Hs Sports

If you do not play competitively before high school unless it is just a nothing nowhere high school, you will not make the teams.

My older daughter played competitive soccer since she was eight and made JV her freshman year. She played every other sport but just a rec league and did not even bother trying out because she knew she wouldn't make it.

I agree with 2Txtots

The teams in middle school are very much a mix of kids that played on teams in elementary school and kids that just are athletic trying out for the very first time. .

The coaches can train a good athlete starting at age 12 to play a sport for schools.

It might be harder down here to start in High school with no experience in lots of the sports.. , but I have seen many, many freshmen athletes that are "walk on" that the coaches see have potential.. They may not be on varsity for the first 2 years but they could play freshmen or JV.. But by Junior year they have made it onto the Varsity teams.

Around here, the children who have been involved in sporting leagues throughout their younger life are the ones who are on the high school teams, select competitive teams and getting college scholarships.

My daughter has been in cheer since 8th grade and she is a graduating Senior now. She worked hard every year to maintain her skills and be on the team. She opted not to cheer competitively and and those who do cheer competitively do knock out the opportunity of some of the girls who were interested in school cheer only.

I do not understand your friend's train of thought. Practice makes perfect and those who are well seasoned are the ones on the team.

Does she think she has some phenom that will magically sprout and be gifted in some sport which starts in high school?

It depends on the athlete and the area. If they are good, they can start in high school. Michael Strahan, who played professional football, didn't start playing until high school; so it can be done. I had friends that didn't start playing field hockey until high school and excelled. They were good athletes by nature though. My best friend didn't start running track until high school and by her senior year she placed 10th in the state in hurdles after a night of drinking and smoking (who knows where she would of placed if she was sober when she ran). I had to work really hard to be okay in sports so I wouldn't of made the teams in high school if I didn't play already.

Where I lived in Texas, the pee-wee football programs ran the same plays that the high schoolers did so the kids would be proficient at the plays by the time they got to high school. It is very hard in most parts of Texas to just start a sport, especially football, in high school.

I have two teenagers (boy 17 and girl 15) who both played sports starting in elementary. When they started junior high school sports, you could pick out the kids who had never played in elementary. Everyone wants to play and have fun, but they want to win. The kids with less experience got frustrated and sometimes embarassed b/c 1. they didn't know what they were doing and 2. The other kids had been playing as a team for a few years and they weren't part of it. The more confident kids are in what they're doing, the more aggressive they play.
If her kids are very naturally talented, they may catch up, but that's a big IF.
Or, they may ride the bench a lot which would get old.

I have zero experience with this, as my kids are 3 and 5. That being said, my best friend is a high school basketball coach, so after I read this, I asked him.

He said it is a mix of both. Kids who have played on club teams have generally had more practice and experience with the actual competition of the sport, but that there are an equal number of students who come in with little or no experience and can be some of the best athletes they have. He said that the one advantage to the students who have lesser experience, is that they don't have to try to teach them different plays or strategies and deal with the adjustment from one coaching style to another. A second advantage is that they don't have to help the students "unlearn" bad habits. He said that while club team athletes often times are great on paper, when it comes to high school teams, both types are equally represented and wanted.

I would assume that the one sport that would differ in this would be swimming, as there they are working towards speed, which improves with experience.

I, personally, will sign up my kids for sports when they ask to be. I don't plan to force it on them, but I'm not going to with-hold it from them if it is something that they want to do. My son has shown zero interest so far in sports other than swimming and tennis, so he has had swimming lessons, and we are just playing tennis for fun. My daughter is obsessed with gymnastics, soccer, and swimming, so she is currently in swim lessons, and she will start gymnastics in a few weeks.

There are a few sports that kids with no experience can play in high school and what those sports are depends on the school. At the high school my kids go to, anyone can do cross country, winter track, and spring track and field. We seem to never have enough divers on the swim and dive team so they'll teach that to someone who has some ability and no fear, and all of our good boys' lacrosse players go to private school so that's pretty much a walk-on sport as well. The girls' volleyball team is also open to novice players, as is the wrestling team, and there are some football positions where they'll take a kid who has a certain ability (kicker) or is huge. Baseball, softball, soccer, hockey, field hockey, basketball, gymnastics etc.? No, there are enough experienced players that a kid who has never played organized sports basically has no chance of playing unless there is a JV or freshman team policy that says that they don't cut at those levels, but a novice kid would be very out of place with kids who have years of experience.

