TSSAA Legislative Council Board of Control 8th Grade Eligibility Request

[cobracoach]

TO:                 TSSAA Legislative Council and Board of Controls

FROM:            Jay Lowery, Huntingdon High School

DATE:             September 21, 2015

SUBJECT:         8^th Grade eligibility

 

This proposal is in regards to 8^th graders being eligible to play at the High School level when they are housed in the same building.  Numerous 1A (Single A) schools throughout the state are located in one small town with a middle school at a different location, but in the same town.  Their student population may be the same as those that are in the same building, however, they are not eligible under the current stipulations for eligibility.

This is giving some students 5 years of valuable experience at the high school level.  As we all know experience is a very valuable component for athletes.  Some sports are affected differently as to when their middle school season is over only allowing a portion (4 1/2 years) of the high school season.  However, Spring sports does give athletes a full five years of eligibility.

We are seeing parents, players, friends, etc. encouraging (recruiting) players to enroll in their school, which is all under one building, in order to have more eligibility.  We are also seeing middle school girls attending summer camps with the high school team at a high school only camp. 

Our proposal is to allow schools located in one town with only one middle school within one school district to be eligible to move up to the high school sports once their middle school (8^th grade) season is complete.

Therefore these are the items for consideration within this proposal.

• Students enrolled in a school district with one middle school and one high school be allowed to play high school sports once their middle school season is over. 
• By setting the ruling with a student population for a certain number or less be allowed to play high school sports once their middle school season is over.
• Eliminate 8^th graders the ability to move up at all.

I would be happy to discuss this further with you and express the ramifications this would have for Tennessee athletes should this proposal be considered.  

The following signatures are supporting this proposal.

 

If you are a high school coach and you support this proposal please contact Coach Jay Lowery at jlowery3@k12tn.net and let him know!

[dtownfan364]

This is great & should have been done years ago. How can parents & fans support your cause?

[mrbigster]

I agree. With the TSSAA allowing kids to drive 20 miles to another county to play ball, would like to allow 8th graders to play after their middle school seasons.

[Dragonmaster]

The problem with this premise is that the TSSAA does not recognize feeder schools.  Is 8th graders are in your building they are your students.  If they attend at a different location, even in the same town and is the only school there, they can still choose to attend a different high school despite the transportation issue.

[mrbigster]

I know that rule.If LC ever rebuilds,hope they have the 8th graders with the high school and that way we wouldnt keep losing all those players to the surrounding counties unless they moved.That way,being 8th graders ,would be considered high school and couldnt drive to Dyersburg or Dyer co as freshman.But still something maybe the TSSAA could change in the bylaws.Or at least allow a kid that lives in the same county to play for their respective school.

[Coach]

Bigster word on grapevine and street is your Jr. High QB is headed to a nearby county for next year.  Does his dad work at Lake Co. High School?  If he does and allows this to happen I would make sure the powers to be helped him find a new job elsewhere.  If school is good enough to work for looks like it would be good enough for child to attend.  That is unless something else is going on here.  Please reply.

[dtownfan364]

Has this been brought to the board yet? Curious about TSSAA's response.

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

Bigster word on grapevine and street is your Jr. High QB is headed to a nearby county for next year. Does his dad work at Lake Co. High School? If he does and allows this to happen I would make sure the powers to be helped him find a new job elsewhere. If school is good enough to work for looks like it would be good enough for child to attend. That is unless something else is going on here. Please reply.

I could be totally wrong but I believe his dad works at the school but not for the school. So the school can't fire him.

[Coach]

Schools do have input to SRO hired at their schools. Director of schools has full input into who they take.

[mrbigster]

Bigster word on grapevine and street is your Jr. High QB is headed to a nearby county for next year.  Does his dad work at Lake Co. High School?  If he does and allows this to happen I would make sure the powers to be helped him find a new job elsewhere.  If school is good enough to work for looks like it would be good enough for child to attend.  That is unless something else is going on here.  Please reply.

He works for the Lake Co Sheriff's office but I believe is the school assigned officer.His mom is a teacher at the school in the other county.Heard he was going for baseball.He's a good quartreback but doesnt have a lot of speed.Handles the ball well,throws well but not very mobile.He probably will pitch for the other school but as far as quarterback,the bigger schools are usuallyknown to have a very fast mobile quarterback.A lot more athletes to choose from.If a school has a very talented quarterback that can throw and also run for key first downs,they are going with the athlete.A lot different playing for a school with 300 students and one with close to 1400.We'll see.I heard his Dad was going to sit him down and talk about the options about both schools.Can see one being a bigger school for baseball but then again he may just be one of 8 to 10 pitchers.At LC he could be the pitcher and put LC on the map.In football,if they all stick together,could maybe make a state playoff run later in their high school years,maybe as juniors and seniors.Dont see that at the bigger school.But if he's the only player LC loses,Lake Co will be fine.May lose 1 lineman from what I hear as well.One of the white linemen.Dont see any of the stud black players leaving as their Dads were former players.Also a lot of times,kids dont realize what it takes to go 40 miles each day.Especially if they ride together.Car tears up.One kid may find new friends and want to stay after school.Girlfriends.Seen a lot of our players go and a year later want to come back,but can't because they didn't move.Raheem Flowers did this.Had to sit a year.Boyd wanted to come back this year but couldnt from Dyrsburg 

[disciple633]

Has this been brought to the board yet? Curious about TSSAA's response.

I'm very interested as well to know how TSSAA responds to this issue.

 

In Houston County, we don't have open enrollment issues or much of a significant threat that we would lose athletes to other schools.

 

However, I believe this is a relevant conversation for another (I believer more fundamental) reason....  I'm talking about the overall health of student athletes in the game of football.  Our middle schoolers have no access to a physical training facility or any sort of supervised training program outside of the high school football program.  Since they are currently banned from participating in the program until the summer after their 8th grade year, they enter their freshman seasons with very little physical foundation for handling the rigors & physicality of high school level practices.  This is a recipe for injuries--injuries that could be avoided if TSSAA would allow them to simply ride a district school bus from MS to HS after school (or during a late afternoon exploratory period, when students come to the HS for other purposes anyway) and begin working our in our high school's facility as early as the second semester of their 8th grade year.

[dtownfan364]

In Weakley County we have 2 schools that have middle school & high school on the same "campus". Dresden & Martin's middle school & high school are literally less than 2 miles from each other. Once middle school season is over Gleason & Greenfield will immediately move up & begin dressing out with varsity while Westview & Dresden students are not even allowed interaction with the high school team. It's a huge disadvantage especially for small schools such as ours. When coaches vote on this I realize this ruling doesn't affect the larger city schools but I wish they would investigate the issue they are voting on before casting their vote.