Away games on a school night

[just4today]

Our high school football game was rained out from last Friday night. The powers-that-be decided to reschedule the game for Tuesday (last night). It was a 2-hour drive each way for our team to attend. The kids didn't get back to the school until almost midnight last night. As a consolation of sorts, the school allowed the affected students to come in an hour late this morning with an excused tardy.

There are several issues here. First, many of the students' teachers did not assign them homework last night because of the game. Fine, except that wouldn't be the normal case on a Tuesday night, so it means teachers probably had to rearrange plans to accomodate this.

Also, parents were put into a position of deciding whether they would attend the game or go out at that hour to the school to pick up their children, or deciding if it was OK to allow their child to drive home himself late at night after a full day of school and activities.

I think it sends an entirely wrong message to students that athletics are placed before academics. I don't deny that it's important for the players to fulfill their commitments, even when it isn't convenient, but come on. It's high school football. The game should have been rescheduled for a bye-week or at the end of the season, or just cancelled altogether.

I was kind of hoping/expecting that they would have cancelled this plan after being flooded with calls from angry parents after the decision was made to reschedule for Tuesday night, but I guess that wasn't the case. What's done is done and can't be changed. It just bugs me and I wonder if I'm the only one who feels this way.

 

[becjlek]

Track and cross country meets are always on a school night. No matter late you get back you have to be in school on time the next morning. They would never get an excused tardy because of a late meet.

 

[disney junky]

This was the exception rather than the rule. It happens but rarely so I don't know what else could have been done. The idea of academics being placed before athletics is a noble one, but the reality in schools is that the whole child is considered. It could have been another team, band, anything really. I understand your concern, but I don't think it's all that unusual.

 

[DVCLiz]

There have been several times my girls have had late away games over the years - once they had bus trouble and didn't get back until 1:00am.

They never had excused tardies or any homework changes - that sounds like middle school to me. It's just part of juggling a normal high school schedule.

My girls would have died if I'd called to complain!!

 

[HM]

Football is about the only sport in our HS that has Friday games. Every other sport has games on weeknights, twice a week for most.

Being a one-time thing, it would have bothered me a bit because of the lateness, but not like it seems to have bothered you. I doubt whether the school and athletic dept did get many calls about it.

 

[just4today]

There have been several times my girls have had late away games over the years - once they had bus trouble and didn't get back until 1:00am.

They never had excused tardies or any homework changes - that sounds like middle school to me. It's just part of juggling a normal high school schedule.

My girls would have died if I'd called to complain!!

double post

 

[Allison]

Other than varsity football, my kids sporting events are not on the weekends. We have JV football, tennis, track, and volleyball on school nights with travel involved. The kids are expected to be on time at school the next day and it's not an issue. It's not placing sports above academics in my opinion.

Things happen and events have to be rescheduled. The school is never going to be in a position to please everyone so you just have to go with the flow.

 

[just4today]

There have been several times my girls have had late away games over the years - once they had bus trouble and didn't get back until 1:00am.

They never had excused tardies or any homework changes - that sounds like middle school to me. It's just part of juggling a normal high school schedule.

My girls would have died if I'd called to complain!!

I didn't call to complain. I thought about it though. I also think it's a different thing when you've voluntarily signed up for an activity with the knowledge that it would involve travel on a school night. I still don't agree with any students having to get home that late (and I'm not talking about bus trouble; obviously that's an unexpected event).

 

[Becky2005]

My DD was in gymnastics last year, several times at 11 pm, I was picking her up from school.

Our kids would have had to come back on the bus no matter what even if the parents went to the away game, so that wouldn't be a factor in anything here.

She never got excused the next morning and school starts 7:40 AM

 

[just4today]

This is the first time I've had a child impacted by an away game on a school night. I had no idea it was so prevalent. As I said, as far as I knew I was not signing on for it so that's why it bothered me so much.

Thanks for your responses.

 

[DVCLiz]

I didn't call to complain. I thought about it though. I also think it's a different thing when you've voluntarily signed up for an activity with the knowledge that it would involve travel on a school night. I still don't agree with any students having to get home that late (and I'm not talking about bus trouble; obviously that's an unexpected event).

I know you didn't!! And I'm glad.

Honestly, the whole issue with high school sports is that parents have to toughen up and let it be. No more calling to complain, no getting mad because someone is tired and still expected to do their homework, etc. Just don't do it. Don't get involved at that level.

