Quote:

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.



Wow great response! A little more background on what was/is proposed. They (admin types) want to cut soccer, softball, and baseball becasue they were the last three sports added. They would still keep ALL other sports, including the multiple 7th grade teams for the other sports!

A few points I see wrong here is that:

Since soccer,Baseball,Softball were made up of 7/8 on one team why can not the other sports be 7/8 this alone would consolidate 8 teams (football, volleyball, girl&boys Basketball) into 4 thus saving the four spring sports for a whole lot more kids than would be cut by the smaller team in the fall/winter.

Why is it the school decided to cut these sports even though they are the lowest cost sports (I have seen the budget) offered for the largest number of players? While some might say football makes some money the reality is that at the middle school level it is just not true, cost of equipment and uniforms when coupled with security and refs is not covering the cost every year (it does some but not others when new uniforms are needed). My question is really about the bias shown toward FB and BB even thought they cost more to run (BB is very expensive when you add security/refs/gym cost and realize there are maybe 10 on a team and only 5 play at a time) and do not forget dance and cheer costs must be split between FB and boys BB!

Telling the kids who play these spring sports "sorry your cancelled because there is no money!" while they have to watch everyone else play sends a signal that thier sport is not important, and thus neither are they, as athletes. If we are going to have sports at the school should'nt they be the ones that are most played by youths?

Perhaps most disturbing about this whole thing was that the Senior leadership team (the one making the recomendation to school board) made this recomemdation with out ANY input from parents, in fact the parents were never informed (offically) concerning this possibility. I belive they were going to try and do this "under the cover of darkness" because of the amount of heat that would (and now is ) be generated! In my book if there is no money for spring sports then maybe there is not enough money to be "wasting it" on sports period, afterall it is middle school and I do not think any scholarships will be lost without middle school sports.

AS for the whole club vs JV vs Middle school thing, well to me that is not part of the argument in this case. Why do we need the other sports, let them go play club ball too. I think people confuse quality of play with the chance to play. Many kids just want a chance to play because they love thier sport be it rec or club level. Also there are a few "rec" players who discover they have the ability to play at club player level.