Suffering sports burn hole in Blazer pride

The last time that one of Blair's 22 varsity teams won a state championship was 1982, four years before the graduating class of 2004 was born. Twenty-two years later, we are still waiting.

As the biggest school in the state, with a student population near 3,500, the assumption is that Blair should have the largest athletic pool to choose from.  

However, none of the nearly 550 students who participate in school athletics have led their team to a state victory. Blair will continue to have mediocre sports teams unless an aggressive approach is taken to prepare and train student athletes and to combat academic ineligibility.

Distribution of wealth

Most students who participate on successful high-school athletic teams have had previous training competing in various area youth leagues. Athletes spend their weekends honing their skills at the Soccerplex in Germantown or at the Rockville Sportsplex. Kids interested in playing lacrosse look to either the Bethesda or Potomac lacrosse leagues. And the Seneca Sports Association supports the Capital Beltway football league.

According to Karl Heimbach, athletic director at Magruder, a perennial powerhouse, almost 100 percent of Magruder athletes have participated in leagues offered throughout the county.  
However, many of the county's competitive youth athletics are located too far away for students in Blair's district.  

Last summer, Magruder's varsity boys' basketball team attended three different camps with the support of area businesses. Blair's teams can't afford the same luxuries.  

Schools like Magruder, Whitman and B-CC are located in areas where the per capita income exceeds that of Blair's location by up to $70,173 according to one analysis of 2000 Census data.

Books or balls

Even if Blazer athletes did have area youth leagues to participate in, there is no guarantee they would have the grades to participate in high school. While ineligibility among athletes plagues all high schools, its pervasiveness at Blair is causing adverse consequences.

A student is considered ineligible for athletics by MCPS if he or she has more than one failing grade and has a marking period grade point average (GPA) below 2.0.  

According to ESOL teacher Joseph Bellino, 26.7 percent of Blair students were considered ineligible for extracurricular activities at the conclusion of the first quarter this school year. Most recently the boys' JV and varsity basketball teams lost five players to ineligibility after the release of second-quarter grades, according to varsity coach and Athletic Director Dale Miller.

According to Heimbach, ineligibility among athletes at Magruder is controlled. "I guarantee you our ineligibility rates are very low, and that the GPA of all our teams combined is well above a 3.0," he says. It isn't that Magruder's athletes are smarter than those at Blair are; instead, Heimbach has instituted a number of programs to catch ineligibility problems early. Student athletes are required to turn in grade sheets to their coaches every two weeks, study hall is highly recommended and there is a special Athletic Aca-demic Advisor hired specifically to work with students who need help.

At Blair, the option of grade sheets and athletic study hall are made available to all teams, but are enforced on a case by case basis, according to Miller. If the Athletic Department took a more proactive approach to combating ineligibility at Blair, team rosters could remain full.

Where did the athletes go?

Blair's inability to keep students eligible has let some athletes slip through the cracks. As a result, sidelined athletes have started looking to private schools as a place for academic help and strong athletics.

Last spring, then Blair junior McKenzie Robinson was pursued by the coach of the Montrose Christian basketball team to switch schools and play for their team. Robinson took him up on the offer, leaving behind her starting positions on varsity basketball, field hockey and lacrosse.

Robinson's decision to switch schools paid off academically; she earned the highest GPA of her high-school career last quarter. Athletically, she has a starting spot on a team with more potential to succeed than the teams she played on at Blair.

By taking an aggressive approach to improving Blair's athletic status now, star athletes like Robinson might stay around. And, by offering a strong academic experience and a powerhouse school, some students, like senior Max Warren, who live within Blair's boundaries might choose to stay in the public-school system.

Warren says he primarily decided to go to St. Alban's in Washington, D.C., for academic reasons but admitted sports were also a factor. At St. Alban's there are no academic ineligibility rules, and the school incorporates athletics into the curriculum.  "Sports are built into the schedule. You have to play a sport a season for credit," explains Warren. "So I was able to take good classes without putting a strain on being able to play sports."

As with Robinson's choice, Warren's choice to attend St. Alban's benefited his athletic career. He is a starter on the varsity soccer, basketball and baseball teams at St. Alban's. He was named all-conference in soccer his junior and senior years and all-conference for baseball his junior year. The recognition he received from St. Alban's athletics has earned him a starting place on Harvard's baseball team in the fall.

GOOOALL!

If Blair wants athletes with stats as impressive as Warren's, proactive steps must be taken to make teams good enough to handle them. At the county level, the down-county area needs more competitive youth leagues. At the high-school level, Blair needs academic programs to match the aggressiveness of Magruder's. By requiring mandatory grade sheets of all teams on a biweekly basis, the school can catch athletes before becoming ineligible.  

While it will take time for Blair to build itself up as an athletic powerhouse, it will take even longer if the problem continues to be ignored.