03.26.07

High school sports

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 12:45 pm by Meg

The high school years always seems to give homeschoolers the shivers. Whether it’s the social life, the academics, or sports; so many families panic, throw in the towel, and the kids end up in a brick and mortar school.

Why people think that their busy, flourishing young adults are suddenly missing some part of the social scene is a can of worms that I’m not going to open. And the ways to deal with a kid’s academic future are many.

But sports - that still pulls the kids that want to play organized sports into their system. All of a sudden the community teams dry up and finding someplace to play becomes tough. Now, I do know that that’s not everywhere. Some public and private high schools welcome homeschooled kids that want to play without putting too much on them as far as requirements.

But I’m lucky, since we are in Indiana, that neither of my kids are into organized team sports. While we are starting to get some homeschooled basketball and soccer teams, playing on a public school team is out of the question.

The Indiana Dept. of Ed. puts homeschoolers in a catch-22. The IHSAA says that in-order to play, homeschooled kids need to take at least 3 classes at the high school. But the state only requires that school districts have to allow homeschoolers to take a single class. In order to take any additional classes, each student has to get special permission from their school board, and few school boards give it. So our kids have to decide whether playing ‘that sport’ is important enough to them to stop homeschooling.

But hosting exchange students exposes you to all sort of things. So Tuesday evening saw me sitting out on a cold picnic bench listening to the head tennis coach and the president of the booster club (tennis has it’s own) tell us how great the team was (supposedly they were in the top 4 in the state last year, if I heard them right) and all the things that needed to be done this year. For joy.

Would someone tell me why sports teams are run through the public schools?

I had always figured that it was so our tax dollars could be used to support the teams. I remember as a kid that whenever the residents didn’t pass the town budget, they always threaten to put the schools on an austerity budget. That meant that the buses didn’t pick up kids within 3 miles of the school, after-school interest groups were eliminated, and things like football were cut. It always did the trick of getting the budget passed on the next try.

So, we’re sitting here looking at some very nice tennis courts and the head of the booster club, call him Bob - I didn’t catch his name, starts telling us that they expanded the courts last year and they still need to be paid off. Bob wants each and every girl to get behind the raffle fund raiser and they may need to do another before the season is done. ‘Because the boys did 2 in the fall, and we didn’t see any of the girls at the second event.’

What he wants if for each of the girls to sell at least 20 raffle tickets (if they do, then they get their name put into a raffle for $50), but get this, each ticket costs $10! And he even had the gall to tell the girls that they are due back just after spring break, so they should spend their spring break hitting up grandparents and other family members.

I’m sorry, I have a problem with the whole ‘ask your family to support your activities’, especially when we aren’t just talking about the $1 level.  $10 each, oww!  Having lived most of my entire life not near family, I also have a problem with the assumption that said family will be close enough to be hit up.  Luckily, Tochter just looked at the packet of raffle tickets on the way home and said ‘forget it.’

Even so, they are looking at her paying $80 just to play on the team.  $15 to the school’s booster club, $15 to the tennis team’s booster club, and $50 to cover ‘player expenses.’  Amazing, for a sport team that is supported by our tax dollars.

Permalink