At my children's school they have enough children to & coaches to have 3 or more volleyball, basketball teams. Beginning in 7th grade for the girls (6th grade for the boys) they have try outs for volleyball and basketball. They have an A team, B team and C team. I am trying to find any articles, studies etc that show this is divisive to the morale/cohesiveness of a class and negatively affects self esteem.
Anecdotally, I have a lot to say to the school such as: the A team children say to the others, "you can't sit here you aren't on the A team." The morale & then the desire to play for the b or c team falters because they can't get the ball over the net or across 1/2 court line because all the best athletes, ball dribblers etc are on the A team. So they feel like failures or drop out because it's no longer any fun.
I am trying to find any information I can share with the school that shows or supports keeping the 3 teams evenly divided with some having A players and some having B/C players is in everyone best interest
Interestingly, 90% of the parents and all 3 coaches do not want try outs and believe it's best to leave as is. However the school states that the children have to get used to tryouts and defeat. It's unfair to the best athletes to keep them "down", that the league makes them pick a team to play in A league and if we don't have try outs then one team randomly is assigned and can't compete with other schools that have try outs.
I am looking for any information, studies, etc that can support this belief that there is no need for tryouts when there are 3 teams evenly distributed.
Can you help with this question?
I'm not sure what a study is
I'm not sure what a study is going to show you? It's good for participation that your school feels the need to have 3 teams, but it's important to have a "good" team. Why do we applaud school for supporting "gifted students" in academics, but complain when it's done in sports?
It sounds like you should have some type of intramural program to just get the kids some exercise. By in large, your C team players will never play in high school, why not determine that now and maybe they'll move onto another sport, like soccer or track?
Middle school sports
While I am definitely in favor of providing a chance to play sports
Legal or not?
Illegal or not?
Good question. It is only a matter of time before someone challenges Title IX. in fact if some kids are included and some are excluded this is a prime reason for Title IX. While the unintended benefits (and some consequences) of Title IX have been around sports inclusion, if one studies the legal underpinnings of inclusion vs exclusion I am sure we will see that cutting kids from any activities that are provided to others is illegal.
I have talked to many people who would love to challange this at the public school level. Ironic, but at the private school level they usually mandate inclusion in sports.
Brooke de Lench
Publisher
MomsTeam.com
Author
Home Team Advantage (Harper Collins)
Mary, I have done some
Mary,
I have done some extensive research in this area. I wrote an entire chapter in my book on the effects of cutting and have uploaded an article on MomsTeam on Cutting from a sports team.
As parents who pay taxes for the schools you should have programs available for all children. There are many many schools who have gone to a much different model for their sports programs. I hope that this forum leads to some very healthy discussions about the need for keeping all kids in the game until they are ready to leave. Not the coach telling them they are not good enough, not the other kids pushing them out so they have a spot or anyone else. Some of our finest athletes came into their own at age 16, 17 & 18. They knew they were not the best but they had coaches and adults willing to keep them in the game.
Brooke de Lench
Publisher
MomsTeam.com
Author
Home Team Advantage (Harper Collins)
Middle school here in
Middle school here in Arizona is 7th and 8th grade. The junior high schools in our district, which serves a town of 150,000, only have one team for cut sports. Those sports include baseball, basketball, and volleyball. There are no intramural teams either. My son has played basketball and baseball since he was 6 years old and didn't make either team. While I do realize that when these students get to high school, their odds of making teams diminish, my issue is the politics involved in the team selection. With 65 students trying out for 12 spots, I thought there would be a more objective process rather than each student receiving a form letter after the 4 days of try-outs stating if they made the team or not with no reason why. My son to this day has no idea why he didn't make the basketball team especially since on his club team he made the All-star team the last two years. One other student who didn't make it went to the coach and asked why he didn't make it and his response was "You need to work on your left-handed dribbling!" Sounds like he had to pull something out of his hat. The majority of the students that made the team had one of the two coaches for P.E. or had an older sibling that was on the team in the past. It is hard to explain the political part of team selection.
I do think that since athletes will be making teams in high school, seperating them in junioir high is okay. At least they do get to play.
Title IX guarantees equal
Title IX guarantees equal opportunites as far as girls having the same sports opportunities as boys. It has nothing to do with cutting kids from programs. Also, youth leagues are generally non-profit and are run by volunteers with no government money, so Title IX would never be an issue there.
As for Arizona middle school, I would think there is a big opportunity to start a youth sports program of some kind since there is so few sports sponsored by the school. You would probably find some very good athletes, like your son that would be ideal for a league like that.
Ouch - nothing worse than a
Ouch - nothing worse than a form letter. My daughters got told one by one by the coach whether they made the team or not. I was actually surprised to see coaches doing this - I can't imagine telling 53 girls individually that they didn't make the team! Many kids stop playing at that age if they don't make the school team because they think it's already too late.
I'm amazed that they only have one team for 150,000 people. Our town is 7000 and it's tough enough to make the team.
Kids need to realize that although making the school team can be a great experience, there is more to life than school. Rec teams, travel teams, club teams can all offer great experiences and often better coaching than a school can offer.
It always saddens me to see so much heartache in an area that is supposed to be fun.
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