My prediction: the more research that comes out about the dangers of football the more independent schools will think about dropping it as a sport. In 20 years you won't see it at Sidwell, Maret, Potomac . . . Think attitudes toward smoking.

Specialization has hit and hit hard. Sidwell would probably need a boarding school style "interscholastic sport every season" requirement to get the out of season "specialists" (not to mention the youthful couch potatoes) coming out for sports like football.

Anonymous wrote:Maret takes way less 9th grade boys than sidwell. St. James is the smallest in tens of numbers. But being boarding they have major advantages. Potomac and flint hill are bigger schools and take more boys than sidwell. I feel the school is doing the right thing. Saftey over ego.

Ego? Sidwell has middle school sports including 2 football teams. The numbers participating in soccer and xcountry do not account for what these kids are actually doing at a school with an afterschool PE requirement. Playing frisbee on the lawn and sashaying down to McDonalds or wandering over to someone's house?

link:
http://nces.ed.gov/

Look up schools at your leisure. Sidwell has 100 more in HS than Potomac. 2 coed schools about 1o minutes drive time each for somebody living in Palisades.

Anonymous wrote:This is a horrible situation for the players and the parents. The football team got in this situation because the school has basically ignored the program for the last five years. We have a new head of school who is taking charge of the situation. He has impressed all of the parents I have talked to with his willingness to meet and talk to parents about football. There is no question that he is committed to the future of football at sidwell which will include internal and external recruiting and potentially pushing the football program in to lower graders. Next year is going to very tough but the year after the football program should be showing signs of real strong improvement

Classic Sidwell entitlement at work--the football parents demanding that this sport have a special status. Parents with kids on cross-country and soccer are pleased with the Athletic Program and will not want the school going crazy to try to win in one particular sport. Should Sidwell admit much of the starting Bishop O'Connell team as transfers, as Flint Hill did a few years back? Don't compromise the school's great academic reputation to chase the will of the whisp that is "Football Dominance.". Kudos to the kids at Sidwell who play football--maybe some of the athletes on the basketball team will join them in future years--but these whiny football parents are getting on the rest of our nerves.

Maret takes way less 9th grade boys than sidwell. St. James is the smallest in tens of numbers. But being boarding they have major advantages. Potomac and flint hill are bigger schools and take more boys than sidwell. I feel the school is doing the right thing. Saftey over ego.

This is a horrible situation for the players and the parents. The football team got in this situation because the school has basically ignored the program for the last five years. We have a new head of school who is taking charge of the situation. He has impressed all of the parents I have talked to with his willingness to meet and talk to parents about football. There is no question that he is committed to the future of football at sidwell which will include internal and external recruiting and potentially pushing the football program in to lower graders. Next year is going to very tough but the year after the football program should be showing signs of real strong improvement

Anonymous wrote:golf is a spring sport

No it isn't. At Sidwell it is definitely a fall sport.

Anonymous wrote:If each class has approximately 50 boys, that means that they have about 200 boys at the school. If 30 are on football, 40 on soccer and 30 on cross country, the other 100 are doing classes? sorry but it sounds like a lack of interest in supporting your school.

Since when is being on a team the only way to support your school?

golf is a spring sport

Anonymous wrote:If each class has approximately 50 boys, that means that they have about 200 boys at the school. If 30 are on football, 40 on soccer and 30 on cross country, the other 100 are doing classes? sorry but it sounds like a lack of interest in supporting your school.

Some of the boys are also on the golf team and yes, a lot of the others are doing PE classes. There are several options, including fall games, basic and advanced conditioning and weight training. Many of the boys who play winter and spring sports do the conditioning and weight training classes. Seniors also get a season off and several of them have chosen to take off football season. There may be a lack of interest in football, but that doesn't mean there is a lack of interest in supporting the school. Playing football is not the only way to support a school.

6:12 posting. The original question was what are the parents saying? More pertinent is what are they doing with their sons? If I had a Sidwell student who plays football or wants to play football, I would apply to another school.

Many schools have no cuts in football and students enjoy being on the team .