How important are public school sports?

[kjedlicka]

My husband and I are considering a move to a state (AL), which does not allow homeschoolers to participate in public school sports, from a state (MN) which does allow participation. We have 4 sons ages 4-13 who have all played on the community ed baseball, soccer, and basketball teams. Once in 7th grade, the only option is playing for the public school teams, which my oldest is doing this year. We would regret a move if that meant taking them away from the ability to play sports. My question is for those of you who live in states that don't allow participation in public school sports. Are there homeschool options? Are we worried for nothing, or should this be a consideration in our decision to move or not?

 

I would love to hear from someone in AL (Birmingham area), but comments from anyone in states that have similar restrictions are appreciated! Also, general comments about the current Tebow bill would be interesting too. :)

Kim in MN

[KungFuPanda]

Around here, a lot of sports are community-based rather than school-based. Soccer is definitely not tied to the schools. If you have a football player, though, it can get trickier :glare: I don't have sports kids, but most homeschoolers I know have found competitive sports for their children through community or homeschool teams.

[PrairieSong]

All of our kids participated in community sports when they were little, and three of them chose to continue into high school, on homeschool teams. Our 16yo daughter plays volleyball, basketball, and soccer every year. Summer is the only season when she's not playing. She could play softball, but chooses not to; it's just not her sport.

 

So YES, there are homeschool options. We've been to regional and national basketball tournaments with homeschool teams from many other states. Just ask around! Find homeschooling organizations in Alabama and ask them.

[acurtis75]

I live in Texas where participation is not allowed. I would say unless you have future football stars in your family that ps sports are not that important. There are homeschool or community based sports available for every sport except football around here. Even ps kids are often recruited by colleges because of AAU basketball (which is what I'm most familiar with) or the equivalent club type teams in soccer, volleyball, etc.

 

Football is a different animal entirely. It takes too many players to form a team, too much time and too many coaches to pull off outside of a school environment. I think some private schools allow partial enrollment to participate in sports but you would have to research that in the area you would be living.

[fhjmom]

In our state, homeschoolers are not allowed to participate in UIL sanctioned public school activities, which include both sports and fine arts (band, choir, etc.). There are plenty of options outside of school though and honestly, in this area, if a kid isn't participating outside of school on club/select/AAU-type travel teams by the time they are in high school, they have very little chance of making the high school varsity team anyway. The select soccer leagues just implemented a new rule in April that prohibits players at their elite youth level from participating on high school teams. They have expanded the club season and want their players available for select play year round.

 

Also, there are several organizations/leagues that field sports teams and fine arts groups as well.

[fhjmom]

I live in Texas where participation is not allowed. I would say unless you have future football stars in your family that ps sports are not that important. There are homeschool or community based sports available for every sport except football around here. Even ps kids are often recruited by colleges because of AAU basketball (which is what I'm most familiar with) or the equivalent club type teams in soccer, volleyball, etc.

 

Football is a different animal entirely. It takes too many players to form a team, too much time and too many coaches to pull off outside of a school environment. I think some private schools allow partial enrollment to participate in sports but you would have to research that in the area you would be living.

 

There are homeschool football teams in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, so I assumed there were in other parts of the state as well; but maybe not.

 

Also, 7-on-7 football leagues (outside of school) are huge here. This is somewhat equivalent to the club/select system of other sports as it keeps football athletes playing their sport of choice year round.

[Samiam]

The state we first started homeschooling in, HSers could play at their public schools. Actually, many private schools allowed it too, just had to pay some $$. So there was going to be options. We thought that was going to be a huge blessing for us, because even at my son's young age, he was a huge sports loving/playing boy.

 

Then in his 7th grade, we moved to a state that does not allow HSers to play at public schools. That was daunting. Actually, it was not against the law, it was up to the school's discretion, and of course, NONE of them would even consider it. As a matter of fact, some schools would not even play games against the HS teams that formed. Yes, what happened is that HSing parents got together to form HS Sports Associations. There were several around the state...big ones. The one that we participated in offered tackle football, golf, track, swim team, baseball, soccer. All middle school/high school level. They played other Homeschool Sports associations, private schools and some public schools. These Associations have been formed for many years, so they have a good solid thing going,and got attention from media/scouts, etc. The only negative is that it usually cost a good chunk of $$ (as in we had to pay $250 for middle school baseball), because there wasn't alot of funding from other sources, AND you often had to drive a good bit of distance for games (2-3 hours sometimes).

