cOMP sCI aTHLETES INELIGIBLE TO PLAY
By Da'Rius Giles
As spring sports roll around, coaches are struggling to find students to put on their rosters. The athletes are also struggling to get playing time because many of the football, baseball, basketball, and volleyball athletes aren’t able to meet the sports eligibility requirements.
Sandra Nelson, Comp Sci High School’s head soccer and baseball coach, and Pierre Khawaja, varsity boys volleyball coach share similar views on the situation. They see the problem more in line with student responsibility, accountability, and discipline.
Khwaja believes there should be a level of competitiveness when it comes to eligibility, stating, "To me, if you're competitive, you should wanna compete in all aspects, sports and academics. Failing should not be a part of any athlete's vocabulary.”
Nelson sees the issue as how the system is run. She believes the new standards based grading system can confuse and restrict both the students and coaches. She says, “It's a lot of unknown, and I think some [students] may be truly confused and trying to figure it out and others may be using it as a crutch or an excuse but it's all just very confusing.”
A major problem that both coaches mentioned was the fact that they don´t get the info about their players, which makes it a lot more difficult to help or get help for those athletes in a timely manner even though it is the students’ responsibility. This can damage not only the coach-to-player relationships but also the teacher-to-student relationships.
Mallory Thorpe, a Comp Sci basketball player, says she feels forgotten when in need of help. She struggles with asking for help so she hopes there will be more timely outreach from either teacher or coach. She states “I've seen it happen to some of my teammates, really good kids and great players, that just fall short on the grades part of it all. Of course they tried to get help, but by then it was too late.”
The answers to this problem may be in going back to basics. Nelson says “As someone who was not a straight A student while I was in school, I didn't exactly know how to prioritize or organize my work and my academics and my sports. So I think that's something that can be really helpful: to teach students about [balancing sports and academics], then truly hold them accountable. Unfortunately, that’s going to mean some tougher life lessons of missed seasons, but it's trial and error, and you have to learn these responsibilities.”
Khwaja had a similar stance on the matter, he states, “It’s about school culture. I think you have to develop a school culture that awards going above and beyond and finds ways to limit the amount of students that are willing to get a passing grade and move on. And I think that's something that our school is working on. We’re trying to find ways to bring academics to a forefront as a culture, not as a sidebar.”