From what I've seen, it's possible for novice athletes to play some high school sports, but the chances of making a varsity team when you're years behind other kids is slim. To be fair, I have seen some naturally athletic kids switch sports and succeed (e.g. a soccer player walking on as a field-goal kicker in football, or a hockey player picking up a lacrosse stick junior year and making the varsity team) but those are kids who tend to have a lot of experience in other sports, not no experience at all.

Sorry, this doesn't really answer the HS sports aspect but....Bravo to your friend. Her kids might not play any sports in HS at all -- she is actually giving them some time to figure out what they want to do, which may be something else entirely by the time they reach HS. There are, after all, kids who do drama, band, orchestra, piano, visual arts, dance, robotics, science camps and clubs, chess....or whose sports are fencing, archery, martial arts, tennis, golf. A lot of kids do team sports very early, which is OK, but in some areas (mine included) there can be an unspoken pressure on kids to continue, continue, continue the same sport, season after season, with no one stopping to ask the kids: Would you like to just try something different?

Perhaps, it's where you live? I know many very small districts pretty much have teams of whoever shows up. Other then that, it makes no sense.

I grew up playing soccer. I played high school soccer, and on select teams. The only girls on the teams had been playing competitively for some time. MANY people who strive to compete at the high school level, are also competing for scholarships. That is not taken lightly and they will work their butt of to get one. Compare that to a teen who just walks up wanting to make it. 1.They don't understand the speed, endurance, and competitive nature of the sport at this level. 2. They will be learning the basics while others are excelling. 3. They will not be used to how time consuming, and how much dedication it takes.

Here is the logic. Those that practice often, will be better. Those that show up wanting to make it, probably won't. Kids who have played competitively their whole lives tend to squash those who have never played. Highschool sports are NOT for "fun" anymore. It's for competition and getting ahead.

I'm with you on this. It's who you know, and really, how good you are. If your kid starts out playing on teams at a young age, he will be well seasoned when he gets into high school. My son started young, played competitive ball, and when on to play on the high school team. As hard as it was to get on the high school team, I don't really know how one would expect to just try out and make it on the HS team, not ever really having the knowledge of how it all works on the field with a team around you. It's not the same. I think your friend is not thinking this out all the way!

Depends upon the sport. Some sports, like wrestling, take years and years of practice to master. If you don't start in elmentary school you will be so behind the learning curve in high school you'll have a hard time competing. I'd put basketball in that category too.

Other sports, like tennis, track, or football rely more on the natural skill of the player. The rules of tennis and the positions and roles of football can be learned very quickly on the field. But as long as you have the hand-eye coodination for tennis or have practices catching the football (and learning the positions) in football you can catch up quickly. I've been in or have had kids in all the sports I referenced so I feel comfortable with my assessmets.

I suppose it would depend on the sport - I mean, anyone can run track or cross country if they are in shape for it. But my stepson went out for football as a high school freshman after only doing 1 season of pee wee/Pop Warner football when he was 10 (5th grade) - he didn't do any other football, no football in middle school, and then got frustrated that he only made the freshman football team (below JV) and barely saw any playing time. And we had to tell him, look, you are competing with kids that have been playing football every year since 3rd grade. Both him and their brother dabbled with track and cross country, but didn't stick with it, didn't have the endurance, weren't used to being that active all the time, etc. They wore out and gave up easily.

Maybe your friend is trying to avoid possible overscheduling and the pressure that comes with signing up for competitive sports at their ages. But unless it's for a sport that really isn't available until high school, her and her kids might be in for a rude awakening. Or maybe her kids will get interested in something else entirely, like band or drama club.

I think it depends on where you live too. I grew up in a small country town, my kids live in a large city. My son is a 10th grader, plays football, basketball and track. The competition is great. He never played on a league team when he was younger, mainly, I didn't have the extra funds. He was also busy going to his grandparents during the summers. Well, 7th grade is when they had sporting teams at his school, he went out. He made B team in football, A team in basketball. He did great. He still plays football, this year he didn't make the basketball team, but that's another story. I wanted the sports to be fun for him, of course winning is great too. What I did find in the larger cities, like where we live, money does matter. Last year, this okay player (basketball) was taking private lessons from the head varsity coach. I'm sorry, but I don't have $120/hr for my son to be a starter. My son, plays all the time, more street ball, with good competition. I know if we lived where i grew up, my son would be a starter if not the MVP. Anyway, being on teams help, but natural talent will take you very far.

