GCMS Families,
GCMS Middle School offers many extra curricular activities. First, it needs to be clear that these activities are offered as a privilege for those students who choose to, and have the talents to participate, and who comply with all team and school expectations. Non athletic clubs and organizations include: Media Club (open participation), Newspaper club (open participation), Scholastic Bowl (open participation), FCA (open participation, not school sponsored), and Student Council (elected by students). Co-curricular (class and outside of class time) activities include band, chorus, and art. Athletic opportunities are listed below with grade levels and team eligibility.
Boys Baseball – 6th – 8th grade 18 person roster (cuts apply)
Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball, Girls Volleyball – 6th/7th grade teams and 8th grade teams, each has a 15 person roster (cuts apply)
Wrestling – 6th – 8th grades co-ed (open enrollment)
Cheerleading – 6th – 8th grade team with 12 member roster (cuts apply)
Boys and Girls Track and Field – 6th – 8th grade (open enrollment)
As a supplement to the teams that have cuts, we offer an intramural program for kids (5th – 7th grade) to participate in that do not make the teams. The purpose of the intramural’s are to offer opportunity for your child to participate in a given sport to refine their skills, work on fundamentals, and have the opportunity to try out again in the future.
Cuts are a very difficult thing for kids, coaches, and parents to deal with and understand. I will try and address all three. First, Coaches have to make very hard decisions in order to narrow the number of students/ athletes to the required number by the IESA (all the roster numbers match those numbers).
Coaches have to evaluate the talent by skills, position, potential, work ethic, and many other factors. They make the most informed decision they can given the information at hand. We (coaches / school people) will not always be right, but we make the best decision we can at the time. That leads to the kids and parents and these two groups can approach this situation very much the same way.
If you or your student (student is the key here because that is the primary purpose for all of them) experience a cut you have several options on how to handle that. Coaches meet with each student that is cut and offer reasoning or rational for them being cut. If a student loves a game they should listen to the reasons and develop a plan to improve in the areas they have deficit and try again the next year (this is why we are offering intramurals). I would also suggest seeking out the coach and asking what can I do to to get better. This will give your student direction, and tell the coach that the interest is there. The other positive option would be to embrace the opportunity to use that time to focus on other talent the student may have. The negative response would be to feel sorry for yourself, place blame, or bad mouth those that made the team or the coaches. Adversity is a part of life and dealing with it is a lifelong skill that we all need to attain.
Finally, parents should have some tools on how to help your student deal with the adversity of being cut. The best idea, in my opinion, is to tell your child to work hard either to refine skills in that sport, or focus energy in another positive direction. If you tell your student that the coach was wrong, or you should have made it over another person (even if you turn out to be right) then you have built in an excuse and the incentive to work hard, get better, or refocus your energy is lost. Empower them to embrace their strengths and weaknesses. We all have to do that at some point. Embracing our talents is easier than embracing our deficiencies but they are equally important life skills. Our tendency as parents is to protect and make our kids feel better (and it should be), but we also have to help form them into strong, independent, aware adults.
If you ever have questions, concerns, or complaints please bring them to my / our attention. You have one responsibility as parents and that is to advocate and educate your child. We have the responsibility to advocate and educate all of them and it is a great responsibility indeed.
Best,
Mr. Darnell