Other than football and basketball, I doubt there are many kids even going to cheer on high school sports. No one is going to subject their elementary kid to a night of watching their classmates play a game regularly. The elementary and middle schools often have a once or twice a year game against either faculty or another school and that is plenty.

Anonymous wrote:Sports in schools provide much more than just sports - they promote school unity when everyone can go and watch the teams play and cheer for them. In middle schools, the lack of school spirit is quite obvious.

Thanks, but my kids have other things to do than watch someone else play a game. They have their own sports, chores, homework, and even jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad there isn't. School sports teams serve so few kids. This place is competitive enough with sports and many "jocks" go around school belittling others. My kid doesn't need to put up with their inflated ego in elementary and middle. Save it till high school when at least you've proved yourself in a sport.

+1. I like the MS where they focus on school, and don’t get sidetracked with elevating jocks and cheerleaders.

While sports teams serve a small percentage of kids, so do bands, theaters, science olympiads and the other niche activities that FCPS have left in. The lack of sports is one reason I wish we'd never moved here. Our middle school is great for quiet intellectual children and miserable for all the rest.

There is not a lack of sports in this area, at least not in most of Fairfax County. Some of the best elementary middle school age teams in the country are here. They may also include private and homeschool kids. There are team practices or classes every day of the week available. Maybe you need to check out other forums. There is an entire forum devoted to soccer and lacrosse here. Many middle schools do have sports as an afterschool activity, but they aren't a team. The kids practice and do a little scrimmage together. If you want a competitive team, you have to go with your local league in whatever sport you are interested in.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/show/55.page
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/show/76.page
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/show/77.page

Sports in schools provide much more than just sports - they promote school unity when everyone can go and watch the teams play and cheer for them. In middle schools, the lack of school spirit is quite obvious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad there isn't. School sports teams serve so few kids. This place is competitive enough with sports and many "jocks" go around school belittling others. My kid doesn't need to put up with their inflated ego in elementary and middle. Save it till high school when at least you've proved yourself in a sport.

+1. I like the MS where they focus on school, and don’t get sidetracked with elevating jocks and cheerleaders.

While sports teams serve a small percentage of kids, so do bands, theaters, science olympiads and the other niche activities that FCPS have left in. The lack of sports is one reason I wish we'd never moved here. Our middle school is great for quiet intellectual children and miserable for all the rest.

This idea is so farfetched, not sure why I'm bothering to respond, but also you don't seem to understand the mentality of the parents and kids who are into sports. They don't want to coach the kids who aren't into sports or have their children play sports with kids who don't know how to play well. Most of them want their children playing at the same level as their child and in the sport the child and they desire. The skill range in sports is much larger than the academic range at schools. It is not possible to find enough kids to sponsor a team in all sports at every elementary school and find enough kids who want to play at the same skill level. What sport would FCPS even pick for elementary? The reason it works better in high school is because there are many elementary schools feeding into each high school and still you have high schools with disproportionate numbers of athletes on teams. If you want more scholarships for your local private sports team, join the club and help get those businesses to give them out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS does not have the money for sports teams and the private clubs do and offer scholarships. Do you want less than kids in your elementary class and good school supplies or have 12 kids on your elementary school's sports team? I know what I want.

I'm sure local businesses would be willing to sponsor schools. Come on now. We have at least three prominent local businessmen whose children attend our ES and sponsor all sorts of events. Anyway if there is a will there is a way.

And our experience has been that local clubs do NOT have a scholarship program to help kids in need.

Local businesses already sponsor private teams. Check out your local little league. There are over 130 elementary schools in FCPS. Not going to happen.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS does not have the money for sports teams and the private clubs do and offer scholarships. Do you want less than kids in your elementary class and good school supplies or have 12 kids on your elementary school's sports team? I know what I want.

I'm sure local businesses would be willing to sponsor schools. Come on now. We have at least three prominent local businessmen whose children attend our ES and sponsor all sorts of events. Anyway if there is a will there is a way.

And our experience has been that local clubs do NOT have a scholarship program to help kids in need.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You are really stretching here and clearly don't know what you're talking about. Some kids have natural talent, even without money and years of experience. Some kids have parents who pay to get them on teams and play for years but wouldn't make a team with relatively better talent."

True statement. True for lots of things besides sports, as well. Dance lessons for DD were only for fun (good thing, too--absolutely no talent), but some parents were dead serious about dance, music lessons may help--but, if child does not have the ear, they are not going to be on Broadway, art lessons, etc. I've seen parents in sports and the arts who were convinced their kids were prodigies and would be famous. My kids are now grown, and I cannot think of a one of those who succeeded in those fields.

The worst, though, was basketball and baseball. So many were convinced their kids would make varsity the freshman year--and, didn't even make the freshman team. There's a lot of talent out there--but, there is always someone bigger, faster, stronger.

Exactly. And it's not even certain the travel kids would want to play. My kid won't even play a pick up game at recess!.

At our FCPS HS, many A-team travel kids were cut for the freshman team last year. Kids who have been playing YEARS were cut.

Regarding Basketball and Baseball, neither of which our child plays, parents have been grooming their kid for HS since early ES. Travel leagues that feed into the HS and get notice of the coaches. Very good players did not make the basketball team b/c they were in the "wrong" travel leagues. It's nuts. That said, I think MS sports -or not having it, that is- is a bad thing. There is always going to be kids not good enough for something (and in MS I was atrocious at everything but by HS knew my strengths and went on to one sport plus other activities I ended up liking). By MS, they need to know how to cope with that.

FCPS does not have the money for sports teams and the private clubs do and offer scholarships. Do you want less than kids in your elementary class and good school supplies or have 12 kids on your elementary school's sports team? I know what I want.

