Horny teens and the LSU gymnast

Hanford West used to host a large girls-only meet toward the end of the season that served as an unofficial state championship, until the CIF added girls wresstling to its championships. Was at Lemoore until it outgrew that gym, then Visalia for a couple of years, then finally incorporated into the boys meet in Bakersfield.

 

A story I've shared here before.

Sometime in the 90s, I was covering the state juco men's water polo championships, which were in our town. Was chatting with the coach of our local college when he excused himself during a time-out, went to the stands on the other side of the deck and asked someone with a camera to leave. Guy was only taking pictures of players when they were bent over in the huddle in their suits.

 

Gymnastics is also susceptible to budget cuts because the basic equipment (bars, vault and horse) are very expensive items and require a lot of qualified maintenance --if schools are going to buy and maintain their own equipment. (If not, rental rates at gymnastics facilities are pretty high.)

And insurance costs are sky high because of the fairly significant chances of serious injuries. If a kid flies off the parallel bars, they can get hurt bad. Or the beam -- some of the worst injuries I've seen involved kids landing wrong on the beam.

 

Besides, who needs gymnastics when you can have competitive cheerleading!

 

contra:

Everyone in America would benefit - and I mean everyone: parents, kids, politicians, administrators, teachers, coaches, reporters, school systems, colleges, et al, ad inf. - if we disorganized these afterschool activities.

The rigidity and regimentation of all these sanctioning bodies serves the adults, never the kids, and has sucked the fun out of sports.

It's about money and grownups living vicariously through their children.

We'd be much better off dismantling the whole corrupt and corrupting apparatus and starting from scratch.

 

Az costing kids scholarships. Sad!

 

The rigidity in high school sports makes sure kids actually graduate and the adults aren’t taking advantage of them. You want to see what disorganizing they looks like, see the fly-by-night travel teams and AAU programs and those shady high schools that get adults to play.

You need governing bodies in high school. Now the NCAA is a joke but high school it’s necessary.

 

For the most part, they're marketing themselves. Blame Anna Kournikova if you want, but tennis players with pretty faces and great bodies who squeeze into tight outfits are more likely to reap endorsement bucks. And some like to think of themselves as fashionistas. Nobody was forcing Serena into some of her hideous outfits. WTA players just love posting Instagram bikini pics of themselves, too. Or so I've heard.

One aspect that has gotten more conservative is what they wear under their skirts. 30-40 years ago the women wore panties under their skirts. Today it's almost always cycling shorts.

 

I don't like to see kids leaving their community, their home to chase athletic scholarships at prep schools or in intense AAU programs.

That's the emotional side. The practical side is that this is where college coaches are looking. And it will only get more intense/worse.

Great read here, just published today. Allows for both sides of the debate.

Chasing a dream, 5 high school boys basketball players have forgone L-L League for prep schools this winter

 

Might as well be quidditch where high schools are
concerned.

 

I'm kind of new and naive to all of this, but my sixth grader is my sports kid and if things fall right, never know, he could maybe play beyond high school. Way too soon for that stuff overall. Regardless, baseball is his best sport and he is playing 11U right now, which is a year below his grade level for the most part. As he grows and advances this concerns me some. I have had conversations with a few in the know and it is amazing how much this stuff has changed. Basically, they have said, if he can play, the high schools aren't going to care if he is a year lower and plays with his club team. Then two, a lot of schools will have agreements with players to accommodate both teams. Finally, many players don't play with their schools year round anymore anyway.

It is such a change from when I was in school, and we had a handful of guys drafted, including one in the first round. They didn't play on anything outside of the school program once they were in high school. I did see basketball start going the AAU route at that time (we were a basketball power), and soccer had some pretty strong clubs developing if I recall. So it was definitely trending that way. But other than reps and community pride, and there is still a place for that, it is crazy where high schools have fallen in the pecking order.