(I took the above photo in 2018. Newer readers may not know that I was a professional photographer before spine, neck, and shoulder pain ended my career. Sports photography is challenging, requiring professional equipment to do it right. I wept when I sold off my equipment.)
I played high school and college (before an injury ended my short career), and adult rec league basketball, ending my roundball career with knee problems in my early thirties. I also played little league and high school baseball, along with playing slow-pitch softball as an adult. I played one year of junior high football, and in my early twenties, I played tackle football (without pads) with local men I was trying to evangelize. My partner, Polly, learned early in our relationship that I was a sports addict, an addiction I feed these days with televised sports and attending my grandchildren’s sporting events.
Moving all the time didn’t help my sports career much. I attended four different high schools — one school twice as I moved in and out of the district. I experienced the joy and heartache of tryouts. This carried into my adult life. I played a lot of pick-up basketball as an adult. Typically, two players were chosen as captains, and then they would choose players for their respective teams. No one wanted to be the last player standing. Fortunately, I was a good enough player that I never experienced the feeling of being chosen because I was the last person available. As a baseball player, I was an end-of-the-bench outfielder, next to the bat boy. Nothing in my play suggested I would turn into a starting player. I am lefthanded, and I suspect that was why coaches chose me for their teams. I couldn’t hit a breaking ball to save my life, and my fielding was nothing to write home about. What coaches valued was my speed. I was fleet afoot as a young man, so coaches would insert me in situations when they needed someone to bunt. “Bunt and run like hell,” my coaches told me. And so I did; that is if the pitcher — not used to pitching to lefties — didn’t drill me in the head or hit me in the back with a fastball.
Today, I read an article about how one high school basketball coach let prospective players know they didn’t make the team. This post is not about the article’s subject as much as a statement made by its author, Charles Thompson, saying that sports is the ultimate meritocracy; that players make teams based on performance alone. As I read this statement, I wondered if Thompson had ever played high school sports. Meritocracy, my ass.
I attended Findlay High School in ninth, part of tenth, and eleventh grades. Findlay was one of the largest high schools in Ohio — over 3,000 students from ninth through twelfth grade. Hundreds of boys tried out for the ninth grade, junior varsity, and varsity teams. On any given year, out of hundreds of boys, thirty or so boys would be picked to play for Findlay for the first time. The rest of the team rosters comprised players from previous years.
I tried out my ninth-grade year. I didn’t stand a chance, but some of my friends were trying out, so I thought I would too. I was short (I didn’t gain much height until tenth grade) and had only played basketball for two years. One of the coaches gave me a brief look and then moved on to more promising players. And with that, my hope of playing for Findlay High School was over. Fortunately, the city sponsored an ultra-competitive high school basketball league for those who didn’t make local high school teams. I played three years in this league, starting all three seasons. In the fall of my tenth-grade year, I lived with a church family who lived in the Riverdale School district. Tryouts were different. In fact, I didn’t have a tryout. One day during lunch, some of us were playing basketball in the gymnasium. From a distance, the varsity basketball coach watched me play, and afterward came up to me and asked if I was interested in playing basketball. “Absolutely,” I replied. I quickly learned there was a big difference between big-school and small-school basketball. Unfortunately, before I could shoot my first shot, I had to move again; back to Findlay and the home of an elderly church member.
Over the years, I experienced several tryouts. While merit (ability) certainly played a part in evaluations, to suggest that sports is solely a meritocracy — especially at the high school level — is absurd. Social standing and parentage often played a big part in who made the team. Who you were was often more important than what you could do on the field or court. It was not uncommon for the coach’s son to make the team. The same goes for players whose parents had social standing in the community. Who your family was often played a bigger part than your skill. More than a few good players are left off teams solely because of their lack of a recognizable name and social status.
I am not opposed to merit being the basis for selection, be it a high school basketball team or a job, but to suggest merit alone determines the outcome flies in the face of reality. The reasons a boy or girl makes a team are more than just merit. Besides, how objective is merit, to start with? They say merit is the only factor, but the whole process seems quite subjective, driven more by local politics or social status than competency. Merit matters, but to suggest that alone decides who makes the team and who doesn’t is a denial of the political and social factors that often drive high school sports.
Did you play sports in high school? Please share your experiences with the tryout process and making the team.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I don’t really understand the school/college/sports relationship that happens in the US. I probably come across it mostly in novels, the likes of John Grisham or David Baldacci, and it’s obvious that schools and colleges are seen as the breeding ground for big time professional players. Here in the UK school kids who are good at sport (and soccer especially is where every boy wants to succeed) will be scouted by big clubs if they are truly outstanding, but will more likely just leave school and go on to play with a local club. If they’re good enough they may find themselves moving up the leagues, going to professional or semi professional status. The only sport (that I can think of) in which the college/sports relationship is of note is in rowing, and that’s just one annual event, the Oxford versus Cambridge boat race which is nationally prominent. I’m not sure but my guess is that being a top class rower will help any student gain admission, but the academic requirements are extremely high regardless.
Interesting stuff Bruce. Played a little ball in school. Started at a small school, (Class A), but was good enough to get into the rotation from 7th – 10th grade. Then moved to another, much larger school, and was able to make the team, but sat on the bench for 2 years.
