^Similarly at our school. I see some of the long lists of activities listed by some students on CC and my first thought is about what kind of school do they attend. In our area, very few students can do anything else besides marching band. 2 sports at the sam time only works for a very few sports. And then if you participate in a varsity sport, you are unlikely to do anything else because the scheduling just doesn’t work out. Athletics is big here and almost all sports train just as hard during their off-season. It’s hard enough to do club and high school, let alone 2 or more sports. Marching band kids have other band during the off season and band camp limits summer options. The kids that don’t do any sports can join the other clubs, but most of those kids work so aren’t loading up on clubs either. They join things that they enjoy that fit around their part-time jobs.
D has very little free time between school, job (which I’ve always valued above other extra-curriculars), volunteering, and the few things she is involved in, though her involvement has been consistent.
My S (10th grade) is a 3 season athlete (xc and winter/spring track). Last year he didn’t take band as he had concerns about simply adjusting to HS and preferred running to music. It also left a period open to him as a study hall, which he found very helpful.
However, he did feel he was missing out socially and so this year rejoined band. As it is a class, it takes priority over sports and there is some tension between the band director and the sport coaches. The band director will do things like allow kids with Saturday meets/games to leave after halftime on Friday nights so they can get home to sleep. Luckily they do not compete or anything and the commitment outside of school is limited to Friday night games, a few local parades, and two concerts.
Just doing band and sports does make it hard to do other clubs; they try to meet during lunch, but if you have a different lunch, you can’t attend; or during last period, but if you are in band or chorus (the only classes scheduled then) you also can’t attend.
I was surprised last year about the restrictions on varsity athletes. Last year, S was was freshman on the varsity soccer team and was not a star by any means (though he did start half the time). His club team had a big showcase tournament and I told the HS coach he’d miss one game. Ug. Long email about consequences ensued. S sat on the bench for the next 2 HS games, until the guy in his position got injured (sadly) and the coach had no choice but to play S. This year S will miss 2 games at the end of the season due to a big competition for his other sport, but I will not tell the HS coach until after the last game before S has to leave. Who knows, if the team doesn’t make the post-season it won’t matter anyhow and no point getting put in the doghouse early.
I was very happy that our school did not have football. Unfortunately, the NFL-funded football boosting organizations managed to get it going, and then managed to get it accepted as a totally booster-funded sport at the HS. Soccer is really the biggest varsity team sport here, still. I have no idea whether the band plays at football games these days, but I sort of doubt it. Cheer has also appeared and become a competitive sport. Again, I have no idea if they perform at football games.
Soccer is not a sport with a tradition of cheerleaders or marching bands. and there certainly wasn’t anything like that at the basketball games I attended here. Track and volleyball have been big things at the HS, and they don’t have that stuff either. It really is nice to have a lot of kids participating in sports without the scene being dominated by a couple of male teams.
My D played varsity tennis (though for fun, not at any recruitable level). When they went to away games, they couldn’t study on the bus. They had to sit there at the games and watch all of their teammates even when they weren’t playing themselves. How boring and stultifying. I always thought these coaches needed to get over themselves.
@liska21 your son had club soccer games during the high school season? That is a big no-no in California. You can’t play for any other team during the h.s. season.
@VickiSoCal In WA, our HS and club leagues allow it. Affects a lot of our 9th grade boys who play in birth year leagues (meaning Jan-Dec age cut-offs), and half the boys in WA have been on birth year for 3 years now. But also affects the older boys who do college showcases during our spring HS season. Lots of other states play boys HS in fall so it’s not unusual for showcases to overlap with our HS season.
@VickiSoCal Isn’t that a local policy? It doesn’t work that way in our area. Most do club and high school and don’t swim unattached at any time unless really unattached.
Parents whose children did or do sports in high school, does your school have a policy about the grades the students must have to compete in their sport? Our high school does, so, for example, D2 and her gymnastics teammates were encouraged to bring their homework to practice and work on it in spare moments.
My D is a junior and has a busy fall with Varsity Tennis (15+ Hours/week) and she works in some other volunteer work and clubs as time permits. Really try to keep a balance as she has a rigorous class schedule (3 AP’s and 2 Honors) and has been prepping for and started taking the ACT (Sept and Oct). GPA and ACT is by far the priority but EC’s get worked in as long as they don’t impact her focus on grades and test scores.
Oldest was a varsity athlete plus in a bunch of academic clubs. He probably spent 15-20 hours per week on school activities. But five hours a week of his practice was during class time.
Middle is also a varsity athlete, but no other clubs for now. He is right at 10 hours per week. Again, 5 hours of practice is during class time.
Youngest is a club gymnast. She trains 25 hours per week, year round, unaffiliated with her school. She also has meets, expositions and other gymnastics events that take even more time. She does very little at school, other than one club.
All three are academic honor students of varying degrees.
D (sophomore) plays varsity and club, 15 hrs/wk. Job 6 hrs/wk and volunteering 4hr/wk. Faithfully gets 8-9 hrs sleep every night. Takes 4 APs and gets straight As.
What I find most distracting and potentially hard to control is her social life – ever expanding circle of friends (huge HS) and a newly acquired boyfriend.
@rosered55 - Our state (FL) has a minimum GPA to remain eligible. The school my kids attend has a higher GPA requirement for participation.
@VickiSoCal - I’m not sure that family rule would be productive with all kids. Some kids are maintaining their 2.0 just so they can remain eligible to play. If you take the sport away you may take away the incentive to pass. My kids are not in that position but I have seen parents pull their still eligible child from sports only to have the child’s grades get worse after he lost the incentive to stay eligible. It really is dependent on the individual.
@Proudpatriot totally dependent on the kid. In fact I was kind of slammed on another thread for not having the expectation my kids would get straight A’s.
I expect them to do the best they are capable of, which for them is mostly A’s with some B’s in difficult courses.
@bestmom888 What time does your D’s last class end? My D has one AP and she spends hours each night on that class alone. How many hrs of HW does your’s have? Her schedule with 4 APs and all that sleep AND a social life blows the mind
@VickiSoCal - I think we are in agreement. It really does depend on the kid. When I was teaching I had a kid who was clearly a stoner. He once told me that if it wasn’t for Chorus (my class) and Art he wouldn’t ever come to school. Sports can be that way for some kids.
Citymama9, I have often been completely dumbfounded at the seeming difference in how AP’s are handled in different schools. My D’s experience is like yours: each AP class requires hours of often difficult and extensive homework. My kids did sports but that was about it for EC’s during the school year, and they never got to bed before 12:30 AM. Too often it was much later than that. Posters have hinted that perhaps my children had poor time management or insufficient academic ability, but I’m here to tell you one graduated from Dartmouth and one from Stanford with good GPA’s, and they both said they had much more free time in college than in high school. And my D even was a 3-season athlete at Stanford! There really is a difference. I should note that my youngest is taking some of the same AP’s as her siblings took, but she has some younger teachers. The tough old guard of the school has mostly retired. Frankly, the teaching quality is poorer and the workload a bit less (they don’t want to grade papers), so for the first time I am understanding a little how it must be in other places.