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Well according to one of their middle school websites, they have way too many expenses in the other sports. Do other middle schools have:

7th and 8th grade Volleyball
7th grade basketball (Boys and Girls)
8th grade Basketball (Boys and Girls)
7th grade Football
8th grade Football
Softball
Track
Wrestling
Baseball
Soccer (Boys and Girls)
Dance (it is listed on the athletics page)

See why it costs so much to run middle school athletics in Fort Mill.




Exactly......and even if you take sports like soccer which are inexpensive and have volunteer coaches, etc etc you will get into all kinds of politics if you allow 1...and not the others.

Offering all those sports at MS is ridiculous. My kid played MS bball and enjoyed it. But that was before the explosion in all these sports. I think 2 years ago.....they offered football and basketball.

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In Fort Mill can 7th/8th graders choose to tryout for the High School JV team instead of playing Middle School soccer? Here in Richland 2 Middle School kids are not allowed to tryout for the JV teams...

tk




They could......before the explosion of MS sports. Now it takes an act of Congress to get a very, very good middle schooler cleared to play JV.

In a school world flush with cash....a broad offering of MS sports is great!!! Barring that....bag it and let the better kids play JV.

Good club players can play JV no problem at 7th-8th grade, unless they are very small for their age. Normal sized kids have no issues.

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There are other choices for 7th and 8th grade soccer players to get them ready for the high school team.

A. Play on the high school JV team
B. Play U-13 & U-14 club soccer during the spring
C. Play both

I think FM and NF will still be OK if this goes down.




Agreed. MS soccer isn't developing kids to compete at the HS level. If you want to do it for fun and for school pride, fine. Kids that are developing.....are doing so becasue they play club. Not picking on MS soccer...I'd say mostly the same for JV and I'm a JV coach.

IF we have a nice wave of talented 7th-8th graders coming thru the FM middle schools......its probably more about club and coincidence/luck...then it is the existence of MS soccer.

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I'll have to disagree with that last statement...playing in 7th and 8th grade (which is actually our JV), if done well and with purpose, does help develop players for HS teams, especially the ones who for whatever reasons don't have the chance to play club. It also gives players a chance to develop and move up together as a team, with familiar teammates and a knowledge of how they mesh together. We have seen a distinct improvement in level of play since we added JV teams and got the 7th and 8th graders involved; it has also helped our numbers to give the athletic students a chance to get involved with soccer in 7th and 8th grade. Those athletic types who don't have the opportunity to play soccer will get started in other sports at that age (softball, track, etc.), and once started in a sport will most likely stick with it when they reach high school rather than switch to soccer.

I advocate club play to all my athletes, I coach a club team in the fall, and I think playing club ball can make a huge difference in player and team performance--BUT--club is not the ONLY possible route or contributing factor in developing players and teams, and for areas and individuals for which club isn't an option, sometimes developmental high school teams (MS and JV) are the ONLY opportunity for some to develop before they hit varsity. I think some people who are steeped in the club environment and mentality take it as a matter of course and forget that folks in other situations sometimes have to take different routes to accomplish the same objectives.


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I'll take it a step more...if you have middle school and JV teams and they AREN'T helping to develop players for high school...I'd start asking the question, "Why not?"


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Ok, let me back up a half step. To take a kid who has only played at a rec level, yes...a good MS or JV coach can improve that player.

But if you are in a conference with some really good teams, taking a rec player and making him/her incrementally better isn't going to get it done.

Its all about perspective. If you are truly only doing it to make kids better, irrespective of results....cool. Develop away.

If the intent is to win.....and I think in school sports the intent is to win.....then good luck dealing with a bushel basket of rec players.

My idea of development within this context......is, can a MS coach or a JV coach take a non Club player and "develop" them into being able to successfully compete with a Northwestern or Fort Mill or Wando or Irmo or Mauldin or Dorman....and the answer is no. Never in heck.

That will only happen with talent and with getting kids playing soccer with experienced, capable, probably professional coaching......read Club......at 8-9-10 years old.

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I was going to weigh in with the question/statement:
"What if the JV coach IS also a Club Coach? I've know a few of those!"

But then I figured that would just help flame the Us v Them - Club v HS argument again.....


tk


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Ok, I'll back up a half step as well...I think perhaps we're talking about two different systems of value. If the point of high school ball is to win--and I won't argue against that at all--and the only standard for winning is to beat Wando or Irmo or Northwestern or Fort Mill or Dorman, or B-E for that matter--then I'll agree, JV and MS participation alone probably isn't going to get the job done, and I'd also have to say a lot of high school programs in this state might as well just hang it up, because it is comparatively only an elite few who compete at that level. I have said more than once that it is unrealistic to expect to compete with players who put in a long-term, year-round investment in the sport unless you are willing to make a comparable investment.

On the other hand, there are measures of success in HS ball that don't necessarily culminate in state championships...which is a good thing, or otherwise there would be only three girls' and four boys' teams that are successful per year. If we are talking about development--which, if you truly are doing it to make kids better, cannot be irrespective of results--then anything that makes a team more competitive than it was before is a help. If the difference is playoffs vs. no playoffs, last in the region vs. middle of the pack, losing 15-0 to Wando vs. losing 3-0, and maybe developing a player here and there who can go on to play at the next level rather than just marking time till graduation, then there are definitely developmental opportunities there that can make a difference in overall team performance and self-perception. My stance is against taking an "all or nothing" view that if it's not winning championships, it's not helping at all and therefore isn't worth doing. Again, everyone isn't in the same situation, so it's more about the relative value of things than a single absolute value that can be applied across the board.


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TK...that sounds more like a bridge than a division.


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Long story short...if you say "MS and JV soccer alone aren't likely to prepare a team to beat Wando and Mauldin," then I'll agree. If you say "MS and JV don't help to develop players for high school ball" as a general statement, I would wonder exactly what it is that the MS and JV coaches are doing.


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