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Old 08-27-2009, 10:58 PM
 
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I am from the North East where each town has their own school district (no ISD). The average high school would be about 800 - 1,000 children. I am moving to the Dallas area and feel completly overwhelmed for my children. Both love to play sports and be involved in everything. They are well rounded but don't excel in any one particular thing. I can not figure out how they will be able to make a sport's team or become involved with such large ISD's. Do kids just stop playing sports or not get involved because of these larges school districts. Is there more driniking and drugs since there is more time on their hands with no involvement? I can't figure the whole system out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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Old 08-28-2009, 12:44 AM
 
Location: The Village
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Each district tends to have multiple high schools, and each school has seperate extracurriculars. The most students any high school has one one campus is Skyline at just over 5000. Average in Metro DFW is about 2000.

Schools are large, but manageable. Kids have the opportunity to play sports and be involved if they desire too.
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Old 08-28-2009, 04:27 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cobufa View Post
I am from the North East where each town has their own school district (no ISD). The average high school would be about 800 - 1,000 children. I am moving to the Dallas area and feel completly overwhelmed for my children. Both love to play sports and be involved in everything. They are well rounded but don't excel in any one particular thing. I can not figure out how they will be able to make a sport's team or become involved with such large ISD's. Do kids just stop playing sports or not get involved because of these larges school districts. Is there more driniking and drugs since there is more time on their hands with no involvement? I can't figure the whole system out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
If they are in a large ISD there will be plenty of activities.
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Old 08-28-2009, 06:57 AM
 
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I agree it's hard to break into the high school sports teams at these large high schools if you haven't been in the local sports association feeder systems. Only the best get to participate and the coaches know who these athletes are.

Your kids might get involved in a club or the newspaper staff or student council. I don't really have an answer though, as my son just switched from private to a public 4A high school for 9th grade and we are both a bit freaked out at what we are finding. The same kids are on the sports teams, on student council, on the dance team. You almost want to say, can you limit them to one big activity so other kids can participate?

Some parents move out to a smaller town, so their kids can participate more. We are still taking a wait and see attitude as its only been one week.
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Old 08-28-2009, 09:01 AM
 
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Yes most of the high schools have feeder systems into the sports programs. The coaches no the good players before they ever get to high school. A kid has to really be good to start for one of the mega high schools. The upside is if your kid keeps good grades his chance of getting a scholarship are really good. Like someone stated Skyline has a huge enrollment and hence they are rated very high in the state polls. Allen has a huge enrollment and they won the state title last year. A city like Sunnyvale has a brand new high school and a small enrollment. I believe they are rated 3A which means most kids would get plenty of playing time in sports.
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Old 08-28-2009, 09:28 AM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
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Depends on the school, but quite a few of the super big schools run intramural sport programs. Unless your kids are superstars, that might be a better situation for them - getting to play lots of games instead of just practicing and warming the bench on game day.

Agree that it's VERY difficult for an outsider to crack the starting lineups of HS teams. The coaches have selected their players years ago. You have to be TWICE as good to get half as much respect.

Beyond that, the bigger the school, the wider the variety of extracurricular clubs. Yes, you can still get lost, but those outside the sports/cheerleading/council mainstream can more easily find their niche.
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Old 08-28-2009, 12:52 PM
 
Location: Forney Texas
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they get involved the same way they would anywhere else.
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Old 08-28-2009, 03:57 PM
 
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Everything is very competitive in Texas, especially in sports. Kids start leaving the fun, YMCA sports league teams in 4th grade to play "select" (elite) teams that compete in tournamnts across the state. This is especially true for soccer. For football, in districts like Highland Park and Southlake Carroll where everyone feeds into one hugh school, boys begin learning the varsity playbook in 7th grade. Just as in academics, many local businesses cater to drill team or cheerleader "prep" classes in early elementary school. There are only 15ish spots on a varsity basketball team (and maybe up to 80 on Varsity football), so unfortunately, everyone can't be a "winner" and play. One of the first major deviststions in my life was not making the team my freshman year. I cried, I didn't want to tell my parents I didn't make the cut. But that experince made me realize how badly I wanted to play and I took private lessons and worked my butt off for the next year's tryouts. And I made the team. Today's kids need these life experiences.
Sports-wise, be aware that with the exception of a few elite private schools, "northern sports" like field hockey, lacrosse, ice hockey, and crew are not played in TX. Big sports here are football, soccer, baseball, basketball, cheerleading, and to a smaller extent (though still very competitive) tennis and swimming.

Student council in some schools is for the "poplular" crowd. A new kid must be extremely outgoing and well-likes to get the votes to win an election.

Other extracurriculars like journalism (yearbook and newspaper), art, symphony, band, choir, debate, and drama/theatre are classes you sign up for as "electives". If your kids are involved with these things now, they should have no trouble getting involved in Texas.

Volunteer work and community service is a big focus in many high schools (I had to complete 100 hours over 4 years to graduate). This is a great way for a high school kid to gain leadership experience- organize canned food drives, being a "big" brother/ sister by mentoring an elementary aged kid. Most area churches and temples have youth groups with many opportunities for service.
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Old 08-28-2009, 09:19 PM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
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Mostly true, although both hockey and lacrosse teams are readily available in the northern suburbs. If your kids played either sport up north, their skills would probably be above those of the locals.
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Old 08-28-2009, 10:42 PM
 
Location: Garland Texas
1,533 posts, read 7,224,834 times
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Football and Drill Team/Cheering are elevated to an almost mythical status in Texas. As others have said many start training young. I've seen places that offer dance/cheer/tumble classes to Kindergarten and Pre-K kids. There are Peewee football leagues that are not based out of campus and even some elementaries have 4th/5th grade football teams. Most if not all junior high schools have sports. Not to rehash old news and bad stereotypes, but there was "Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom" who put a hit on a girl who was on the squad at her daughters school, hoping that a position would open up for her girl. While it's an extreme example, some mother will stop at nothing to get or keep a daughter on the squad. Same goes for football, if not more so.

I went to 5A high school, with a consistently top ranked football team. No pass no play is a joke, teachers were encouraged to fix grades for top players. Arts and Academics were underfunded I can recall paying money to the teacher or buying extra supplies for few classes.
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