<p>Ok, I have to start out by saying that I"m not a sports fan and while I intellectually see the benefit of sports, the amount of time / effort devoted to them in the typical American school is well beyond my comfort zone. I see the benefit of sports for my kids in enjoyment, getting their heart rates, and developing a fun skill for use later on in life. I just can’t take it seriously whether a team wins or loses a game, as long as all had fun.
That said.</p>
<p>D (junior) is on the varsity tennis team; was on jr varsity as a fr/so.<br>
She has practice after school for a couple hours. OK, I get that.</p>
<p>Then they have these matches. A couple times a week, not getting home til late at night. Coach isn’t putting her in. So she and her non-playing teammates have to sit there. Cannot open a book. Cannot do anything other than just waste their time staring at playing teammates. Her coach is her AP Chem teacher. He gives them hours of homework a night that they can’t touch. He won’t even entertain a simple chem question at any time, even if he’s doing nothing. So she gets home late, frustrated because she’s wasted 5 hours of her day doing nothing, knowing that now she’ll have to stay up super-late to get everything done (and she has a sleep disorder so she cannot just stay up til 2 am). </p>
<p>I’m not mad the coach isn’t putting her in - if she’s not good enough, fine. But at least tell her so she doesn’t have to go. Or at least let them read a darn book. It is SUCH an inefficient use of time, it drives me crazy. I’m about to say to her, “YK, forget it. Just go take private lessons and play with your friends for fun.” </p>
<p>S spends a lot of time on an EC for school but at least when he’s staying after school, he’s engaged in his activity the whole time. The disorganization and inefficiency of schlepping her an hour on a bus, to sit on the sidelines and watch the other players, knowing all the while that she has homework in her bag she can’t touch, and then schlep back, drives the INTJ in me through the roof.</p>
<p>Not letting them do homework while they are sitting around is just stupid. I would be angry about that. My S does cross country & track, and there is a lot of waiting around while other age groups race. If he couldn’t spend that time doing his homework, he would not be able to participate.</p>
<p>My D was on the varsity tennis team. Their coach had no problem with those not playing at the moment doing HW and one could generally see a number of the kids sitting on the ground with their books out doing HW. There were usually always still some doing the teammate cheering on, etc. </p>
<p>I agree with you that it doesn’t make sense for them to just waste the time when they’re just sitting there. Regarding not going to the meet at all - well, I think if they’re on the team they should generally go. Coaches sometimes like to play many of the team members - even the ones who aren’t the starters. They sometimes do it when starters either don’t show up or get injured or (hopefully) when the team is way ahead to give the others a chance to play and improve without jeopardizing the team’s ranking. </p>
<p>All of this depends a lot on the particular coach and their (and possibly the HS’s) philosophy on playing as many of the teammates as possible while still trying to win the particular meet. Some coaches are cutthroat ‘win at all cost’ competetive and others are competetive but willing to develop the players and give them all a reasonable chance to play. I prefer the latter.</p>
<p>At the end of the day one needs to make a decision whether it’s worth being on the team or not.</p>
<p>Yes…it is typical. Especially at the Varsity level.</p>
<p>Even in an individual sport, it’s about being part of a team. Supporting your teammates, and learning skills/techniques/strategies while watching others play.</p>
<p>While I have heard of a few coaches who allow kids to do homework during meets/matches/games - most in our district do not. Our district is known much more for its academics than sports teams (many more kids going to Ivy League and top schools than playing D1 sports), but students understand the commitment they make when they join a team – and how that commitment may affect other aspects of their life.</p>
If she considers those five hours a waste of time, why is she doing it?</p>
<p>My kids all played varsity sports. But they WANTED to. Some of the events were all day. The State meet even required them to miss two days of school. But it’s a choice.</p>