Yes, you can come here and complain - complain to your husband, to your best friend (as I have done many a time while sitting in the parking lot after a practice that ran late!) complain to anyone you want - but don't take it any farther and don't complain to the school. Just get used to it - it is the way it is and complaining won't change anything except the way people think about your kid.

I mean this lovingly!!! It's just one of the things you have to adjust to - not the other way around - when kids get older.

And our kids had a "you have to ride the bus home with the team" rule, too.

 

[jsmith]

I realize this is a new thing for you mom-get used to it-both my sons played 4 years of HS basketball-ran track and cross country-were in orchestra, and on math and science teams-plenty of weeknight competitions and no passes on being late. Basketball was the worst-ALL the CHSAA games were on tuesday and friday night-and i had a 96 mile commute to work the last two years my youngest played-those tuesday night games were killers-but i made it to all of them.

 

[monkey68]

My cousin played hockey (not a school sport) all throughout his elementary/middle school/high school career. Except for elementary school, they would have practices and games several times a week, either before school or after school. And yes, sometimes, it involved coming back late, especially in high school since they would have the later times for ice.

When I was in high school, I was really involved with the musicals, I was always in the orchestra. We would practice after school, and as the show became closer and we introduced the leads to our rehearsals, and then full cast rehearsals, etc., we would practice every day, sometimes until 10 or 11 at night. And we would start rehearsing at 3:30 in the afternoon. We never got excused, we were always expected to have our other work done and still had to maintain over an 80 average or else we'd get kicked out of the orchestra. And where I went to school, nobody got picked up, we all took buses or subways home after rehearsals.

 

[allison443]

Our high school football game was rained out from last Friday night. The powers-that-be decided to reschedule the game for Tuesday (last night). It was a 2-hour drive each way for our team to attend. The kids didn't get back to the school until almost midnight last night. As a consolation of sorts, the school allowed the affected students to come in an hour late this morning with an excused tardy.

There are several issues here. First, many of the students' teachers did not assign them homework last night because of the game. Fine, except that wouldn't be the normal case on a Tuesday night, so it means teachers probably had to rearrange plans to accomodate this.

Also, parents were put into a position of deciding whether they would attend the game or go out at that hour to the school to pick up their children, or deciding if it was OK to allow their child to drive home himself late at night after a full day of school and activities.

I think it sends an entirely wrong message to students that athletics are placed before academics. I don't deny that it's important for the players to fulfill their commitments, even when it isn't convenient, but come on. It's high school football. The game should have been rescheduled for a bye-week or at the end of the season, or just cancelled altogether.

I was kind of hoping/expecting that they would have cancelled this plan after being flooded with calls from angry parents after the decision was made to reschedule for Tuesday night, but I guess that wasn't the case. What's done is done and can't be changed. It just bugs me and I wonder if I'm the only one who feels this way.

OP did you allow your child to go in an hour late the next day?

Also, hope they won the game!

 

[ozarkmom]

High school football is the only sport here that's on Friday nights. My sons played baseball and they played several games a week and the basketball players did too. Our junior high football team plays on Thursday nights. So there were occasions that my sons were out fairly late on a school night.

 

[just4today]

OP did you allow your child to go in an hour late the next day?

Also, hope they won the game!

I did, and they did.

 

[allison443]

I did, and they did.

Good for them!

I don't think I would have allowed my kid to go in an hour late the next day...that's not putting academics first, is it? Even though the lateness was "excused" by the school, he still would miss a class. I know my own kids have often been up till midnight or even later with sports, studying, etc. and they had to be on time for school the next day. My dd was a very serious varsity athlete throughout high school, but not at the expense of school.

As you said, though, this was a one-time thing so at least you won't have to deal with it again!

 

[ZachnElli]

I did this all the time in high school and that was 20 years ago. We had 2 teams in our conference that were 2 hours away and several more that were more than an hour away. We never got an extra hour in the morning. This is the norm for other sports. Glad they won!

 

[just4today]

I don't think I would have allowed my kid to go in an hour late the next day...that's not putting academics first, is it? Even though the lateness was "excused" by the school, he still would miss a class.

On Wednesdays they have activity block first thing in the morning so there wasn't much to miss. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have allowed it.

I appreciate everybody who has responded. I understand now that this is common and if it happens again I won't get upset by it.

 

[agnes!]

How do all these kids who have multiple after-school activities (band/ orchestra/cross-country/football/basketball/gymnastics/choir/drama/academic teams/etc.)... I mean if practices or rehearsals are right after school and then there are meets or games once or twice a week...how do they get everything done (like homework or enough sleep)? What are their grades like?

agnes!