I think physical activity is essential, and too many kids get too little of it. I think there is value in organized activities where kids learn to be part of a team. However, I don't think everyone is slated to be a major league athlete, and a lot of kids get sucked into such intense programs that they don't really enjoy. The family spends a fortune, the kids are traveling all the time, and they don't get to do anything else.

You really have to figure out your values, first of all. Then you have to decide why you feel the pressure now, at the elementary level, to decide what they're going to want to do in high school. And why that's important to you.

My son had no interest in the level of dedication required of any one particular sport. He did a few recreation programs related to soccer and basketball, but no travel teams. He is an all-around athlete, enjoys lots of different kids, and so on. But he never had a burning desire to do any particular sport. He had friends who were getting up at 5 AM to get to the hockey rink, and others who traveled so much on baseball teams that they weren't around for other school and town activities (dances, etc.). He also had tons of friends who got together after school to play frisbee and roller blade and ride bikes - so he got plenty of exercise and lots of socialization without being involved in a ton of things that required 100% dedication to a single sport.

When he got to high school, he watched all kinds of kids devastated because they didn't make certain teams. When he didn't make the basketball team, he wandered over to the track team, and found a group that didn't cut anyone! The first year was designed for kids to experiment with different events (short, medium, long distances, plus field events like jumping and throwing), and they learned to just get in shape and work against themselves, bettering their times and distances. Every season, the cross country, indoor, and outdoor track teams had a group of kids who really loved the events, but a whole bunch more who got cut from teams with a limited roster, as well as kids who weren't playing a team sport that season but wanted to stay in shape for something the next season. Track & field offered a chance for that.

I loved the healthy attitude of the coach, who encouraged kids to apply themselves and to work to improve from their last practice or meet. Every kid cheered for every other kid - so the elite runners were standing at the finish line cheering for the overweight slow kid who was just getting started - but that kid continued to improve and be encouraged!

My son wound up being a great distance runner who won a lot of races, but the best thing was that it was something he chose at an older age. A lot of kids started at one thing (e.g. hurdles) but found they were better at something else (e.g. mid-distance). There was a lot of room to change, and good coaching from a staff trained to see kids' abilities and strengths.

If a kid knows at age 5 that he loves baseball and will always want to devote the time to it, fine. But most kids don't know that, and they get so used to being in one sport that they never have a chance to explore other things. And the financial investment in fees, equipment and gasoline to get them and their parents to high levels becomes a guilt-inducing factor for some.

There are entirely different skill areas and enjoyment areas that kids need to have the chance to explore. One kid on our street is totally into the choral groups and school musicals, and another is intrigued by politics and has immersed himself in that, virtually running the local efforts to elect a US Senate candidate. Neither kid has any interest in sports at all, and their parents didn't push it.

I also listen to my neighbors with kids in elementary and middle school, and so many of them are absolutely miserable with schedules, early start times, late night games (leaving no time for homework). They complain, complain, complain and are always yelling at their kids to get into the car with their uniforms and equipment and permission slips.

And teachers will tell you that kids are so over-scheduled that they cannot fill their down time with any spontaneous activities, they can't think critically, and they lack creativity. So I think it's essential to find the positive in sports but allow for kids to do some other things and express their many interests.

Most kids will not be able to make the cut for high school teams if they have never played the sport outside of school. Unless they live in very small towns where everyone who wants to play makes the team. I live in a fairly small town but the school sports are competitive. My oldest played baseball from 1st grade till 11th. middle played soccer the same. he made high school team for freshman year but not sophomore. youngest son played soccer but there were 75 boys trying out for a 20 spot team. not all kids make it and if you have not spent any time playing how will you compete? There is very definitely a "who you know" edge to who makes the team. In a perfect world there would not be but we all know that there is. She should put her kid in a sport now even if its just a park district sport to get the gist of what a "team" sport is like. it is way different than just playing in the back yard.