Anonymous wrote:

You are really stretching here and clearly don't know what you're talking about. Some kids have natural talent, even without money and years of experience. Some kids have parents who pay to get them on teams and play for years but wouldn't make a team with relatively better talent."

True statement. True for lots of things besides sports, as well. Dance lessons for DD were only for fun (good thing, too--absolutely no talent), but some parents were dead serious about dance, music lessons may help--but, if child does not have the ear, they are not going to be on Broadway, art lessons, etc. I've seen parents in sports and the arts who were convinced their kids were prodigies and would be famous. My kids are now grown, and I cannot think of a one of those who succeeded in those fields.

The worst, though, was basketball and baseball. So many were convinced their kids would make varsity the freshman year--and, didn't even make the freshman team. There's a lot of talent out there--but, there is always someone bigger, faster, stronger.

Exactly. And it's not even certain the travel kids would want to play. My kid won't even play a pick up game at recess!.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad there isn't. School sports teams serve so few kids. This place is competitive enough with sports and many "jocks" go around school belittling others. My kid doesn't need to put up with their inflated ego in elementary and middle. Save it till high school when at least you've proved yourself in a sport.

Tolerant much?

Of bullying no? Besides, it's a waste of tax dollars to spend on a few kids when those dollars are so precious for teachers. The travel clubs all have scholarships or there are rec sports in all towns around Fairfax. We don't live in the country.

What makes you think kids will be bullied with regard to sports? This is a bizarre stance to take. A school sponsored sports team would give opportunities for kids that can't pay for travel or even rec sports. Scholarships are spotty in our local clubs. D.C. Plays travel soccer and it costs close to $2,000 per year. Not everyone can pay that.

Because the school-sponsored team can only include so many kids, kids have to try out, and so the spots all go to those who have been playing for a long time aka families who can afford it.

You are really stretching here and clearly don't know what you're talking about. Some kids have natural talent, even without money and years of experience. Some kids have parents who pay to get them on teams and play for years but wouldn't make a team with relatively better talent."

We're in APS where the middle schools do have school sport teams. The soccer teams are almost exclusively travel players or a few rec players who do have great natural talent but parents weren't willing/able to do the travel thing. Even for good travel players the chance of making the team is really low.

But, other sports are more open for a variety of kids, like wrestling.

Arlington public schools has a fraction of the kids that FCPS has. Our travel kids are more spread out across the county and most likely wouldn't run into that problem. Arlington has a competitive travel program but it can also pull from everyone in the county into one concentrated team.

You are really stretching here and clearly don't know what you're talking about. Some kids have natural talent, even without money and years of experience. Some kids have parents who pay to get them on teams and play for years but wouldn't make a team with relatively better talent."

True statement. True for lots of things besides sports, as well. Dance lessons for DD were only for fun (good thing, too--absolutely no talent), but some parents were dead serious about dance, music lessons may help--but, if child does not have the ear, they are not going to be on Broadway, art lessons, etc. I've seen parents in sports and the arts who were convinced their kids were prodigies and would be famous. My kids are now grown, and I cannot think of a one of those who succeeded in those fields.

The worst, though, was basketball and baseball. So many were convinced their kids would make varsity the freshman year--and, didn't even make the freshman team. There's a lot of talent out there--but, there is always someone bigger, faster, stronger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad there isn't. School sports teams serve so few kids. This place is competitive enough with sports and many "jocks" go around school belittling others. My kid doesn't need to put up with their inflated ego in elementary and middle. Save it till high school when at least you've proved yourself in a sport.

Tolerant much?

Of bullying no? Besides, it's a waste of tax dollars to spend on a few kids when those dollars are so precious for teachers. The travel clubs all have scholarships or there are rec sports in all towns around Fairfax. We don't live in the country.

What makes you think kids will be bullied with regard to sports? This is a bizarre stance to take. A school sponsored sports team would give opportunities for kids that can't pay for travel or even rec sports. Scholarships are spotty in our local clubs. D.C. Plays travel soccer and it costs close to $2,000 per year. Not everyone can pay that.

Because the school-sponsored team can only include so many kids, kids have to try out, and so the spots all go to those who have been playing for a long time aka families who can afford it.

You are really stretching here and clearly don't know what you're talking about. Some kids have natural talent, even without money and years of experience. Some kids have parents who pay to get them on teams and play for years but wouldn't make a team with relatively better talent."

We're in APS where the middle schools do have school sport teams. The soccer teams are almost exclusively travel players or a few rec players who do have great natural talent but parents weren't willing/able to do the travel thing. Even for good travel players the chance of making the team is really low.

But, other sports are more open for a variety of kids, like wrestling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad there isn't. School sports teams serve so few kids. This place is competitive enough with sports and many "jocks" go around school belittling others. My kid doesn't need to put up with their inflated ego in elementary and middle. Save it till high school when at least you've proved yourself in a sport.

Tolerant much?

Of bullying no? Besides, it's a waste of tax dollars to spend on a few kids when those dollars are so precious for teachers. The travel clubs all have scholarships or there are rec sports in all towns around Fairfax. We don't live in the country.

What makes you think kids will be bullied with regard to sports? This is a bizarre stance to take. A school sponsored sports team would give opportunities for kids that can't pay for travel or even rec sports. Scholarships are spotty in our local clubs. D.C. Plays travel soccer and it costs close to $2,000 per year. Not everyone can pay that.

Because the school-sponsored team can only include so many kids, kids have to try out, and so the spots all go to those who have been playing for a long time aka families who can afford it.

You are really stretching here and clearly don't know what you're talking about. Some kids have natural talent, even without money and years of experience. Some kids have parents who pay to get them on teams and play for years but wouldn't make a team with relatively better talent."