When I was at the small school, meritocracy had nothing to do with it. If you could walk and breath you got a spot on the team, of course our team was like “Hickory” in Hoosiers, the only similarity being the size of the school and the number of available players. (NOT) the quality of basketball. Barely enough to field a team.
When I went to the big school, reality hit, I was a practice dummy for two years. Your typical bench warmer that got in the last minute for garbage time. The big school program was decent, consistently playing for District or Regional Championships, and won a state title 4 years after I got my HS diploma.
Like you I had better success playing in outdoor or indoor leagues, and landed on a couple of decent intramural teams when I attended UF.
You made no mention of religion much in this thread, but back in the 70’s we had the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). I never joined.
Basketball was great for me, as a boy / young man, keeping in shape, I stayed at it until, my 30’s, when physical issues made me hang it up (lol) no retirement tour for me! I still played Horse, 21, and a little bit of half court for fun.
My experience in high school sports was in track and cross country, and as far as I remember, it was completely merit-based, both making the teams and ranking on the teams. That was a long time ago.
The concept of merit has some inherent problems to me. The stats pretty consistently say that there are less than 3,000 humans alive that are 7 feet or taller. This means within the world population, around 1 person in 2.6 million people is that height. Is such height a matter of merit? Are our physical attributes a basis of our merit? Another questionable aspect is social. I have quite wealthy friends whose grandchildren are involved in incredibly expensive intramural sports programs, with the idea of giving the kids a leg up on getting scholarships to college. Their opportunity is pretty much wholly a matter of the wealth of their parents and the sacrifices the parents are willing to make of their own time (these programs involve massive amounts of weekly travel). The kids work super-hard and have incredibly demanding lives because of these programs, so, yes, they should be credited for their sacrifices, but there is economic asymmetry in opportunity there, and one could question how this might affect a neutral concept of merit.
I played some community sports, my favorite was rear defense in soccer. Played T-ball and one year of little league, I was so bad it was a big deal if I got any sort of a hit. I like community sports as there isn’t merit involved if you want to have fun playing a sport you can do it. I still remember one of my gym teachers lamenting “Why can’t kids just play and have fun?” I agree, people are extraordinarily competitive. I know I’ve felt it, the other team is a rival and “the enemy”. Even so I appreciate about sport organizations, at the end the rivals give each other a hand slap and say “good game”. Good sportsmanship needs to be fostered, it’s important to be a good loser and a good winner.
The US obsession with college sport sickens me. College is not for sport, its for learning.
@steveastrouk2017 One could argue, that college is to prepare a student for a future career. That career could be professional sports. That said, one could also argue that players should be able to financially benefit from their athletic endeavors, since they bring in big bucks.
How many “students” can they possibly prepare for a professional sport career ? And what’s the point ? Its just bread and circuses for the proletariat.
My mom wouldn’t let me play sports, so it wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that I figured out I could play sports. In my 50s I’m a better-than-average obstacle course racer. It takes commitment, time, good health, money to afford races, gear, and for some, coaching. It’s not just effort.
My kids both played sports as children through high school, and my daughter was also involved in chorus and musical theater. I can’t tell you how much of all these years were full of politics, money, and time.
Soccer is a good example. Here in the US some towns have recreational soccer where for a small fee just about any kid can play. Some families pay $$$ for the kids to play travel/club soccer. There are club teams for every level, and the more athletic/skilled kids get poached all the time. Our kids played for a club that was outside our school district, so there was politics in that. My daughter was goalie for her club team, a good goalie – but the club team was made mostly of gitks who would go to a different high school so the parents pressured coaches to train another girl to be goalie so their high school would have an incoming goalie. We were pissed, but what can you do.
My son was a goalie who was being recruited by a local “sports academy” Catholic school, but no way we’re we sending him to Catholic school. At our public high school, the boys’ soccer team held several state titles and was highly competitive. The coaches were tuned into the local club program and knew which kids they were going to choose even before tryouts. My son blew things up because the coaches didn’t know my son but found in tryouts he was an excellent goalie. He skipped the freshman team and was put on JV. His sophomore year he was moved to varsity – only 3 sophomores were put on varsity and they mostly sat the bench. The coach had to decide for 2 years between my son and a kid he knew growing up which would be starting goalie, so he picked the kid he had known – he told my son he picked the other kid because he knew him since he was little and was older. My son stuck it out, got a little playing time junior year, then madd starting goalie as a senior. He was named the county’s best goalie that year. I wonder how much better he would have been if favoritism hadn’t gotten in the way.
Lots of factors are at play in sports. Genetics, money, exposure to a sport, having parents/guardians who introduce the kid to a particular sport, the kid liking the sport, the desire to train, access to coaches, staying injury-free, avoiding burnout, being seen by scouts/coaches, etc.
I was a football player. At least, that’s what I was to the rest of the world. At my American high school, I played soccer.
By the standards of that time, I was pretty good. I even scored the winning goal in my school’s first playoff game in, like, seven years and helped to shut down the best team in the state. But these days, ten-year-olds who are so much better than we were at 15, 16 or 17. Like most of my peers, I hadn’t been playing for very long when I made the team. Today’s players start much earlier and, as often as not, are better-coached.
I also was a bicycle racer. Again, I was pretty good by the standards of my place and time. (Pre-Greg LeMond) I was on the podium (third place) at the end of a regional race. At least I didn’t win the way Lance won!