It all depends on where you live, and the popularity and/or difficulty of the sport, plus how athletic your kids are.
Here, in high school, basketball (both boys and girls) and baseball are VERY competitive. It's practically impossible to make the team if you've never played. Soccer, tennis, and volleyball are somewhat competitive too, but not quite as much. It's pretty easy to make the softball, golf, water polo and lacrosse teams. My daughter was one of about three girls who made the freshman volleyball team with no experience other than a four day camp, and she was the ONLY one of the three who actually got to play in every game, but she is really coordinated, sports come easily to her (and she's short, who knew she could compete with those Amazon girls!)
Football takes pretty much everyone though only about 25% of the boys ever actually play (it's more like a social club, and the boosters make a TON of money for every kid who signs up, it's such a racket!)
Track and cross country take everyone, as does swim team, no try outs there, but you do have to work hard and be committed to stay on the team.
Around here a lot of kids get burned out by the time they're in high school. My daughter played soccer for years, loved it and was really good, but by the end of eighth grade, she was done (hence going out for volleyball.) So it opens up some spots on the team for kids who may have not otherwise had a chance.
Do you friend's kids WANT to play a sport? It would be a shame if she wasn't letting them for her own reasons (other than budget, of course, not everyone can afford these things.)

My son plays high school sports. It is very competitive and he had to try out to make the team, many kids did not. My son lives, breaths and sleeps sports - he has loved them more than anything since he was a toddler. He started baseball in pre-school, then moved on to soccer and his love basketball and lacrosse. Through out elementary school, he played on the school teams, the travel teams and went to clinics during the summer. He also joined Park and Rec teams.

You can always sign them up for summer clinics to help improve their skills and give them a better chance of making High School team.

Sports are great, my son loves being part of a team!

If she doesn't put her kids in any sports leagues, how does she expect them to learn the sport and how things are really done?

She puts her kids at a huge disadvantage. Ignore your friend, and let your kids play. They will figure out what they like the best by you giving them a sample of all of them.

My kids played league softball, soccer and were on swim team (they also took gymnastics when they were little.) They ended up sticking with swimming. My oldest switched to theatre and drama his last two years of high school and my younger son, after taking a break from swimming, went back with a renewed determination because he decided he missed it, and ended up being very successful.

Yes, it can be hard to compete against more "seasoned" players. However, some sports, like swimming, are about their recorded times, which you get because of talent, the way your body is naturally shaped (taller kids usually get better times than short kids, too true...) and time spent perfecting strokes and keeping up their endurance. I promise you that no amount of swimming at the Y for fun will prepare a child to be successful just walking on a high school team. She will need her kids to be on a swim team long before that.

I understand your concern and wonder too but same time, seems like a lot of kids who start so early and intensely burn out. A friend's daughter in 4th grade has been doing competitive gymnastics for years. The mom has driven her 1/2 hour each way to lessons several times a week, paid a lot of money etc and the daughter just quit yesterday. The mom isn't upset and of course the lessons and all have been a valuable experience in many ways but it's so easy to see that girl last year and for me to think "oh, my kids will never compete at a sport!" bc they're not competitive at anything now. But then like I said, so many kids get burned out. And travel teams I've read often cause injuries later. So your friend might be a bit dilusional. Waiting till HS might be a bit too late but in a way I think it's great. Good atheletes can pick things up very quickly and like people have said, not all teams need 10 years of experience before HS. From what I hear around us it varies. And in the meantime, her kids are likely relaxed and having fun.

I agree with you. Those students who have played most of their lives will be the top players in the future. Although many kids have natural talent and can catch up quite quickly they are still behind the other kids.

I have a friend who's oldest daughter played softball for years as a child. She was on traveling teams and other teams that were less competitive. Her mom noticed a man that seemed to be too focused on her daughter, she started noticing him at every game and really really watching her closely. She went up to him one day and confronted him. He was a college scout. He told her that they already have their first choices for that freshmen year made by the time the kids reached 12 or 13. That if they had noticed a player by that age they knew they'd only get better and they'd want them at their school to play, full scholarship. Her daughter was their 2nd pick at that time but he was trying to get her up to first. He thought she had better stamina and abilities than their current first choice. But the other girl had slightly better grades.

So this scout already had his first few choices made to offer college scholarships to certain kids and they were only 12-13 years old.

My grand kids take tennis during the summer. They aren't really old enough to take year round and really work on it. BUT did you know that ALL the kids want to be the next football hero or the next basketball hero? No one wants to be the next tennis star, they don't even know who they are. Same with golf, baseball, volleyball, etc....

When a college sports department gets their yearly budget for scholarships they have money in that budget for each sport they support/sponsor. Some colleges don't do the more expensive ones like having a football team or a basketball team. They have money for each sport they do. So if they have someone come in that plays tennis or volleyball and that is a sport they support but no one else has applied they give all that money to that one or two students then they turn the rest over to the next sport that needs it.

So my grand kids are getting experience in lots of different areas. At a young age so they can find out if they might have a natural talent or really enjoy one over another.