The Preuss School has sports teams for their high school students; however they do not offer any sports team opportunities for their middle school students. Preuss middle school students should have the same opportunities to enjoy the sports other middle school students have. Therefore, Preuss should be allowed to be a part of the San Diego Unified School District Athletics system.
The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Athletics is a middle school program that San Diego Unified has organized to give middle school students the same opportunities as high school students to participate in sports throughout the school year. This is a completely free program for families and students. Students play for their middle school team and play against other middle school teams at local high schools in the area. SDUSD Athletics offers soccer, basketball, volleyball, flag football, and track, and the program plans to expand the sports they offer. Students practice twice a week for an hour and a half at their middle school and have games on Saturdays at a local high school in the area. The games are held at a high school to give the middle school students a chance to see and experience what it would be like to play in a high school environment.
Preuss should be a part of this program because our middle school students should receive the same opportunity to enjoy these sports the same way our high schoolers do. Training students as middle schoolers at a younger age can increase their skill level going into high school which benefits our high school teams. Sports are mainly about practicing skills. For example, if a soccer player begins playing at a young age, their dribbling and passing skills will improve along with their touch and ball control over time. If students develop their skills in middle school they will have advanced and improved by the time they are in high school.
Also, students that are able to learn a skill like discipline at a younger age will have a great advantage with future teams as they will already have this disciplined mindset. Some other beneficial skills these students will be able to learn other than discipline is teamwork and cooperation. Working together as one on a team is an extremely important key component to making a stable and strong team because if the team doesn’t know how to work together, they can’t help each other during games. Students need to learn about teamwork and communication because being there and supporting each other throughout games is what forms a strong team.
If Preuss offers middle school sports teams, it can teach our middle schoolers about the importance of responsibility. Students can learn about what it’s like to be a high schooler that balances their athletics with academics. SDUSD MSA (Middle School Athletics) makes it clear that for students to be able to play for their school team, they must maintain their grades at the passing level, since they need a 2.0 academics and citizenship GPA. This shows middle schoolers how important their grades really are, especially when it comes to being rewarded for it such as having the opportunity to do any extracurricular activities like playing sports.
By participating in athletic sports the way high schoolers do, middle school students will get to learn the valuable lesson of maturity and responsibility. Preuss needs sports and athletics for middle school students, as it will help middle school students develop an understanding of what high school will be like.
