The Waiting Game - Sports or No Sports?

So, the end of a school year is just days away, and I figure things are rather quiet these days at high schools around the city.

Apparently, not so. School administrators and teachers are packing up - and on the move.

This is the time of year when they play the shuffle game and move off to other schools. Every Board of Education likes to move some of those six-figure salary senior administrators either for a shake-up or for promotions or to get some strong leadership in certain schools.

It can also be because they, just like teachers, want a change in scenery. Some teachers tell me they have had enough with colleagues and administrations in certain schools and, yes there are personality clashes, and they have to make a move for professional and emotional reasons.

Sadly, many of the younger teachers also won't have full time work in the fall. They've been declared surplus while some, who could retire, are still hanging around - but often don't coach.

I have been getting an unusually large number of calls and e-mail from parents and students -- and even teachers -- concerned about whether schools will offer inter-school sports in the fall. The way it works, if teachers don't coach, the likelihood of sports is not good. For liability and behavioural reasons, a teacher needs to coach or stand around for supervision at a game, even if a non-teacher is doing the coaching.

Remember, coaches are not paid. It can be time consuming and also very challenging - especially when some students pick and choose what practices they show up for and what games they play. Some students still believe that it's a right, not a priviledge, to play for their school. I'll leave that topic for another time.

I know one school in Toronto where two teachers are surplus and a head of physical education, after 10 years, had to re-apply for his job and didn't get it. Hmm. Could there be a problem? He's off to a better job and school - but, unless those coaches are replaced, four teams are no more.

This leaves students, especially those in their graduating years wanting to play sports and impress colleges and universities in Canada and the United States, with a problem. As they pack up in June after exams, students have no idea on whether the same school will have a team in the fall.

It's also tough switching schools now with transfer rules and politics to contend with at various levels.

So, it's now a waiting game. 

Comments

[Graham]

Great topic. Kids are getting screwed by Principals picking teachers who are not in to sports. Teachers are also at fault because some are saying they'll coach to get a job, then change their minds.

[Joanne]

Thank you for acknowledging the farce. School kids can't play sports unless a teacher attends a game is quite a message. How about mentioning something about how some female Principals couldn't care less about sports and how some other Principals want to spend their budgets on other things but athletics. And these same boards of education are hypocrites in flogging obesity.

[I.L.]

You are absolutely correct in that some teachers do switch schools and for various reasons. One of them you point out is right on and that is some Principals and teachers, who have been around for awhile, don't see eye to eye and that can affect the school spirit from teaching students to extracurricular sports. Some Principals don't care about sports and want to put a greater emphasis on personal agendas and wasting our tax dollars, which I think is wrong. I am glad, as a member of our school parent teacher association, that we won't tolerate a Principal - man or woman - who doesn't offer sports, be it inter-school or intramural, to our children. The day that happens is the day the Principal moves on and we hope far from our area.

[Mr. Campbell]

Teachers never get much credit for extracurricular work.
And when they do give their blood and guts to helping kids, some get the raw deal from the people calling the shots and with the money.
We should bring back some of the retired leaders who made us proud and not some of the banana heads running our schools because they fit gender and minority group quotas.

[JL]

Your description sounds exactly like my school. Teachers are not volunteering and the ones who coach are leaving. We have too many senior teachers who are holding onto their position for too long, and not contributing to the school community. Principals, please give young teachers a chance to teach and coach.

[Bill]

Are you kidding me? There are actually high schools in Toronto where students HAVE NO IDEA if the team that they played on this year will exist next year??? Even though a teacher just has to stand around for supervision while a non-teacher is doing the coaching??? Just what are those six-figure salary senior administrators doing? Where's the leadership? Why aren't they making it clear to their staff that physical education and fitness are priorities?

