High School Sports Thread
- Thread starter qwerty
- Start date
Today's Boys Line-Up:
Watch: https://www.iahsaa.org/watch/ or at https://www.youtube.com/@theihsaa/streams
Watch: https://www.iahsaa.org/watch/ or at https://www.youtube.com/@theihsaa/streams
| Event | Location | Time | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casey’s Center | 10:30 AM CT | 4A-State Quarterfinal | ||||
| Casey’s Center | 12:15 PM CT | 4A-State Quarterfinal | ||||
| Casey’s Center | 2:00 PM CT | 1A-State Quarterfinal | ||||
| Casey’s Center | 3:45 PM CT | 1A-State Quarterfinal | ||||
| Casey’s Center | 5:30 PM CT | 1A-State Quarterfinal | ||||
| Casey’s Center | 7:15 PM CT | 1A-State Quarterfinal |
I have a daughter playing for a small school that is not very good. We had 9 girls out this year, so I don't think going back to 6 on 6 would work. The primary issue is numbers and increasing the number of players on the court only makes it worse. Some of the schools we played only had 7 or 8. We only were able to play 3 or 4 JV games, which adds to the problem down the road.
I agree with the "8 man" concept, though, but go with 4 on 4. It reduces the impact that low numbers have on programs and it spreads the court. Ball handling is the primary problem and with 4 on 4, at least there is one less defender to use for trapping.
The only down side might be that the 8 man football problem (which we play as well) comes into play - if a team is even slightly more athletic and skilled, 8 man football can get out of hand quickly.
It has to be based on participation, though, not enrollment. 8 man football is absolutely abused by a handful of schools. They show up with 50 kids dressed - no reason they can't play class A 11 man.
wow MMC is now a basketball school with Remsen union? i gotta learn about 1a.
woodbine is a small school that has a lot of athletes. 8-man runner up
woodbine is a small school that has a lot of athletes. 8-man runner up
Kids overall are just not going out of sports, it really doesn't matter what the sport is, they are all down in numbers overall. Where you used to have a varsity and JV even at the smaller schools, now they are struggling to get 10 to 12 kids out in four grades.
Everyone says these schools should just share with a bigger school, but the moment you talk sharing, you lose half the kids that you thought were going to go out if you had the sport by yourself. Lots of kids these days will go out, but only if they are going to get playing time, share, and they might sit, they are not playing.
The biggest problem is the BEDS count kills these smaller schools because it doesn't account for the mix of boys and girls to a class. So you have a BEDS number of 20, sounds good, until you factor in out of that 20, 15 of them are all boys or girls in that class. So that class kills your participation numbers all the way through the school for athletics. The last school I was at, I had one class that had those numbers, 15 boys, to 5 girls, now there are 3 girls in that class as Juniors. Just another problem that is not going to be fixed using the BEDS number to determine class placement.
Is there just not enough kids or are part of them doing yr around something else so they just don't bother with BB? It used to be popular but there are quite a few small schools that have problems getting a team. Just curious on your viewpoint. No kids in schools so I have no reference point.
I think HS sports overall has declined in popularity, seems like the advent of internet and after covid folks aren't as social maybe?
It's a mix. There are a couple of girls that concentrate on their favorite / best sport. But with an overall enrollment as small as ours, just a couple can cause a problem. And the kids that specialize usually specialize because they have a future in athletics beyond high school, which also means they are the best athletes missing from the other sports.
I agree, HS sports has declined, particularly in girls. For our school, the surprising thing is softball has held relatively steady. Usually softball and baseball take a hit as the participants get licenses and 4 wheels and find more entertaining ways to spend a summer. We are probably unique in that though as we rarely are able to play JV in that, either. Our participation is probably still hanging in there due to our success over the past 7-8 years and it is the one sport that hasn't had a new coach every year.
For small schools, I think the biggest thing is development at the younger ages. Take Newell-Fonda for example. They seem to be in every state tournament in every sport on the girls side. Unless there is something in the water in Pocahontas county, it's because they had some success and young kids wanted to be a part of that success and it just perpetuates itself. It's hard to create that, but once you do it's hard to lose it as well.
