High school football last night (Pittsburgh, Richland: layoffs, colleges, living)

[ebyrnes]

I pay very little attention to professional sports, but am glad to hear that your kids are doing so well and enjoying themselves. Now the Olympics, on the other hand, I adore - nothing like seeing a non-professional put their heart and soul into their sport, even when they don't win. Makes me cry every time, lol.

[erieguy]

Not a fan of the Olympics other than hockey, but many Olympians are professionals. Before it changed, I never understood why they couldn't be. After all, it's supposed to be best in the world.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by Pitt Chick

Yeah.. there is definite bias (and excessive coverage) of HS football.

Heck, Latrobe was STATE champs in '08, '09, '10 and '13.... but since it was hockey, the media cared very little.

You can't really put HS hockey in the same classification as regular HS sports like football, basketball and soccer. It is a club sport, which is not part of HS sports in PA. Hockey costs a fortune to play, which eliminates many if not most kids from ever playing the game.

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

Not really little kids ; they players are between 13 and 18. Its usually the older kids that play, but what is that teaching them ; fake it and you get ahead?

There are virtually no 13 year olds playing varsity football in PA but there are 19 year olds. You have to be in 9th grade in PA to play varsity sports. Very few 13 year olds are in 9th grade and the few that are would be unlikely to be mature enough to play against 16 to 19 year olds.

[Pitt Chick]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

You can't really put HS hockey in the same classification as regular HS sports like football, basketball and soccer. It is a club sport, which is not part of HS sports in PA. Hockey costs a fortune to play, which eliminates many if not most kids from ever playing the game.

So a three-peat as state champions isn't worth media attention because "Hockey costs a fortune to play, which eliminates many if not most kids from ever playing the game."

Beyond silly.....

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Pitt Chick

So a three-peat as state champions isn't worth media attention because "Hockey costs a fortune to play, which eliminates many if not most kids from ever playing the game."

Beyond silly.....

And because it's a club sport and because it's not as popular. The majority outweighs the few. The significance of club, school, amateur, etc..., hockey doesn't interest many who aren't affiliated with it.

[okaydorothy]

Maybe 14 year olds ; there are definitely that age kids playing in varsity.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

Maybe 14 year olds ; there are definitely that age kids playing in varsity.

Back in the day, one had to be in 10,11, or 12th grade to be able to play varsity. Freshman could not play. Don't remember what the age stipulation was but I believe it was 15.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

You can't really put HS hockey in the same classification as regular HS sports like football, basketball and soccer. It is a club sport, which is not part of HS sports in PA. Hockey costs a fortune to play, which eliminates many if not most kids from ever playing the game.



There are virtually no 13 year olds playing varsity football in PA but there are 19 year olds. You have to be in 9th grade in PA to play varsity sports. Very few 13 year olds are in 9th grade and the few that are would be unlikely to be mature enough to play against 16 to 19 year olds.

I was 13 in the 9th grade. I don't know how it is now, but in the city, if you turned 5 before February 1st, you had to be in kindergarten. That meant that at the start of the school year, about 40% of the kids in kindergarten were 4 years old. These kids would be 13 as they entered 9th grade, and would be in college at 17, as I was, provided they never flunked a grade.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Back in the day, one had to be in 10,11, or 12th grade to be able to play varsity. Freshman could not play. Don't remember what the age stipulation was but I believe it was 15.

I can't remember a PIAA rule that said 9th graders could not play varsity. Some school districts had policies about 9th graders playing varsity sports. Plum had a rule that freshmen could only play varsity if they were a starter. It used to be highly unusual for a freshman to play varsity football or basketball. Bill Fralic got a lot of attention in 1977 when he started most of Penn Hill's football games as a freshman. Fralic, however, was not a typical freshman. According to the writeup of Fralic on Pitt's website, "As an eighth grader, he stood 6-foot-3 and weighed 235 pounds."

Originally Posted by Herodotus

I was 13 in the 9th grade. I don't know how it is now, but in the city, if you turned 5 before February 1st, you had to be in kindergarten. That meant that at the start of the school year, about 40% of the kids in kindergarten were 4 years old. These kids would be 13 as they entered 9th grade, and would be in college at 17, as I was, provided they never flunked a grade.

Most school districts in Allegheny County state that a child must be 5 on or before September 1 to enroll in kindergarten. The few exceptions are Hampton with an 8/15 cutoff; and Moon and Pittsburgh Public schools with a 9/30 cutoff. I remember kids back in the 1960s who started kindergarten at 4 but this would be rare today. More parents are electing to delay kindergarten until their child turns 6.

Pennsylvania does not have compulsory attendance for kindergarten and cumpulsory attendance in PA "shall mean the period of a child's life from the time the child's parents elect to have the child enter school, which shall be not later than at the age of eight (8) years..."

Also keep in mind that in PA, if a student turns 19 on or after July 1, he is eligible, age-wise, to compete through that school year.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Kippy

In addition, while this may sound crazy to folks around here, football was not the most popular sport where I grew up. The best athletes, who oftentimes were the most popular kids, all played soccer.

What kind of bizarro parallel universe were you living in?