Middle schoolers in Baltimore City no longer have to wait until high school to put on a uniform and hit the playing field.
For the first time, the city school district will be offering sports programs to all sixth, seventh, and eighth graders enrolled in a public middle school.
Representatives from Baltimore City Public Schools detailed the launch of the new competitive sports programming — and the $2 million set aside to fund it — at a city council meeting on Thursday morning.
“We've done middle school sports. But prior to this, we kind of maintained what we have; we've never taken on the full 80 schools,” Director of Athletics Tiffany Byrd said. “This will be the first year we'll be going into a school year with a budget specifically for middle school. So we’re very excited.”
Chief of Schools John Davis said the 20 different sport options — 7 run by the city school district, and 13 run by independent vendors — will create a “pipeline” from middle school to high school athletics.
“If you go into the ninth grade, and you have not played specific sports, you are obviously at a disadvantage,” Davis said. These new programs will bridge that gap — especially for students who don’t have access to sports otherwise.
Last school year, the district piloted clinics and some competitions for 1,500 middle schoolers in the city. But Davis said building the programs up from this groundwork will be a “journey.”
“When there weren't sports before, it's going to take a minute for this to ramp up to the point that it is as robust as the vision that we all have for our young people,” he said.
Flag football and cross country competitions will begin in October. And Davis said the district hopes to start the vendor-run sports by winter 2024.
Early challenges in transportation and communication
Council members pointed to challenges already popping up with the new system at Thursday’s meeting.
President Nick Mosby said there’s a disconnect in communication between the district and the parents.
“I think that the majority of middle school parents, the overwhelming majority, do not know that this is a possibility coming up in October,” Mosby said. “So I guess what I'm asking the school system is, you know, can we proactively communicate?”
Coordinator of Athletics Tonisha Montgomery said the district has communicated with principals to gauge school interest. Parents and students will receive more information once the school year begins. Sign-ups will occur during the first two weeks of classes.
Montgomery said the district will organize cohorts of nearby schools to compete against each other once schools finalize rosters for their teams. Traditional public schools will receive $50 per participating student to cover costs.
Principals must appoint coaches for the October cross country and flag football teams by the September 12 workshop. Coaches will hold tryouts in the beginning of the year.
Some council members raised concerns about the workload falling mostly on principals to appoint coaches and coordinate teams.
“The reality is they just have so much to do and so much to focus on,” Mosby said.
Davis said principals have expressed some worry about their responsibilities — but only because they do not have experience with athletics. The district will be partnering with physical education teachers and hiring activity advisors to ease the burden.
Other council members cited transportation as the main challenge for the district. Council member James Torrence called it the “biggest budget drain” for the program.
Byrd said a game day and practice transportation plan is in-the-works.
“I think we have tried to turn over every rock as it exists for transportation because it is the biggest hurdle,” she said.
Montgomery said some schools may be unable to compete due to shortage of transportation.
“In the event we're not able to provide the transportation and we do have to limit the number of teams, we do have selection criteria that we're working to finalize,” she said.
Middle school sports to remedy absenteeism, gender inequity
Mosby hopes that offering sports to middle schoolers will increase student engagement.
“When our school environment provides a whole environment for our young folks, including extracurricular activities, such as sports, we know that that is an angle for us to decrease absenteeism, engaging our young folks in a way of creating school spirit,” he said.
Chronic absenteeism refers to students who miss more than 10% of school days. In 2022, 58% of Baltimore City students qualified as chronically absent.
Expanding access to middle school sports is part of city efforts to bridge gaps between boys’ and girls’ participation in athletics.
Davis presented data on gender disparities in school sports at the city council meeting on Thursday. While the district currently offers one more female team than male teams, girls lag behind in participation rates.
“Football kind of sticks out and pushes the data towards more male athletes,” Davis said.
Mosby said it’s more than that.
“Many of our young women in the city of Baltimore don't get access to organized sports until high school, which ultimately puts them at a competitive disadvantage to neighboring counties for them to compete at the high school JV (junior varsity) or even varsity level,” he said.
Mosby also cited the fact that the district does not offer a JV women's soccer or softball team. So students who have access to sports or training before high school make the varsity team, and those without resources don’t have a chance to play.
Davis said the new middle school athletics program will help build confidence and skill for girls before high school.
“And we are working with schools on an individual basis to make sure that whatever barriers they have for young ladies to participate, we are knocking those down,” he said.
