FHSAA considering banning middle schoolers from varsity teams

[SportsNut25]

 

[sikolec]

That’ll really hurt the smaller private schools that are K-12. Football a bit, but definitely other sports. 

[561_Fan]

2 hours ago, sikolec said:

That’ll really hurt the smaller private schools that are K-12. Football a bit, but definitely other sports. 

Small, Middle/High publics as well (Pahokee, Hawthorne, etc)

[gatorman-uf]

How much of a benefit is it to the teams with them? How many Middle Schoolers are playing at a varsity level? I would bet that at even the school that that have middle schoolers on the varsity that it is less than 1% of their total participation. 

[DisabledAccount]

1 hour ago, gatorman-uf said:

How much of a benefit is it to the teams with them? How many Middle Schoolers are playing at a varsity level? I would bet that at even the school that that have middle schoolers on the varsity that it is less than 1% of their total participation. 

In what sport? 

 

Football maybe but if we talking a sport like baseball or softball I could point out teams, contenders I might add, who have nearly or even over 30% of their team being middle school players 

 

Look up a team like PPC, CSC, Trenton, etc 

 

All normally deep run teams who have quite a bit of middle school players and several of them were starters 

 

Heck Branford right in your own backyard had a middle school aged player starting at pitcher when they went to state final 4, nearly or even over half the lineup are middle school players

 

 

 

[561_Fan]

3 hours ago, gatorman-uf said:

How much of a benefit is it to the teams with them? How many Middle Schoolers are playing at a varsity level? I would bet that at even the school that that have middle schoolers on the varsity that it is less than 1% of their total participation. 

Anquan Boldin started as an 8th grader at QB, Martavious Odoms and Janoris Jenkins were also 8th graders that started for Pahokee. There are more I know I’m missing. The high school has between 200-250 boys 9-12 

[561_Fan]

We have a 6th grader that was running the 400m for track. She won a couple of meets, she now runs with the youth team (11/12), and they just broke the national 4x400m record for their age group 2 weeks ago. 

[gatorman-uf]

On 6/6/2021 at 8:18 PM, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

In what sport? 

 

Football maybe but if we talking a sport like baseball or softball I could point out teams, contenders I might add, who have nearly or even over 30% of their team being middle school players 

 

Look up a team like PPC, CSC, Trenton, etc 

 

All normally deep run teams who have quite a bit of middle school players and several of them were starters 

 

Heck Branford right in your own backyard had a middle school aged player starting at pitcher when they went to state final 4, nearly or even over half the lineup are middle school players

Meant more if you added every varsity athlete (boy and girl), what percent of them are 6-8th. The Kelvin Taylor, Anquan Boldin, and Natalie Land 's(Lafayette) of the world are few and far between.

I think the bigger problem is that many of these schools are not actively recruiting their own hallways for players and then continuing to work with those players. Generally, no reason for middle schoolers to be on varsity if the coaches/schools are actually developing players, especially for boys who usually develop their physical abilities later.

[blackmagic]

On 6/7/2021 at 8:27 PM, gatorman-uf said:

Meant more if you added every varsity athlete (boy and girl), what percent of them are 6-8th. The Kelvin Taylor, Anquan Boldin, and Natalie Land 's(Lafayette) of the world are few and far between.

I think the bigger problem is that many of these schools are not actively recruiting their own hallways for players and then continuing to work with those players. Generally, no reason for middle schoolers to be on varsity if the coaches/schools are actually developing players, especially for boys who usually develop their physical abilities later.

Have you been to a school with 200 high school students? Or 300 middle and high school students combined? What about if the problem is reversed? What if there isn't enough middle school athletes for your daughter to play middle school basketball? Should she 1) sit around and do nothing until 9th grade??? or 2) play with the varsity and gain valuable experience even if it's 1 minute a game??? 

[561_Fan]

It will also hurt the other sports more than football, especially the female sports in the smaller, public schools. Middle schoolers make up a lot of the track, baseball, softball, flag football and junior varsity teams. Pahokee will only have varsity sports if this is the case

 

[Jesse]

42 minutes ago, 561_Fan said:

It will also hurt the other sports more than football, especially the female sports in the smaller, public schools. Middle schoolers make up a lot of the track, baseball, softball, flag football and junior varsity teams. Pahokee will only have varsity sports if this is the case

 

Yup pretty much destroy 1A all together. 

[SportsNut25]

 

[Jags904]

Baseball, soccer, cross country (especially girls), wrestling, and softball would all take major hits to it.