<p>I’m with 2boysima. I play varsity tennis (senior guy). We only go for two hours, and I know it’s frustrating not being able to do hw when I have a lot, but there is definitely value in supporting your team (yes, even in tennis). The truth is, tennis IS a team sport. You can’t win unless your team as a whole does well, and a big part of that is being supported. </p>
<p>That said, my coach is strict, but he does understand if you have a lot of hw and will let you do it. Also, 5 hours seems ridiculous even if it’s a team tournament. We finish around 6PM on weekdays even if we have a game.</p>
<p>I would suggest that the entire team get together and present their case to the coach: if they’re not playing and not practicing… they need to be spending time on their academics.</p>
<p>I’m assuming that five hours is two hours roundtrip travel time and three hours of matches.</p>
<p>Ds plays a sport. He won’t get home until 11 p.m. some nights, so post-school, that’s 7 hours. No time for homework in there. Sacrifice of doing a sport you love. And no, no one on the bench is doing calculus while the game is being played.</p>
<p>It might bug you, but does it bug her? If so, she can quit.</p>
<p>I just returned from an away tennis game at 7:20 pm. The kids left school at 3. Yes it is a lot of time spent, and two quizzes tomorrow. However, if you will not be playing in the match, you do not go to away games. There is practice at school for those not attending away games, but it is done at 5 pm. No one is supposed to study or read at home games, where all are expected to attend, but those not playing can leave at 5:15 even if the matches are still going on. This is JV. Varsity only has girls playing - no extras. If they are short, someone “taxis” from JV to varsity. The girls who went to the school that we visited today all were supposed to stay until all the matches were done - that was there rule. They did not have extra people who did not play.</p>
<p>I have to add that I also have experience with another sport, fencing. For fencing, all the kids go to the away meets, and most don’t get to have a bout. Those are the rules. However, a few kids get excuse notes not to go if they won’t be playing. Fencing has too many for varsity, but not all teams have JV, so there are lots of “extra” people. Fencing actually seemed more time consuming than Tennis. A lot of the schools are 45 minutes travel time as well.</p>
<p>Most of the teams that I am familiar with have similar rules re attending games, even if you don’t get to play.</p>
<p>If I was the student, I personally would rather get to play on JV than sit it out for varsity. </p>
<p>She has permission to quit-it’s totally up to her. She does have some fear coach will take it out on her in class. She has 2 more weeks so she is just going to suck it up. </p>
<p>3bm-when she’s gone on a Saturday from 7 am-4 pm and she doesn’t get to play once, that’s frustrating. If she could at least get some hw done or even bat the ball around with a teammate, there’d be some utility. </p>
<p>The girls don’t really seem to cheer for one another. Not in a bad way at all- just not over the top rah rah cheering. They just sit and chat quietly when teammates are playing.</p>
<p>I guess tennis is different. I remember the track meets, especially the winter indoor meets would go on forever, and all of the kids from our school would be lying around inside the track doing their homework.</p>
<p>My kids played varsity sports and this was par for the course, especially for newest or youngest members of the team - at least until they had proven themselves to the coach. I’m with you, it drove me nuts, as well. I understand it in theory (that they are supposed to be engaged in the game and supporting the team) but yes, it seemed like such a waste of time and a pressure on already overloaded kids. Of course, some people say that it forces kids to become much more well organized(studying ahead on weekends and doing homework in school) and that many top students manage to balance this kind of schedule. This did happen to a certain extent - but there were times that just wasn’t possible. Both of my kids stuck it out though since they enjoyed their sports and the teams.</p>
<p>“it seemed like such a waste of time and a pressure on already overloaded kids.”</p>
<p>So maybe…for some of these overloaded kids…the few hours to just sit and chat (according to the OP) is actually beneficial…the get some downtime!</p>
<p>My kids really did enjoy that aspect of it, but that didn’t make keeping up with the workload any easier. There aren’t that many hours in a day. Not only were they not allowed to do HW or reading at games, but not even on some of the long bus rides on the way to or from games.</p>