyone “makes it” as I don’t mind carrying a large roster filled with depth. I will take 45 kids on Varsity even though maybe 30 of them will actually play. Need kids for practices.

Is it the same for basketball? Girls?
How do we find out when the workouts are if not a current student? DD has a student but email isnt active as not a current student.

Are they usually during the day or in the evenings or does it vary school to school?

You should check your school's website for information. Registration for both summer work outs and tryouts are on Parentvue and open about a month before the start date. Some sports have multi day tryouts and they typically are during the day. Basketball is a winter sport and may not have a summer tryout. Summer workouts are available to new incoming students. All kids must have a physical before they can tryout or register for summer workouts - the requirements should be in Parentvue or on your school's athletic website (which might be separate from the school website). As an aside, you have register every year for summer workouts. One last thing. If it's a multi season sport, some coaches require that students tryout for both seasons and you have to meet the GPA requirements at the time of tryouts.

Look up the director of athletics for your high school and e-mail them. Coaching rosters are more likely to change between now and then than the athletic director.

If you aren't already in the high school ecosystem then yes, for a fall sport it's easy to not realize when tryouts start. My kids play fall soccer in MCPS for a team that makes lots of cuts during tryouts, and every year there are excellent rising 9th graders who didn't know how early tryouts begin and miss out because the coach will not make exceptions for those who miss tryouts.