[Luc]

One thing that you don't mention is that only certain schools have this problem. What's the difference between a school in which students can depend on school teams and a school in which they cannot? I think it's the principal and the culture he/she creates.
When I was in Grade 8, I was told by my teachers NOT to attend my local TDSB high school because it would be a waste of my athletic talent. So I transferred to my local Catholic high school, even though I'm not Catholic, since the Catholic school has a strong tradition of athletics. How ridiculous is that? Two schools, within a few kilometers of each other, serving the same neighbourhoods. Yet the TDSB school has no soccer team, no baseball team, no track and field team, no cross-country team, etc. while the Catholic school offers all of these.
To me, the difference is in the leadership. At my Catholic school, the principal attends our games and cheers us on. He recognizes me in the hall as an athlete, greets me by name, and asks me how my season is going. At the public high school, the one my sister goes to, the principal does not attend ANY games. He doesn't know the students'names, and doesn't know which ones participate in sports.
It all starts at the top.

[Joe]

Mr. Grossman, thank you for helping me with my university application. As a high school student entering Grade 12, I was wondering what to put on my University Application when asked to list my “Participation in Athletic Activities”. I would have loved to have written that I was on the soccer team—but wait, my high school doesn’t have one of those. Or that I competed in the 400 metres at OFSSA—no, my school doesn’t have a Track and Field team either. Thanks to you, now I know. I can honestly state that I spent four years playing the waiting game!

[Vee]

At high school, I don’t want to play the waiting game. I want to play basketball or volleyball or football or softball or Frisbee or field hockey or…well, you get it.

[Alex]

This sounds like my old high school, except my high school doesn’t have intramurals either. Same deal. Principal doesn’t support sports, so teachers don’t volunteer to coach, so students get screwed.

[Alex]

Top Canadian athletes tell us that “every child benefits from the positive power of sport and play”. They encourage us to donate money to “Right to Play” in order to give children overseas a chance to become “constructive participants in society, regardless of gender, disability, ethnicity, social background or religion”. What irony! Kids in poor countries receive Canadian money for opportunities that kids in Canada don’t get. Don’t we want OUR high school students to become “constructive participants in society”?

[K.S]

Just simply what is high school without sports? Easy as that.

[SS]

Thank you for getting this out. Finally, us students are being heard. As an athelete it drives me nuts not knowing whether or not I'm going to be playing the same sports I was this year in my final graduating year. What am I suppose to write on my applications? Why do so many of the teachers in my school need to retire but don't and take up spaces for young teachers - teachers willing to coach? It's not fair. I deserve the same rights as every other student who attend different highschools. I deserve to play sports next year.

[DH]

highschool isnt highschool without sports

[D.A]

TDSB should be embarassed, this is a disgusting example of deprivation of our rights to have a sports team. tdsb has tried several instances to make us physically fit and not having teams is a huge contradiction. also having teachers fired who especially coach teams is quite ironic. disgusting if you ask me.

[Danny]

You are right, this does leave students, especially those like me in my graduating year wanting to play sports and impress colleges and universities, with a problem.
My counsellor told me in Grade 9 that constancy is important. In other words, 4 years of soccer shows commitment, while 1 year of soccer, 1 year of robotics, 1 year of Amnesty International, and 1 year of computer club shows flightiness. But how can I be constant, when my school isn't? I was on the track and soccer teams in Grade 9, but only soccer was available in Grade 10, and neither was available in Grade 11. Grade 12, who knows? I'm playing the waiting game.
To univesity recruiters, I'm gong to appear feckless. But who is really irresponsible here? The student who was committed to playing sports or the administration who didn't make them available?

[elizabeth]

Mr. Grossman,
I’d like to congratulate you on an excellently written article.
As readers, we learn about the Board, administrators, and teachers. The Board likes to “shake things up”. The administrators “want a change in scenery”. The teachers “have had enough with colleagues and administrations”. Students aren’t mentioned until the second last paragraph.

Your work accurately reflects the state of education in Toronto in 2010. Students want to play sports? It’s irrelevant. The concerns of the Board, administrators and teachers get first priority. God forbid that an administrator would actively cultivate a positive athletic environment just because the kids want one. Or a teacher would volunteer to supervise in a sunny field while a parent coaches just because kids want to play.

