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Parents call for kinder sports
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
INVERNESS -- When Inverness Middle School seventh grader Caitlin Reeder and eighth grader Jackie White tried out for volleyball earlier this year, they were hoping to make the team. But when the team list was posted the next Monday morning, in a place where all could see, the girls found out in a very public way that they had not made the cut. Instead, they faced a hard lesson in disappointment, one familiar to anyone who has ever tried out and been rejected. The girls' mothers were consoling, but these moms were not satisfied with just that role. Each began to ask herself why such rejection and embarrassment was necessary. On Tuesday they plan to ask the School Board that same question. Susan Reeder, an Inverness psychologist, and Mercedia White, who has been active in various minority rights issues in the community, plan to ask the board for a new, organized, well-supported athletic policy for the district's middle schools. They want to see cuts from middle school athletic teams eliminated, thus providing middle school students additional opportunities to try different activities until they find what really interests them. "We don't want to be adversarial. We want to see more kids served in a positive program," Reeder said. "We believe that as long as they meet the fundamental rules that they be allowed to participate." "We would like to see a pilot (test program) at one school," White said. "I'm of the opinion that every child deserves the opportunity." A decade or so ago, Inverness Middle had an intramural program that allowed more students to participate in various sports. But it faded. Other middle schools have intramurals now to varying degrees and in varying sports, but Reeder and White want to see something more organized. The county's four middle school principals say they don't like to see students who are eager to participate in sports cut from the team, but there are limits on facilities, uniforms and staff to oversee larger groups of youngsters. Crystal River Middle School principal Gina Hodges said she liked the idea of giving students the opportunities to do what interests them and she sees athletics as a great dropout prevention program. Her school does offer some intramurals. "But on the flip side, there are only so many uniforms, so much money," she said. "I'd like to have more money to offer intramural supplements" that could attract more staff who want to be coaches. "The philosophy is great. You can't discredit that. Any time you can get kids involved the more successful you're going to be," Hodges said. "But I'm sure that there are other considerations. I just haven't had time to sit down and think about those." Inverness Middle School principal Cindy Staten said she is not opposed to intramurals but that when competitive sports are already going on at the school, there are limited facilities for other teams to use. Transportation is also a major issue, and parents end up having to provide it to have their children play. She said she knew Reeder and White would like to see parents help out with the program but she wasn't sure how realistic that might be. "They feel like there are a lot of parents willing to come in at 3:20 p.m. and supervise practice," Staten said. "I'd like to believe that, but . . ." She added that there are other possible outlets for their children, including programs through the county's Division of Parks and Recreation. While Citrus Springs Middle School has offered a variety of intramural sports including soccer and weightlifting, principal Bill Farrell said an extended list of offerings could create some issues for the schools. "There are plenty of youth leagues (not connected to the school system) for students to get involved in and for students to get the chance to try these things," Farrell said. He also noted that, through experiences with his own son, getting cut from a team is an important life lesson. Another challenge would be finding coaches to oversee the activities, Farrell noted. "All of us work very hard to try to get parents involved but we all have trouble even getting coaches," he said. That was one of the main reasons intramural programs faded: There was not enough student interest and it was difficult to find people to coach, he said. "Everybody wants their kid to be involved and to excel, and I want that for all my students," Farrell said. "But I do not know how you do that for every single kid." Reeder and White recently met with coaches at Inverness Middle, and no quick resolution was found. Reeder followed up with a letter to Staten. "I remain concerned that many of the students who express an interest in participating in after school sports are currently unable to do so because of team membership restrictions," she wrote. "I am particularly concerned because many of these children are searching for a way to belong to a group and self identification as an athlete can contribute so much to the students' sense of themselves." She argued that the rejection students feel when they first try to join a sport can be taken "as an indication of their lack of ability and thereby seek alternative and perhaps less healthy groups with which to identify." "Middle schoolers are experiencing significant levels of stress at a time when they are most vulnerable and least prepared to cope," Reeder wrote. "To exacerbate this stress via exclusion policies in the school appears both counterproductive and unnecessary. Middle school should be an opportunity for students to explore and discover many things at which they can excel. It is too early to be stepping on a child's dreams." There are other more humane ways to provide athletic programs for all, according to Dianna Bandhauer, a physical education teacher at Lecanto Primary School. "In a dream world, if I had all the resources I needed, you would run an intramural program and later you would invite kids up onto the team," she said. "You could invite the best players onto the team and that way, you'd have no hard feelings." She suggested that this intramural program would work with sixth graders, who cannot compete or participate in interscholastic teams otherwise. Farrell at Citrus Springs Middle School involves his sixth graders in intramural activities that operate much like other school clubs and have a no-cut policy. So does the intramural basketball program at Lecanto Middle. Students there can get involved in the intramural activities at sixth grade and those cut later when they try for the team can also keep active with the intramural group, according to principal James Kusmaul. In volleyball, Lecanto has two teams. One group has a higher skill level than the other, but it allows many more girls to play the game and work on developing skills. Plus, the side benefit for the school is that having so many girls involved solved some of the gender equity issues each school regularly faces. While the transportation and facilities issues are still there, Lecanto has worked through finding a place for the teams to practice and play. "None of us wants to see any kid cut. It's not good for their self esteem," Kusmaul said. "And in middle school, we want them to try as many things as they possibly can to see what they like." Both Reeder and White have older daughters who were involved in athletics throughout school. White's daughter went on to win an athletic scholarship and earn her degree because of the athletic involvement. They said they don't want the same opportunity lost for other children. Reeder said the idea behind what she and White are proposing is to give all students more of a chance to participate in something good and healthy. "We are shooting kids down in seventh grade and they never try again," she said. The side benefit of creating all those new outlets for student activity is that many more parents can also be involved. In fact, that might be the group that provides the extra supervision that will be required. Reeder herself was a swimmer when she was in school, but she didn't blossom in the sport immediately. She said if she had faced a cut from the swim team in her school she might never have stuck with it. Eventually she visited state championships twice in swimming. By letting the students stay involved even if they don't start out making points or winning matches, they eventually learn what they can do and what they really want to work at. "That's what middle school was designed for," Reeder said. -- Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 564-3621.
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