By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
The state baseball and softball tournaments conclude today, officially marking the end of summer high school sports. In its place come summer camps for these high-school-aged, or younger, athletes to hone their skills. A recent change in Iowa law now also allows eighth graders to participate in more high school sports.
Summer camps
As for the Panthers, they have already had a few summer camps wrap up. Activities Director Bruce Dahlhauser tells me that their track and field camp for grades 3-6 had 34 campers in early June. A boys basketball shooting clinic that wrapped up in late June for grades 3-8 had 21 participants, and a girls basketball youth camp in late June had a great turnout of 53 campers for grades 3-8.
Camps still to come this summer for Panorama are a volleyball youth camp for grades 3-6 from Aug. 7-9, and a boys basketball youth camp for grades 3-8 Aug. 10-13.
As for the Chargers, their girls basketball camp was also in the books, finishing up in early June with 58 campers. The boys basketball camp also wrapped in mid-July with roughly 30 campers. The wrestling program hosted 29 wrestlers in early July as well.
Eighth graders in high school sports
What at first seemed like a free-for-all to allow any eighth grader to sign up for a high school sport with the signing into law of House File 2591 now appears to be relatively minor. No pun intended.
Basically, school districts, nonpublic schools, or charter schools still need to adopt a policy allowing it. “The state opened the door, but local schools still hold the key.” Well put by WHO13.
This door being opened, though, does bring up a lot of questions. Dahlhauser responded to my inquiry on how the Panthers are planning to address this change. He says the door is open, and they are keeping it open, but not without a multi-step criteria and approval process that they will use on a case-by-case basis.
The criteria for consideration, summarized, is that the student-athlete must be physically capable of safely competing, must possess the skill level, and the head coach will evaluate if the student-athlete provides a meaningful benefit to the program while also considering his or her long-term athletic development. Also, eighth graders may be considered when necessary to establish or maintain a second-level of competition, like junior varsity. Consideration will be given on the impact of both the middle school and high school programs as it refers to roster size, competitive opportunities and overall development.
There is also a five-step approval process, involving a physical, head coach evaluation, meeting with parent/guardian, activities director review, and the superintendent having the final say.
Panorama’s process looks about as thorough as one could be. Meanwhile, I do still have some questions.
How many high school records could end up being shattered because athletes have another year of eligibility? There may not be many eighth graders dominating the gridiron or basketball court, but the question remains.
Will kids be incentivized to transfer schools more often with the chance of playing in high school a year earlier? We’ve already seen an increase in kids transferring to other schools to play in what they (or their parents) perceive to be better programs. Could the same happen for the sake of early playing time? The law seems to address this for high schoolers, changing the waiting period for a student transferring from 90 days to 140 days.
Time will tell if this a change for the better or for the worse or for not much change at all. It certainly has the potential to benefit both eighth graders who are in need of a better challenge and high school teams needing to fill out rosters.
How do you feel about the change? Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.