In the prep football preview magazine that is coming out on Thursday, Round Lake High's new football coach suggests that his team is at a competitive disadvantage because school started in Round Lake before football practice did, meaning no two-a-days, no bonding days of hanging together, and less football classroom work.
In contrast, Lake Forest High will have played TWO football games this season before any of its players ever step into a classroom.
That has to be an advantage for Lake Forest's grid program ... being able to concentrate on football for more than five weeks (practices plus games) before ever attending a class.
That is something the IHSA is going to have to look at in the future.
Competitive disadvantage
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Jeff,
You fail to mention why it is that Round Lake doesn't start their football practice earlier.
Horatio
Yes, Round Lake is at a disadvantage for maybe the first game or two.
Now this may sound shocking and some people may not want to hear this, but the school schedule, listen to this, is made based on ACADEMICS, not football!
Hopefully his program has been doing strength and conditioning all summer.
The IHSA picks the starting date for football practice and this year, the organization picked Aug. 13. Round Lake was in school on Aug. 12.
Yes, there is an academic calendar.
But, your comment suggests that Round Lake school people are smarter than school people at Lake Forest & Highland Park & Deerfield & Waukegan & North Chicago & Zion-Benton and other places that started school later.
If starting school on Aug. 12 was such a good idea for academics, EVERY SCHOOL would start then.
There clearly is something else at work which is why everybody starts at different times.
And in this particular case, Round Lake High's football team is being penalized.
No real competive advantage. All schools have 25 summer practices and not every school uses all 25. Two-a-days are over rated especially in high school. Kids get torn down that it takes them awhile to recover. Two-a-days are stopped by most programs at all levels about 10-12 days. So LF MAYBE had an extra practice or two. No real advantage here JB.
Make sure Waukegan is getting enough reps!
Schools start early so they have more time in class before all the standard tests come out for their students. It's a great idea for what kids are in school for, to learn.
First of all, if it was a great idea, EVERY SCHOOL would do it. In fact, there would be a universal school start date, such as Aug. 1, which would give kids even more school days before testing.
Alas, this makes little sense, seeing as how you can take the ACT year-around -- Sept. 13, Oct. 25, Dec. 13, Feb. 7, April 4, June 13. If you need to be in school 40 days to have a better chance of putting up an ACT number, take the test on Oct. 25 instead of Sept. 13. If you need to be in school 180 days to put up an ACT number, take the test on June 13. You can take the test EVERY time.
Seems to me you are implying that you need to take the Sept. 13 test and therefore have to start early in the school year to have more school days before that test date. If there is a 1-to-1 correlation between more school days and higher ACT scores, No. 1) prove it; and No. 2) you should then be telling each & every one of your students to take the June 13 test ... after you've attended 180 days of school junior year. That would, by your theory, maximize ACT results. Yet, I don't hear Anybody saying to do that.
Jeff:
1. While individual students can take ACT tests at different times, EVERY junior in the state takes the late April test. This is the test whose results get published and schools get ranked by. It's the test that's most important in public perception.
2. ACT isn't the only test. There are also AP tests, which are high stakes tests taken for college credit in May. An extra two weeks is huge in preparation for it (just as the extra week or two of practice is huge for a football team.) I teach AP Calculus at Round Lake, and those extra weeks are invaluable at going through past sample problems.
3. When school is started earlier, first semester and first semester exams can be done before Christmas break. Otherwise, there's a week and a half after break and then exams. It's not like students are studying during the almost 3 week break... and then they have to come back, already a little rusty, and cram for a final in a few days. Not a good situation.
These are the three main reasons for starting school early. And they're good ones.
I do agree with Coach Corsey though, that it puts Round Lake at a disadvantage in football. I think there should be some type of regulations in place to be fair on this, but I don't think that starting early is bad. It's good.
And as far as Lake Forest goes...aren't they starting a little later due to school construction? I'm not sure, but I'm thinking there is some reason they are starting as late as Sept. 8. And another thing...students at Lake Forest already have a pretty good academic head start on students from Round Lake for various socioeconmic reasons, so the head start in the calender for RL is just a very small way to help catch up to a place they are already behind in. And I teach at RL so I know.