Today my daughter found out she won't be able to play on her high-school bowling team this year. She's been competing since she was a freshman, and last year she made varsity. Now, though, in her senior year, she'll be left off the team -- not because she couldn't pass her tryouts, or couldn't pass her classes, but because she's too old. She turns 20 this spring, and that makes her ineligible according to league regulations.
This is the kind of thing you don't think about when you give kids extra time in elementary school. When we brought her home from a Russian orphanage at age 4.5 and decided to give her an extra year of kindergarten, we weren't thinking of how old she'd be when she graduated high school. When we switched her from self-contained to inclusion after second grade and decided to put her a year back for an easier transition, we weren't thinking about stealing her senior-year sports. The very idea that she would be on a sports team in high school was pretty remote. I don't know that I'd make any of those decisions differently, knowing what I know now. But actions always have consequences.
The rules do kind of allow for four years of high-school sports even for the academically delayed -- if you're behind your age group, you're just supposed to try out for the high-school team when you're an eighth grader. But who thinks to do that? Under what circumstances would it ever have occurred to me to run my middle-schooler over to the high school to try out for the bowling team? It's not something that ever came up at an IEP meeting, or a counseling session, or a gym-teacher conference. I'd guess that, unless you're some sort of sports prodigy who excels in a high-profile sport, you're not getting recruited in junior high.
It's too late for my girl, anyway; she'll have to be content with cheering her friends from the sidelines. If you have a middle-school child who has interest and ability in a sport and a risk of aging out before graduation, it may be worth checking the regulations of your local sports league and see what options are open to you.
Also new today: Site of the Day | Today's News and Views | Tip of the Day
Photo by Terri Mauro