In Sioux Falls, high school sports for 7th graders

The Sioux Falls, South Dakota public schools may soon allow seventh and eighth graders to jump the line and compete in high school sports. This would apply in six sports in all: wrestling, tennis, golf, gymnastics, cross country and track and field.

Under the proposal, parents would have to sign a waiver testifying that their child is ready "academically, socially and emotionally." In other words, every child will be ready.

The most-cited reason in support of this change is that other high schools in the Sioux Falls area already are playing seventh graders. In fact, some kids apparently have left for private schools in pursuit of this opportunity.

"Other schools that we're competing against all do it," noted one school official.

I fail to see why a seventh-grader should be thrown into a cross-country meet with 11th graders, no matter how talented she or he may be. Neither does the local newspaper, the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader. This week, it editorialized:

"These students will be socializing with high schoolers who might be dealing with issues and conversations that they aren't ready for yet. There also are travel requirements. And there's the undeniable fact that some parents are just way too driven by competition for their kids' own good."

NCAA draws the line at the eighth grade

News item:

"Under a new recruiting rule adopted this week, male basketball players in the seventh and eighth grades are now defined as prospective athletes, a move designed to prevent overeager college coaches from recruiting them," reports the Chronicle of Higher Education.

This is a classic good news/bad news. The bad, of course, is that the NCAA needs to expand the rulebook to prevent college coaches, sports-minded alumni, and others from mining 13-year-olds. The good is that the NCAA finally is acknowledging that the recruiting wars begin that early, amazing as that may be. All the abuses/excesses/distortions that we've come to expect of blue-chip high school athletes are occurring - not in rampant fashion, but frequently enough - in, yes, middle schools.

We've commented on the problem before in this space. And I recently had an interesting conversation with someone who deals with dozens of high school athletes every day. He told me some hard-to-believe stories of eighth graders committing, unofficially, to college programs before they've dressed for a single high school game, much less proven themselves at that level or the next.

One (among many) negative effects is that these kids totally lose focus. They've reached the ultimate goal - to catch the eye of a college coach - set by their parents, club coaches and others, so what's left to prove? My friend tells me these kids often kind of sleep walk through their high school sports lives, convinced that they already have the talent, skills and a guaranteed future. Perfectly understandable.

Does the NCAA need to extend its no-recruiting-eighth-graders zone beyond basketball, to football and even women's lacrosse? From what I hear, absolutely.