High School Crickets....

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No tryouts, no competitions, football season not quite upon us...are we all hibernating or what?

It's the dregs of summer. Sidelines are the priority. Parent drama hasn't really erupted yet. Comp season is still a good month away at the earliest. It's a great time or a terrible time, depending who you ask.

In the meantime, I've literally been throwing every dumb idea that pops into my head out in the FB ether because this place is third in my website rotation at work. And if no one is here, then it's just back and forth between People of Walmart and Nextdoor... an ungodly combination of idiocy that compromises my professional efficiency (and personal integrity).

Speaking of which, my neighborhood is all up in arms that a guy hung a profane flag on his property and that it's in plain view of a local park. We could talk about that? But please, do not suggest graffiti on his property or hacking his social media accounts. People have already done that.
 
There's some sort of laziness plague going on at my school, we had a total of 18 at tryouts (we were always small but dang, that's SMALL). 8 on JV 10 on Varsity. The saddest part is, all the sports are feeling it. Badminton went from 18 to 5, Volleyball had 60 last year at tryouts, now they have 32, JV football went from 40 to 10. Idk what it is with the kids this year but they are not interested in school sports. The season will be interesting for sure :confused:
 
There's some sort of laziness plague going on at my school, we had a total of 18 at tryouts (we were always small but dang, that's SMALL). 8 on JV 10 on Varsity. The saddest part is, all the sports are feeling it. Badminton went from 18 to 5, Volleyball had 60 last year at tryouts, now they have 32, JV football went from 40 to 10. Idk what it is with the kids this year but they are not interested in school sports. The season will be interesting for sure :confused:

My first thought is:

Kid problem or athletic-department-wide culture problem? I had a record number tryout. I’m our football team has a record number. I haven’t seen volleyball or golf numbers, but I feel like our school has a bunch of programs with individual identities. I focus on culture and team. The football coach focuses on culture and team. The others are hit and miss trying to just win games. They tend to have big turnouts after a successful season, we have had growing turnouts every year.
 
There's some sort of laziness plague going on at my school, we had a total of 18 at tryouts (we were always small but dang, that's SMALL). 8 on JV 10 on Varsity. The saddest part is, all the sports are feeling it. Badminton went from 18 to 5, Volleyball had 60 last year at tryouts, now they have 32, JV football went from 40 to 10. Idk what it is with the kids this year but they are not interested in school sports. The season will be interesting for sure :confused:
One of our local schools cancelled football because they didnt have enough try out. So that cancelled cheer for football and marching band for football as well.
 
One of our local schools cancelled football because they didn't have enough try out. So that cancelled cheer for football and marching band for football as well.
We are seeing a trend of towns struggling to field football teams as well. Hubby coaches and his school has less than 30 kids signed up right now (we are a small town to begin with but normally field 40-50). Many other towns are either in the same situation or are either combining their football team with a neighboring town or eliminating the program altogether.
 
CP (6th grade) is on her middle school team, they have 16 girls. One has a full, quite a few tucks. But the HS doesn't have a comp team for the second year in a row. A lot of the girls are on allstar teams and don't want to do school cheer as well apparently.
 
My school tends to have high interest but we lose kids fast throughout the year. It happened in all sports last year. Lots of kids find that sports are harder than they look and don’t want to look stupid for not being superstars, so they decide to not even try rather than ‘fail’. I’ve seen this trend becoming more and more true over the last few years. If they don’t try they can’t look bad
 
My school tends to have high interest but we lose kids fast throughout the year. It happened in all sports last year. Lots of kids find that sports are harder than they look and don’t want to look stupid for not being superstars, so they decide to not even try rather than ‘fail’. I’ve seen this trend becoming more and more true over the last few years. If they don’t try they can’t look bad

I don’t get quitting. My parents never let me quit one thing I signed up for. Even if I was injured. I got better and then jumped back into it. Assuming my mom believed I was actually injured. She was very much a student of the “walk it off you’re fine” school of parenting.

But this parenting style seems to have been completely replaced with the entitlement trend that’s quickly ruining everything around us. And it really affects how I communicate with both parents and kids. I’m very a + b = c. You want to be on Varsity? Work for it; I will put you there. You don’t like this rule? Too bad; read the contract you signed. To me, it’s very clear and explicit. So when some kids and parents are completely offended that they won’t be handed everything on a platter just for showing up on time, it’s incredibly hard to work with either of them even on a fundamental level.

I’m going to leave a video here that accurately, painfully reflects how I feel.



That first one is my mom all over (except without the belt). Basically if another adult told her that I’d screwed up — because let’s face it, I probably had — there was no due process or benefit of the doubt. Just straight up grounding.

And now when I tell a parent their kid screwed up, most of the time they somehow think it’s my fault.
 
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LMAO at quitting an activity. Once my parents paid, it was a wrap. You were locked in for the season.

I found that out the hard way when I begged her to sign me up for parks and rec softball (in addition to cheer) in 4th grade because "everyone was doing it." I had never played. All I knew was that everyone in my grade was signing up. Spoiler alert: I hate standing outside in any weather over 80 degrees. It was a long 8 weeks but everytime I asked to quit the response was "Not after I paid $75."
 
LMAO at quitting an activity. Once my parents paid, it was a wrap. You were locked in for the season.

I found that out the hard way when I begged her to sign me up for parks and rec softball (in addition to cheer) in 4th grade because "everyone was doing it." I had never played. All I knew was that everyone in my grade was signing up. Spoiler alert: I hate standing outside in any weather over 80 degrees. It was a long 8 weeks but everytime I asked to quit the response was "Not after I paid $75."

You mean your parents ran the household? That’s such a novel concept in today’s society where we call them princess and diva and think it’s funny when they act the part.

Edited to complete the post after my fat fingers hit the button too soon.
 
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@oncecoolcoachnowmom My youngest niece is a prime example of putting her 5 year old in activities and at the first word of not liking it, her and her husband let him quit and go back to spending his days watching "educational TV" and karate kicking the furniture. They have disliked every preschool teacher, because they don't understand his "energy" (translation-lack of discipline and poor behavior) and the other kids are "bullies" because they don't want to play with him (translation-he won't follow game rules). They get hurt and upset if anyone tries to correct him and say they don't understand "he's just more gifted, sensitive, and creative than most." We used to talk all the time, but in the most loving and PC way I could, I told her he was smart, capable and she was making too many excuses for him. That was all it took for her to not talk to me anymore.
 
I admit I’m torn on it-CP is having a lot of knee pain due to muscle tightness after a growth spurt. It’s hard to see her hurting, and cheer is a lot less fun for her. I don’t think she really wants to quit, but she’s started to verbalize that she feels like she is too weak to cheer and doesn’t have anything to give the team.
 
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