Quitting A Sport

[theassassin]

let's hear your opinions here.
Should a kid be allowed to quit one sport (during season) and start preparing for another sport? ex: quitting football to prepare for basketball.

Should a kid be allowed to quit one sport and join another sport during the same season? ex: quitting basketball and joining wrestling.

[tigerdad]

I guess if I was a coach it wouldn't show much character for the kid, I would definitely look into spending alot of time preparing the kid for the sport he or she was involved in, But as a parent I always instucted mine that if they started a sport they was going to end it, Whether they wanted to play the next year was totally up to them. But to never be a quitter.

But I guess your question would be directed to a athletic director, and if I was him I would not allow it

[Tigercannon71]

I am against quiting. My parents basically told me the same thing you said tigerdad. If you start a season you finish it.


But I am going to play Devils advocate here. Now if say the kid is playing football and he doesnt start and doesnt play a lot, but he is the star basketball player I dont think the coaches would mind if he left football season early to start basketball.
As for the other scenario I think it depends on the cricumstances on why he quit to go to the other sport.

Like I said I dont condone quiting.

[zebra77]

Quitting a sport, is like quitting a job . It could start a trend of jumping from job to job, in the rest of your life. Not a very good resume to carry with you.
If I were an employer, this would be something to consider when looking for employees.

[wemufans]

The AD at South Point does not allow it. Once the season starts if you want to quit you can but you can't condition with the next eam until the first season is completely over. I have to agree with that decision. My kids will not be quitters either once you start you are there for the duration no matter how sucky the coach or team is you stick it out until the end.

[BigMcCauley55]

well see i would never quit a sport to train but i did quit track the first week to be on the varisty tennis team. now with that i had meetings with the coach and AD

with track i would have maybe been in the top three for throwing but with tennis i was in the top 8 (top 8 make the team)

at the begining of spring i had a choice track or tennis i went with track and wasnt enjoying it so i did tennis and i had more fun i think and learned some new things.

I only quit because it didnt have a great impact on the team now if it would have been an impact then i wouldnt have quit but marietta tennis had low numbers and is on the list of being cut so me and this other kid made it a full roster so they didnt have to forfeit any matches and could be competive plus it is a start to rebuild the team.

but i have never quit anything before this

[Bigboy52]

A player should not be allowed to quit one sport and then join another one during the same season.

[BigMcCauley55]

see i had the right idea sorta

if your school was thinking about dropping a sport and it had low numbers would you join to maybe change some minds about cutting it?

i mean its bad when a sport spends quite a bit but only has 4 kids on the team

[TrojanXplosion]

"Finish what you started"

[ol_patriot]

Most of the responding posters believe that if a kid quits a sport, he should have to "sit out" until that sport's season is over. So, I'll play the Devils Advocate:

Situation 1:
A young man believes he wants to play football. So, he goes out for the team. He makes it through the first week of 2-a-days, but that first week is enough to convince him that he just isn't cut out for football. So he drops off the team. Basically, he quits football is early August. The team goes on to win the State Championship -- meaning football season doesn't end until early December.

Should this young man not be allowed to play any fall sports, even though he quit football before the school year even began? Should he be barred from trying out / participating in any sports until after the football State Championship game in December - - meaning he probably won't be playing winter sports either?

Situation 2:
Two young men try out for the football team. Both of them are in need of something constructive like sports to keep them off the streets. One of the boys is cut by the coaches because he lacks sufficient talent. The other boy makes the team, but quits soon thereafter when he decides he would rather play soccer.

Should either of these young men be "allowed" to play a different sport that fall, or do you want them to spend their spare time on the street?

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

If I was a coach I would not want any player who quit a team on my team.

[cant stop this]

I believe that if a kid quits for another sport that hasn't started yet then that is fine. I think if a student quits for a sport that has already started then he should have to make a certain number of practices or something like that to be a part of a team. I don't believe quiting solves anything, i feel that you are letting your team down if you quit regardless of skill level.

[zeus_724]

This is quite the interesting topic. I am around the Warren area and know many of the coaches there. The 'gentleman's' agreement was that if an athlete quit one sport (football) then they were not allowed to begin training or playing another (in or out of season soccer/wrestling). I know many of the coaches are currently upset because some of the coaches are not being 'gentlemanly' about it anymore.

I would put my opinion as this I think that once you commit to one sport or another then COMMIT to it. I personally witnessed the betrayal of a player from one sport because the athletes parent was positive the playing time should have been more, the athlete quit with three weeks and two games remaining and began lifting weights for the next sport. The individual 'flaunted' this in front of the former teammates and I feel that this sends the complete wrong message. Parent says, "Johnny, the football coaches are doing you wrong so quit and start lifting, conditioning for wrestling."

I picked the sports only as one follows the other, not specifics!

[ol_patriot]

We had a kid quit this year after Week 2. He was a senior, and he was our punter. The only playing time he got was when we punted - - and by the end of Week 2 our team had a cumulative score of 84 - 0, so he'd only been on the field once. Don't know why the coaches didn't let the senior play a little more, especially when the games' outcomes were decided by the end of the third quarter. It also didn't help that our offensive coach decided to have our QB punting in the hopes that it would fool someone, which of course it never did. It just meant that our regular punter would see even less playing time than one would otherwise expect.

So the kid isn't getting any playing time, even though he's a senior and the starters are mostly pulled and the 2nd/3rd/4th string is on the field. He's a senior, so he doesn't get to play in the JV games. He's (presumably) worked just as hard as anyone else on the team, and he isn't apparently being disciplined by the coaches. He just isn't being allowed any playing time.

Why should he be penalized further by not being allowed to play/participate in another sport?

[Bleachrbum]

Are we talking about quitting a sport or quitting a school......arguments sound so similar ???

[fighting_falcon]

I would say no matter what the agreements are between coaches or AD's, the current climate would be tough to deny anyone a chance to play whatever sport they choose. If you quit basketball to wrestle and are denied a chance then all the parents do is put pressure on the local school boards and get it their way or run the coaches out. It is alot different than it used to be.

[91blue14]

this happens in basketball to wrestling all the time. who cares they are kids with many choices why limit them from exposure to something new

[Raiderball]

Surely a coach can't be "forced" to take someone on his/her team after their season has already started.

[ol_patriot]

Raiderball, lets assume a coach can't be "forced" to take someone on his/her team after the season has officially begun. If thats true in a given school district, then the coach is probably also precluded from "allowing" a kid to join the team late. Otherwise, there is simply too much opportunity to view a coaches actions as biased/discriminatory/etc. Whether the coaches actions are actually the result of favoritism or not is irrelevent - - the appearance of favoritism is what will cause political, and potentially legal, problems for the school board.

[ol_patriot]

I just checked my son's school-issued Athletic Handbook, which contains the school's official policies as they relate to sports. It states:

"If a student drops a sport for any unauthorized reasons, the athlete may not participate or join a team for the next sporting season of the school calendar until the first day that season is allowed to start and athletic fees will not be refunded."

Unfortunately, the handbook never defines "unauthorized reasons", and never identifies who is responsible for declaring a reason as authorized/unauthorized.