[walterwhite]

I've always looked at it like this WW...prior to the middle school we had 8 grade schools playing football and basketball. That meant coach Kieth could have 8 point guards coming to freshman practice to compete for the starting spot. Coach Hensley could have 8 QB's, 40 lineman and 16 linebackers fighting for a spot on the freshman team. Of course ALL the players didn't come out for the freshman team but, there certainly was more competition without the middle school. Now we're lucky if key players on the MS team even play at HS. When they do play freshman ball it seams like there's no competition to EARN your spot, it's in stone from the 6th grade on who the freshman point guard and QB will be.

We used to weed our athletes out when they were freshman, now we weed them out at the 6th grade. Just think how many good players we might not have had in the 70's & 80's if the middle school had been in service.

I agree 100% on the basketball aspect. I can't recall every school having football in the same year. You would never see a school decide not to play basketball, even if it was a "BTeam". It seemed like some would suddenly decide to field a team when, oddly enough, they had a good group of upper graders. Then, just as suddenly, there wouldn't be enough to field a team, coincidently right after the good group moved on. There was no interest in fielding a "B Team" until they had enough to play varsity. That's why I thought middle school "could" have helped. I see your point clearly, more kids playing the better off you are. I think the middle school could still accomplish that. Play LOTS of people, and don't move players up. Hey, even have 2 teams per grade level. As always it's good to discuss things with you, my friend.