A plan has been approved by the Guilford County Schools that will allow Sixth-Graders to play on Middle School Sports teams beginning in the Fall of 2017……
The new rule begins with the 2017-18 school year.
from www.greensboro.com:
Quote from Leigh Hebbard, the Director of Athletics for Guilford County Schools:
“We started with some very informal feedback from school personnel, coaches, ADs, principals,” Leigh Hebbard, Guilford County Schools athletics director, said today. “Then it was more formal, where we got a group of people together consisting of coaches, ADs, principals and a few parents to talk it through and determine how much support there really was, what the positives and negatives might be. In the end the support was pretty strong.”
Leigh Hebbard went to say in the News and Record post that the only increase in funding needed for the increase in players taking part in the Middle School programs, might be the need for the purchase of smaller uniforms, for the smaller kids coming into the programs from the sixth grade…I think I remember Tyler Lewis starting on the boys basketball team at Forsyth Country Day School when he was in the sixth grade, and now he is a senior playing for the Butler Bulldogs, but that all transpired a while ago….
Sixth-graders need to get ready to play some ball and in this case, that would be the current fifth-graders, who are the rising sixth-graders….
What sports will those sixth-graders be integrated into as they join the league, stepping up to Middle School ball teams?????
Here you go and again, this is the list that is currently be posted at the Greensboro.com site, not to be confused with the GreensboroSports.com site, but you never know…..But here we with those sports for the sixth-graders, joining in with the seventh and eighth-graders in 2017-2018…..
Baseball
Boys and Girls Basketball
Cheerleading
Co-ed Golf
Boys and Girls Soccer
Softball
Boys and Girls Track and Field
Boys and Girls Volleyball
Wrestling
NO football for the sixth-graders, since state provisions do not allow players at this sixth-grade age and level of development. to play tackle football on a school team…
To read on and to read this post in more detail, CLICK HERE for the News and Record on-line…..
So does this mean…..all participants will also get a snack after practice? I bet within 5 years….there is mandatory play rules….or what about this…..we won’t even keep score?
Snacks provided– my goodness why the animosity?
Man I love this approval. I get 3 years to train/Coach my track athletes now instead of just 2. This was long overdue.
Must be some county has a pair of 6ft 5 6th graders and pushed for this.
That being said If they are good enough let them play.
The bigger issues for middle schools soorts are
1 the lack of quality coaching. Guys who actually have a clue, lets kids learn and mot overcoach and yell.
2 abolish this 5th quarter nonsense. Either let them play more minutes on a different day or not at all. Parents leaving work early , paying admissions concessions to watch lil johnny play 5 minutes running clock is madness.
3.limit the number of players on these teams. Do not need 16 plus players on a hoops team or 40 plus on a football team.
Before i get slammed i base the above points assuming that an athlete or parent truly wants development. If so then Middle school sports is grossly overrated.
Some counties had this rule in place this year. Rockingham County and I think Alamance County may have or they were on the fence about it
If they are good enough hey let them play. Along with football, let the coaches, athletes and parents decide if they can handle the football grind.