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I've been heavily involved with sports and have three children who had various degrees of athletic ability. I have also coached. I have learned you and everyone else will never agree with what the decisions the coach makes. Do you not give your starters and key reserves enough playing time during the season and then they are not prepared for the playoffs? Parents will be upset. Do you give playing time to players who miss practice, don't participate in off season conditioning, and have a poor attitude? What kind of message does that send to the team?
High school sports are much more fair today than when I was in high school in the early 1970s. In my area, schools are much smaller and have more sports. Coaches rarely cut players. When I was in junior high, we would get over 100 boys try out for the basketball team. Today, they can't get enough players to fill the roster. Kids today have soccer, lacrosse, hockey, swimming, rifle, and wrestling. We had 2,000 students in my high school and you needed to be a pretty good athlete to make a sports team. You could make a team and only play a few minutes during the entire season, like the last 50 seconds of a 50 point win or loss.
Parents today are constantly looking over the shoulder of coaches. I know, I was one of them. The most important thing to realize is it passes very quickly, and you look back and think how obsessed you were with it for a few years.
I agree, especially with the italicized portion. There were no girls' sports at all at my high school in the late 60s, and only a few boys'. When my kids were in HS in the very late 90s-2005, it was much different. Lot of girls' and boys' sports, and very rarely was anyone cut from a team. The schools would add coaches, volunteer if necessary, to accommodate the extra students.
My kids did gymnastics from late elementary school on. By HS, I learned to just keep my mouth shut for the most part.
Point 1 - High School sports are NOT like real life in the sense that 'life's not fair, get used to it'. These sports are meant to build character and team work. They are NOT meant to mimic the 'real world'.
In fact, just as in life, Conduct and Effort should be and are often rewarded. If you make varsity and you show up and try then you should get some playing time.
I have to disagree. We have a young lady in our office who may lose her job because she is not performing well. She shows up on time. She works hard. She is trying really hard to do her job. However, none of that matters because she is not performing well at her job. It isn't enough to show up to work and try hard. You have to produce. High school sports are real life in that sense. Of course you have to show up and try hard but if you aren't as good as the other players you won't play as much.
In my experience with high school sports the coaches try to reward the less skilled players who are great team mates with playing time when the game situation permits. However, there have been times when I noticed a particular kid not getting in the game even though the score was clearly out hand and the coach had been giving lots of kids playing time. It almost always turns out that the kid did something and understood why he wasn't playing. So while you might not know, the kid and the coach probably know why a particular kid isn't playing.
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Originally Posted by StuartGotts
Point 2 - High school sports are not designed to be the 'minor leagues' for college recruiters, regardless of little johnnies scholarship. Too many ignorant parents think their kid is going all the way! Maybe they should be more concerned that their kid may be missing Spanish homework to be at the gym?? The statistics back up the fact that something like 1 in 25,000 makes it to a paying sport (I got those numbers from hockey, not sure about the others but I assume its in the same ball park)
The cream always rises, if your kid has talent AND effort, they will be seen.
This depends on the sport. My oldest played football and in football college coaches come to high school games. If your child doesn't play he won't be seen. However, my youngest plays lacrosse with lacrosse the college coaches usually see the kids at club tournaments or showcases.
I don't think the vast majority of kids playing high school sports are looking for a professional payday. Some are looking for a college scholarship. Some are looking to get into better schools. Some just want to play.
I don't have strong opinions on either side. My kids all played varsity level in high school, baseball, football, and track. I've dealt with great coaches, and some pretty awful ones.
The most egregious issue was coaches that required the kids to raise a certain amount of money before tryouts even began.
Not meeting the sales goal of the stupid coupon books meant no opportunity to even make the team. Pay-to-play poorly disguised.
I saw the Yin and Yang of coaches when I refereed soccer.
Looking back, I was too young, too immature to handle it. I was just out of high school and still thought all adults carried themselves with a little dignity, kind of what I saw of the adults in my life up till then.
Shocking how grown men (there were no women coaches when I reffed) acted. A few were really cool. I saw how they talked to the players.
The majority however were like rabid dogs, no other way to describe a grown man pacing up and down the sidelines screaming at everyone on the field including me. Even at that age I thought 'get a life', its a soccer game!
Fast forward to now when i've been the parent of one of those players.
We can do so much better.
How funny to find this thread. My kid's hs team has a coach that bullies any kid whose parents question her tactics - not coaching technique tactics, but the threatening behavior and inappropriate texting of students and profanity. She even bullies kids whose parents she THINKs has questioned her. The nepotism and favoritism is astounding but I can't do anything about those two things. Still, I think parents should be able to speak up in cases of inappropriateness and abuse.
My kid who went to school in the inner city however, had none of these issues. Very little annoying parents, very few kids paying top dollar private coaches and intermingling with the coach. Coaches who were also teachers in the school who firmly believed upperclassmen should play over underclassmen unless the underclassmen was a phenom...Never thought the city school would be the dream.
What is needed (and perhaps already exists in some cases): is two levels of sports for every sport and age level: the level where the sport is expected to be an all-consuming activity, where the goal is winning at all costs. And a lower level that leaves time for other activities, and where the focus is on teamwork, comradery, and physical fitness, and where everybody gets at least some chance to play.
I have to disagree. We have a young lady in our office who may lose her job because she is not performing well. She shows up on time. She works hard. She is trying really hard to do her job. However, none of that matters because she is not performing well at her job. It isn't enough to show up to work and try hard. You have to produce. High school sports are real life in that sense. Of course you have to show up and try hard but if you aren't as good as the other players you won't play as much.
Why is she not performing well I she works hard and is trying very hard to do her job well? Perhaps she needs some training and/or direction.
What is needed (and perhaps already exists in some cases): is two levels of sports for every sport and age level: the level where the sport is expected to be an all-consuming activity, where the goal is winning at all costs. And a lower level that leaves time for other activities, and where the focus is on teamwork, comradery, and physical fitness, and where everybody gets at least some chance to play.
Large schools have that with interscholastic sports and intramurals. Here in the Denver area, there are some sports that aren't recognized by the CHSAA (Colorado High School Activities Association) that have interscholastic competitions as well, e.g. Ultimate Frisbee, Guy's Volleyball. Rec centers also have some competitive teams that aren't *as* competitive.
Large schools have that with interscholastic sports and intramurals. Here in the Denver area, there are some sports that aren't recognized by the CHSAA (Colorado High School Activities Association) that have interscholastic competitions as well, e.g. Ultimate Frisbee, Guy's Volleyball. Rec centers also have some competitive teams that aren't *as* competitive.
I wasn't involved in sports (I have zero athletic ability), but my impression was that junior varsity was more of stepping stone toward varsity for underclassmen, rather than students looking for fun, teamwork, comradery, and physical fitness. Intramurals might fit what I was describing, but my impression was that even they were more intense than what I was trying to describe.
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