You ask, “Could there be a problem?” The answer is absolutely. It’s with board staff, top down, who have forgotten for whom they work.

[ZF]

In Sports Illustrated last month, there was a photo spread featuring youths from countries around the world playing soccer at school: girls from Bhutan, boys from Kenya, teenagers from Haiti, etc. I felt happy for them, but sad for me. Even in really poor countries, teachers and principals manage to get it together so kids can play. (The Kenyans didn’t even have a real ball--just a pile of rags.) Yet at my school, here in North York, we don’t have intramural or inter-school soccer anymore. Why can’t the teachers and principals get it together here?

[Deb]

I read with interest the comments for your “Covering the OFSAA Track and Field Finals” article. RT wrote, “Boys rugby, girls rugby, boys soccer, girls soccer, tennis, boys field lacrosse ALL IN THE SAME WEEK! Absolute joke, no wonder crowds were low, cant be in 7 places at once.”

How is this possible? How is it that at RT’s school there are SO MANY teams that she can’t make it to all the events whereas at our school, there are NONE of these teams???

HOW IS THIS FAIR FOR OUR STUDENTS??? WHERE’S THE EQUITY??? RT, we should have it so tough.

[ZZ]

Mr. Grossman,
In Grade 8, I placed at OFSAA for Track and Field. I am a really fast runner.
My Grade 8 Phys Ed teacher told me not to go to my local high school because it doesn’t have a track team. It would be a waste of my talent. But I had no choice. The next closest school is two bus rides away. I couldn’t go there and still be on time to pick up my sisters after school.
I don’t get it. Why do other schools have track teams when my school doesn’t? I live here. I have to go to school here. Why isn't there a track and field team here?

[Dad]

It seems from the kids' comments that there are some "six-figure salary senior administrators" who promote sports in their schools and some "six-figure salary senior administrators" who don't. I say show the latter the door and don't let it hit them in the butt on the way out. It's disgraceful that kids are being deprived of the right to play because principals can't motivate their staff to volunteer to supervise. C'mon, principals and teachers! Don't you remember why you became educators in the first place?

[Ted]

If all schools had teachers and principals who prioritize shake-ups and changes of scenery, then all schools would be the same. BUT ALL SCHOOLS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. Some have great inter-school teams and excellent intramural teams. Others are like my school, where, apparently, shake-ups and changes of scenery take priority over what’s important to students, like the availability of opportunities to play sports at any level.
How do we get our school to be one of the good ones?

[Ken]

I am astonished. As a father of Grade 9 and 11 students at a school with many inter-school and intramural teams, I am flabbergasted to learn there are schools with neither (or very few). Such a situation would not be tolerated by the principal, staff, parents, OR students at our school. Heads would roll. Kids, you have to mobilize your parents to contact your Board of Education. As I read your comments, I'm outraged for you. A high school without a soccer team?? In Toronto?? In 2010, a World Cup year?? No Track and Field team either?? Unbelievable.

Write a petition. As a dad and a taxpayer who believes all kids deserve a chance to play, I'll gladly sign it.

[Sue]

In response to SS, you are right. You do deserve the same rights as other students who attend different high schools. How is it possible that Luc had to transfer schools in order to play on a school team? HOw is it possible that Danny appears feckless only because his principal and teachers are? And notwithstanding Joe's sense of humour, how is it possible that many students will spend their high school years playing the waiting game instead of soccer, football, volleyball, etc.?
A big fat thumbs down to the Toronto District School Board. Shame on you.

[Liz]

Like Ken, I will gladly sign a petition. My kids have a great principal, great teachers, and great coaches. Participation in fitness is a priority at their high school.

These other kids deserve similar opportumities. I can't believe I'm reading that some schools have no intramurals!!! How on earth are kids going to develop lifelong fitness habits if they sit on their butts for four years of high school?

For shame, TDSB, for shame.