Glitz and Glamor of HS Sports

[santosh]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Well high school sports show aren't all that big a deal or nothing new really.
The USA Today top 25 poll bothers me more.
The top ranked basketball team Oak Hill comes across more as a AAU all-star team than a high school. Made just to get ranked and be an NBA farm team (before the NBA banned drafting kids out of high school).

We were almost tied with them at the end of the 1st half last season. We were down by 2 at the half but lost by 20...
I don't feel that there is anything with displaying a team on ESPN if they are from high school. My high school was on ESPN U last year in a basketball tournament. Look at the McDonalds All American Game (our basketball coach was the East's coach this past game), quite a few people watch those games here.
They are a business. Honestly, lets think about this. I garuntee that if I had the choice of watching one of LeBron James' broadcasted games than a NBA game, I would definately choose watching LeBron.
And what you talked about in your post about the tunnel, I don't think that there is anything wrong with that.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Moline's football program has been around since 1902. Same with Rock Island's. They are, if I remember right, the longest running rivalry in the United States in HS sports. But I could be wrong. Neither of these schools do anything like what I have mentioned. Over 5,000 people come to watch the Moline-Rocky game each year.

I have come to terms and realized that the times are changing and for the most part I love change. But not this drastic and this quickly. I just think that this puts even more added pressure onto the student athletes to follow in the footsteps of previous teams. The expectations are highered even though this is a mostly new team.

And don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not limiting this to football. I have seen a recent trend in most high school sports. Especially the recruiting scandals of the parochial schools here in the area.

I forgot to mention one thing about those posters. They started selling them about 20 minutes before the game and were sold out before the game started. I don't know how many they had for sale, but they were selling them at $5 a pop and they must have made a boatload of money off of them. Great, now I just hope that that money goes towards safety equiptment and not field painting and other junk like that just to attract more people. It is a business, but at some point the boosters need to realize that it isn't good for the kids to do this kind of stuff. If only the smaller sports and extracurricular programs got the attention that the football team has gotten. I mean, heck, the soccer program was cancelled last year and this year they had to merge with neighboring Orion HS for soccer.

[Alexa Stott]

Okay, I have not read every single post in this thread, and as this is the first time I'm seeing it since I returned from vacation, this is really in response to the first few posts...

I think high school sports has gone too far, like many of you have said. It was mentioned earlier that there was a high school football game on ESPN. The home team there had a Jumbotron recently bought for their football stadium.

Some high schools have nicer sports facilities than some Division I-A or even I-AA colleges. It's gone too far.

It just kinda bothers me that schools would rather spend tons of money each year to improve their sports facilities than to buy new textbooks or computers or something. Hey, why not buy a new piece of shop equipment, even?

Rick Reilly, a sportswriter, had a really good article about a month ago. He wrote about how sports are getting out of hand. People are hiring personal trainers, sports psychiatrists, nutritionists, agents, etc. for children as young as 8 or 9.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by AtalanteStar25

Rick Reilly, a sportswriter, had a really good article about a month ago. He wrote about how sports are getting out of hand. People are hiring personal trainers, sports psychiatrists, nutritionists, agents, etc. for children as young as 8 or 9.

It's all about the Benjamins.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by AtalanteStar25

Okay, I have not read every single post in this thread, and as this is the first time I'm seeing it since I returned from vacation, this is really in response to the first few posts...

I think high school sports has gone too far, like many of you have said. It was mentioned earlier that there was a high school football game on ESPN. The home team there had a Jumbotron recently bought for their football stadium.

Some high schools have nicer sports facilities than some Division I-A or even I-AA colleges. It's gone too far.

It just kinda bothers me that schools would rather spend tons of money each year to improve their sports facilities than to buy new textbooks or computers or something. Hey, why not buy a new piece of shop equipment, even?

Rick Reilly, a sportswriter, had a really good article about a month ago. He wrote about how sports are getting out of hand. People are hiring personal trainers, sports psychiatrists, nutritionists, agents, etc. for children as young as 8 or 9.

This is torrid in the Quad Cities. There's a company here named "Quad Cities Sports Performance." It's really expensive and all it is is conditioning. Pretty much for the rich families to send their kids to get "better" at any sport. There's rampant usage of steroids here, too.

Also, there was a topic grazed on earlier in the thread about discipline. I don't know how bad partying and drinking is in other cities but it's horrible here. When I was playing at Moline, there was at least 4 or 5 players each week being suspended because they were caught drinking, smoking pot, getting into fights, and for all kinds of other reasons. Illinois just passed a new standard for grades, too. You have to have D's and up... or 2 F's at most... or something like that. It's not tough enough. Our robotics team has a C and above policy and that's the same as Sherrard.

[skimoose]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

It's all about the Benjamins.

True, but how many young athletes actually get to a level that the Bens start flowing like water? Aren't most parent pushing a pipe dream?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by skimoose

True, but how many young athletes actually get to a level that the Bens start flowing like water? Aren't most parent pushing a pipe dream?

But they truly believe that if they throw enough money at it that they will attain that dream.
As they always say : Denial is not just a river that runs through Africa.

[josh s]

Over the past few years Zeeland High School has split into Zeeland East (the original) and Zeeland West(the new school). Both schools have their own teams but the great thing is saved a ton of $$ by renovating the old stadium. I know this is off topic but another great thing about the school district is the support Team 85 (Built On Brains) receives from the school district. From teachers to the superintendent they keep tabs on how the team is doing during build season. It just proves that with enough motivation and passion that a team can really be recognized for what they do.