Ex-college coach says end high school sports

http://www.highschoolsports.net/sports/preps/story/2012-05-07/Coach-proposes-ending-high-school-sports/54801730/1

The way it is now in just about every sport but football, what a kid does for his or her high school team doesn't matter when it comes to college opportunities, but I'm still not sure this is a good idea.
What happens with football is one question that I have under his plan. As some have pointed out on other threads, AAU or club football may be cost-prohibitive.
I know in Canada there's junior football but I'm not sure how that works as far as providing players for college and pros.

 

What about the kids who don't have the talent or the interest to play college sports? I coached a female softball player who was just admitted to Duke. Her parents were divorced and her family didn't have the money or time for her to play travel. However, I think she got a lot out of playing high school softball. The club teams have gotten so watered down because so many of these parents think that their kids are going DI because they play club. The fact is in many cases the club team stinks. I have a sophomore who has committed DI already and isn't even done with her sophomore season. She got a great monetary offer from a very good mid-major but a part of me wishes she didn't feel so rushed to decide her future college when she is only 15.

 

The guy is right about one thing. Football is the last true high school sport left in America.

That said, this is yet another stupid idea. In an age where kids are already disconnected enough - and parents are fast becoming exclusively helicopter moms and dads - the last thing that needs to happen is to eliminate one of the few things that can still bring people together in a community or a neighborhood.

Not to mention the fact that studies continue to prove out that kids involved in extracurricular activities do better in school than kids that aren't involved.

 

I could not agree more with this, Armchair. I'm starting to think that there is a huge overreaction over the state of sports and these rash of calls to eliminate them, with the football/concussion, NCAA rule inconsistencies, and other matters being debated and discussed about.

Sports, if the business mindset, politics, and some of the negative stuff, were removed, it still has a place in the community and society, if used positively.

 

Ending HS sports is also what the ed-reformers want, since it removes any community/emotional ties people have with their local schools. But it also prevents some unscrupulous charters or privates from recruiting an uber-team, winning a few state titles with it and thereby improving its brand.

What I foresee happening is a two-tier system, much like what exists in gymnastics and hockey: elite players play exclusively club, everyone else plays high school. You're already seeing that happen in soccer, where club coaches are telling their kids to quit their HS teams because they're "too restrictive" and the competition "too weak." With the ridiculous coverage AAU basketball teams are getting from recruiting writers who cater to a niche audience, basketball is likely next.

 

Stop giving athletic scholarships and a lot of this junk will take care of itself.

 

Jurgen Klinsmann is already setting up the U.S. soccer academy system expressly so boys players can't possibly do high school and the academy anymore.

I see Stevens' point about making intramurals more available. On the other hand, you can't discount how high school sports can strengthen a student's connection with a school, and create memories that club sports never will. It might seem like a minor thing, but figure that when Virginia (unsuccessfully) tried to pass a Tim Tebow law, the proponents put forth a soccer player who had played club all the way through, and had a scholarship to UVa in hand, but who still regretted not being able to play for a school in front of classmates.

 

Won't ever happen, of course.

And the problem isn't the giving of athletic scholarships. The problem is that too many parents and kids are deluded into thinking they're going to be the lucky ones to land the scholarship. And for most sports, only about 1 percent of high school athletes will be able to get a D-I scholarship.

I found this Houston Chronicle story about the odds. Girls' golf is the best chance for an athlete to get a scholarship. At 1.6 percent. HS wrestling is the lowest at 0.3 percent.

http://www.chron.com/sports/college/article/College-scholarships-rare-for-high-school-athletes-1700917.php#page-2

Kids might as well bust their butts to get academic scholarships instead.

 

Bears out my point. Stop dangling this sort of carrot in front of 15-year-olds and their parents and see if things change.

 

Somebody help me out. When did interscholastic and intercollegiate sports become the root of all evil?

 

Since the screaming teabaggers don't want to pay one rusty nickel of their tax money for anything, high school sports should certainly be included in that.

 

I don't think it's a horrible idea. The biggest issue I have is the cost, especially for those who can't afford to compete in sports otherwise. That connection to sports through schools also makes for a more conducive path to exposure to sports for those who otherwise would have little to no exposure to them . . . the argument that sports are an effective avenue to keeping kids off the streets and out of trouble, etc. They won't have that same exposure where they have a coach/teacher telling them to come out for football or soccer or basketball unless that teacher/coach is otherwise involved outside of school, then cost comes back into it again.

Those are my biggest concerns.

In Canada the systems differ from region to region, especially when it comes to football. Some regions have high school only others have both minor football through midget age and high school, others have minor football just up to peewee or bantam and then its high school. Hockey is almost exclusively through minor hockey, same with baseball although there are some high school teams. Soccer there is both high school and club systems in most regions. The biggest sports I have found that still rely heavily on high schools up here, although there are some club teams, are basketball and volleyball.

I wouldn't be heart broken to see it happen, but as I mentioned before, there are certainly some pitfalls, especially financially.