 

Next year (this school year), we moved to another state, and again no HSers allowed to play in public schools. Again some Homeschool sports associations have formed in the larger cities. It's not as "well rounded" as the other state we lived in. We had to drive almost an hour each way for my son to play on a middle school tackle football team last year, for homeschoolers. But you know that was like a "real school team" experience. Cheerleaders, announcers, homecoming etc.

 

So to answer your question, many states that are not allowing HSers to participate in public school sports, it appears that HSers, as usual, are working around that and making it happen for the high school level.

 

The only downside is that we don't feel that alot of the HS teams are as competative, in our experience. THe football team was. But the baseball teams that we were on last year, and now this year, in the new state, are a JOKE! Out of 13 players, 6!!!! have NEVER played baseball before. This is considered a JV team because there wasn't enough for a varsity team, nor enough for a middle school team, so they squashed them together to make a JV team. Not enough experienced players to form a team, so they took some that had never, ever, ever played baseball before to have a full roster. So we are competing against public and private school teams that had a large group of students to handpick their players from, and who practice 3-4 days a week, and have home facilities. Our team practices 2 times a week, because they don't want to interfere with family time:glare:. We don't have a home field, so we never have "home" games. Overall, the team is a joke and sadly is not the "answer" for a young man who hopes to do something with baseball in college, etc. We're finishing the season to honor our commitment, and also because hey, getting off the couch a few times a week is better than nothing for him! We had hope it would be a good alternative, allowing us to know that he had options for high school. It didn't turn out that way.

 

To answer your other question, sports are important to my son, and my husband. It's one of the main reason we have to consider public school for high school (there's a few other reasons that come into play too). My son is very athletic. He's proven that in the other teams he's participated in, the "not-homeschooling" ones. Will he be a huge, famous professional athlete. Probably not, and I know that. But could he potentially make a high school team and maybe even get a scholarship to a small college, who knows. Someone has to...why not him? So I have to give him that option, because I would have to have him wonder what he could have done, except because we choose to homeschool him, he never got that chance in sports.

 

I hate that our education choices are sooo tied to sports, but for my son it's turned out like that. We've decided to give the public schools a shot for the sake of sports, he'll be enrolled in Honors classes for the most part, and at a Math/Science Magnet school, so I can only hope and pray that his education does not falter nor do any of the "bad things that happen at public schools" that I've dreamt about for these last 9 years of HSing, ever come true for him.

 

ps. as a side note, we are one more "group vote" away in our state legislation to getting a bill approved in our state that would allow HSers to play at public schools. Even it if gets approved, though, we are not sure at this point, what the rules will be, how it will be handled by the schools, etc. But it's a glimmer for us, that perhaps we will still be able to choose the BEST educational path for our son, whatever we decide that to be, and the sports issue will not be an issue, because he'll be able to play either way. Crossing our fingers!

Edited April 12, 2012 by Samiam

[Jeanine in TX]

I used to live in Alabaster, AL, which is about 30 minutes south of Birmingham. There is a cover school in Pelham, which has homeschool sport teams. Pelham is about 4 miles north of Alabaster.

 

Here is a link to a site about Hope Christian School.

http://www.leapingfromthebox.com/hs/schools/hopechristianschool.html

 

It has SEVERAL activities, including football, basketball, volleyball, golf, softball, baseball, tennis, and cheerleading. The children of a friend of mine participated in football and cheerleading. They loved it.

 

Currently, I live in San Antonio. My children run on a homeschool track team which competes against local public and private schools. DD and DS have learned about the importance of competition, plus have made a lot of friends with fellow homeschoolers.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Jeanine in TX

[NanceXToo]

Honestly, I don't even KNOW if we're allowed to participate in public school sports- my daughter is busy enough with other things (book club, judo, Girl Scouts, guitar lessons, homeschool bowling league, etc), and my son, who is only 6, plays teeball and soccer through the community rather than through the school district.

 

Perhaps you can either check into community sports, rather than public school sports, talk to the YMCA about availability of sports or them helping you get something started, hook up with local homeschool groups about whether there is anything available for homeschoolers, and if not, if they'd be interested in putting something together, and see if you can make something happen between the community, the Y, the homeschoolers, etc. If all else fails, see if you can lobby to change the rules regarding playing for the public school. You might have to work or fight a little for this!

[MamaT]

We also moved from a state that allows participation (FL), to one that doesn't. All my boys have been into sports and my oldest had played football for the middle school right before we moved.

 

Here in NC, there is a pretty large homeschool sports association that offers soccer, baseball, football, volleyball, cross-country, and softball. That is all for middle/high school. We are in the middle of baseball season right now. My dh is the middle school coach.

 

I'm not sure if there is something like that in AL, but it's worth checking.