Something to worry about?

[Huskerpapa]

For me, this is a disconcerting trend.  Seeing it a few sports in Nebraska, including Class A football.  Not sure why this is happening.  Lack of interest?  Lack of time?  Lack of money?  Video revolution?

Here are a few sentences from a recent article in the LJS.  You can get the full article from numerous news outlets:

 

The largest high school in the state won't have a varsity girls basketball program this season.

Grand Island Senior High announced Friday morning it had canceled the 2024-25 varsity season because no junior or senior girls had gone out for the sport.

The shocking move comes from a school with a total student population of 2,070 in grades 9-11 — the largest enrollment in Nebraska. Grand Island's girls enrollment of 967 in grades 9-11 is also the largest in the state.

 

 

[Cazzie22]

Agree that this is disconcerting.  It may reflect on the growing popularity of Volleyball and the ensuing club season.  It may be cultural as GI’s school district is 54% Hispanic.  From what I have gleaned the coaching staff wants to develop the young players in school at the JV level.  

[Fastbreaker]

Or how about Lincoln High agreeing to forfeit at half time two weeks ago because they were down 63-0.  All the best athletes are going to the same few schools.Something has to be done to keep some semblance of talent balance. 

[HB]

6 hours ago, Fastbreaker said:

Or how about Lincoln High agreeing to forfeit at half time two weeks ago because they were down 63-0.  All the best athletes are going to the same few schools.Something has to be done to keep some semblance of talent balance. 

 

And then the next week Lincoln High beats Omaha South 39-6.  How undermanned does that make South?   Something needs to be done about the situation.  

[redsteve]

Didn't used to be able to transfer to anywhere you wanted to go. It was very restricted. You played in your school district, where you lived.  Places like Omaha Prep have pretty much always recruited outside of a district  (the whole city of Omaha was their district)

 

But now.....the recruiting (and transferring)  by high school teams (Omaha in particular) is out of control....actually there is nearly no control. Year to year, a player will make a transfer to other schools. In Nebraska. All to win the state championship, of improve their chances of being seen by college recruiters. 

 

Natural "Parity" if  there is such a thing in high school, is very hard to accomplish with all the talent no longer spread out to all the districts. It's up to the NSAA to regulate. But they don't seem to be very interested.....in some other issues too.

[caveman]

2 hours ago, redsteve said:

Didn't used to be able to transfer to anywhere you wanted to go. It was very restricted. You played in your school district, where you lived.  Places like Omaha Prep have pretty much always recruited outside of a district  (the whole city of Omaha was their district)

 

But now.....the recruiting (and transferring)  by high school teams (Omaha in particular) is out of control....actually there is nearly no control. Year to year, a player will make a transfer to other schools. In Nebraska. All to win the state championship, of improve their chances of being seen by college recruiters. 

 

Natural "Parity" if  there is such a thing in high school, is very hard to accomplish with all the talent no longer spread out to all the districts. It's up to the NSAA to regulate. But they don't seem to be very interested.....in some other issues too.

It's all about the way sports are taught and the way society is run.  Why select teams....to win obviously.  Why do they cost sooo much.  So wealthy parents can chose the coach and who wins and remove the children they don't like.  Why are parents trying to buy championships? Why are men wanting to play in women's sports? (It's because the prize is important and the competition is not).  

Truth in life "if you're not enough without the medal, there's nothing a medal can do for you"

I always enjoyed getting my butt whooped, cause I knew I'd get better.

[All About the Corn]

Recruiting by schools have been done for years and not just in the larger cities. Plus club ball has really become more important than high school. My niece who lives in Virginia has a daughter that is a volleyball player and she is getting quite a bit of court time as a freshman at high school. Her club team will be playing in several states and has two trips south down to Florida and Georgia of which she is a major player for them. She will get a lot more eyes on her at the club level than in high school. I have nothing against club teams. Think of the girls who may have not gotten noticed without them. Does Allison Weidner get a D1 offer with just high school? Maybe but her time in club get her noticed more. It is a balance the can be hard to maintain and right now I think the clubs have more of advantage. 

[redsteve]

My nephew when playing for the 8th grade Gladiator club basketball, was recruited by Omaha Creighton to play freshman basket ball (about 30 years ago.) He said no and went to his "home" school,  Westside.... and started for them.  Recruiting was very rare then, but has become much the norm everywhere these days.

I coached on several club teams later, mostly baseball, and about the 7th and 8th grade "people" were floating around watching players games and taking notes.

 

 

Edited Monday at 06:20 PM by redsteve

[KarlHessEatMy....]

My niece as a freshman this year could of gone to any school she wanted to. 

 

A lot of coaches wanted her to come to their high school. But her and her club teammmates all decided on Bellevue West. They really liked their coach. 

 

My sister actually moved to Bellevue though which I think you have to live in to go to Bellevue West. 

[huskerchode]

I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner.  I recall several years ago, there were a number of class A schools that needed to have their players play on three different levels of teams during the week just so they had enough for games.  It wasn't unheard of for a girl to play on the freshman, reserve, and JV teams (or reserve, JV, and varsity).  At the time, there was a limit on the number of quarters they could play (I don't recall what it was), so it took a lot of planning on the coaches' parts to make sure they weren't violating any of those rules.  But why was interest in playing basketball so low in these larger schools?

 

I think it's a combination of a lot of things, not the least of which is VB is much more enticing to many of the girls.  There were also some questionable demands by many of the HS basketball coaches (possibly other sports as well although that wasn't our experience) where they indicated an athlete's playing time was directly related to how much off season 'volunteer' practices they showed up to.  I'm talking off season (like summers and fall leading up to the season).  I personally know of several solid basketball players that were given the message they wouldn't get much playing time because they had chosen to do a different club sport in the summer and only made it to half the 'volunteer' practices.  I'm talking about kids that were very athletic who went on to play division 1 sports in something else.  They would have loved to play basketball if the demands were more reasonable, and they could have contributed, but instead they quit and often played coed intramurals (and a few even continued to play club basketball when they could) rather than deal with power plays from their HS basketball coach.

 

On the flipside, I know of several girls that gave up other sports to focus on basketball.  Many went to all 'volunteer' practices, and eventually earned scholarships to play at different levels.  However, many of them became bench riders or wound up quitting (burnout often cited as the reason, another was that they just weren't all that great to begin with and found out at the college level).  At some point it needs to be recognized that either the talent/skill is there, or it isn't, and it doesn't matter that little Suzy gave up everything to go to all clinics and practices and was rewarded with increased playing time in HS.  Kids need to be well-rounded.  It's part of what distinguishes those that are skilled alone versus those that are skilled and athletic.  Can she shoot the 3?  Awesome!  Can she run down the court without her feet being stuck in molasses and jump more than 2 inches off the ground?  Because that stuff's important, too.  

Edited 16 hours ago by huskerchode