We love the opportunity of representing our school and playing the sports we love.  We just think a few things can be improved.

Stop Participation Penalties

Students with low grades cannot participate. Missing one game is a lot for a short season. Every game is important in a short season and the team needs them. When they sit out, the team really suffers. The team could lose a game and all hope for the rest of a very short season.

We understand students have to practice usually after school, but some students have other things to do at home. Instead of coaches telling us practice times, let students decide if it’s easier to attend practice from 6 – 7 a.m. or right after school.

Coaches need to keep in mind that students cannot always be at practice. We suggest having a three strike and you’re out system. If a player has an unexcused absence three times he or she if off of the team. If the player doesn’t know what’s going on in the game or where to go because of missed practices, bench the player.

Cut the Participation Fee 

Sports can take a lot of dedication and time, but students have to try out and pay a participation fee of $132 to join a team for only one season which is equivalent to about six weeks or eleven games in a season. That’s $22 a week or $12 a game.

Some students can’t afford the major price because they contribute to put food on their family’s table.  Even the $35 dollar hoodies are expensive for families to be able to purchase.

We don’t believe it’s fair for student who can’t afford the fee because they may struggle with money at home. Those students can’t play while all their friends are having a good time playing the sport they love.

We know what you’re thinking, the school needs the money for jerseys, equipment, and travel expenses to compete against other schools. The bus needs the money to pay for gas. We have a few solutions.

The people who really want to make the team and have both the parents working can be charged a higher fee. Of course that wouldn’t be fair to other students which is why you could make it optional to pay an extra $20 to help support another teammate in need. The students should also be offered payment plans. They can pay $20 a month or something similar to that until they finish paying the required fee.

Let’s make fundraisers for certain sports. Fees will be lowered and more affordable for students, and then everyone can participate. With a couple fundraisers for each sport, the school will make a lot more money off the fundraisers than all the fees.

Players could sell protein bars, host a camp for training during the summer, make personal calendars with pictures of the CS teams on them, and more. These fundraisers could be very successful.

Make the Seasons Longer

We don’t think that it’s worth paying a $132 soccer fee for such a short season.

Sports are a fun extracurricular after school activity. Students get energy out and get to be with friends. The soccer season, as well as other sports, are too short. Other schools have longer seasons than us. Barrington Middle School in Tampa, Florida has a much longer soccer season than CS.

We know you think that there won’t be enough time for all the sports to be played, but the season doesn’t have to be that much longer. Put more games into a week and make every weekday practice so everyone gets more playing time.

Start the fall sports season at the beginning of the school year. We know you’re thinking students need to get settled in their classes and focus on learning rules and procedures, but students can do both!

Research has shown that doing sports helps kids stay away from bad habits. Students can definitively start sport seasons earlier without having a negative impact on their education.

You probably don’t want to go through the time to argue with the state, but we don’t have to argue.  If we convince other schools in our conference to agree with us then it should be very easy persuade the state of Illinois. Let’s tell other schools our idea and how it will benefit all of us.

The sports seasons in school should be extended.  It won’t only benefit students, but it might also benefit schools.

We are thankful for the opportunity to put on a Tiger uniform, we just want to have more of an opportunity that fits our needs.