# Signing Day for Student/ Athletes



## gotothebushes (Nov 16, 2022)

Would love to get some feed back on this. I personally think High Schools are missing big opportunity for there Students.  Would like honest thoughts please:

To Staff,

First off, huge thanks to Ms.---( Office help part time), Ms., Mr and Mrs ---- and James --- and Ms. Lea  for the warm reception for my daughter, as she committed to ----- yesterday. A special thank you to Ms.---- for arranging at the last minute an opportunity to support one of her BSU student athletes. Another special thanks to Hosea  who wanted to share this moment but at the last minute he thought she would be in the gym. Most of you weren't aware of what was going on yesterday.  The --- family is truly grateful.

Unfortunately, there are certain points I would like to bring to your attention regarding National Signing Day that I hope the school will consider to make the experience better in the future for all students, the school and the community. 

National signing day is a special day for student athletes where they can be recognized for their accomplishments outside the classroom and celebrate with their friends, teachers ( Teacher/ Counselor who sent recommendation letters)  and school community. The school has a great opportunity to leverage a signing day event.  It's an effective way to showcase the well-rounded student body, build school spirit/community culture, potentially generate local media attention and most importantly, inspire other students to work hard to achieve their aspirations.  The event is such a low effort event, given all the potential rewards.  Please take this in consideration for the next generation of student athletes in the near future.      

In my daughters case, she and I were told that student athletes who don't participate in school sports could not participate in a signing day hosted by the Athletic Department. Mr ---, thank you for taking my call and speaking with me about this, but I believe the school missed the mark on an opportunity. I called several athletic directors and unanimously they shared that their schools celebrate all athletes with a signing day event, on social media and through school spirit, regardless of sport, division, club vs. school sports, etc. These kids are key members of the school community, and they have shown determination as they juggled the demands of their sport with their school work. The reason to celebrate them isn't because they participated in school sports, its to celebrate that they are members of the High school community.  

Yesterday, there were four female athlete commits Cindy, Jordan and Kim.  I spoke with the parents of 2 others and those parents shared that the girls wanted to have this experience together and celebrate one another.  Instead there was one athlete in the gym, my daughter scrambled to pull something together on her own with the help of Ms. -----, and the remaining two athletes were told they would have to wait and do their signing day at some other date.  Breaking this up took away all momentum from the event.  Most of the people that came out to support only knew about the event through word-of-mouth -- I am told there was no mention of this in announcements.  The school lost any benefit from this approach.  I know 3 of 4 athletes were disappointed by this approach as well.  

Again, thank you to all who came to support my daughter in this exciting moment and congratulations to Cindy, Kim and Jordan for their accomplishments as well.  

Warmest Regards,

The Family


The Athletic Directors response :

I just spoke with the school in our area that has the most commits,  High School Name, and they had NOTHING, NOTHING  yesterday for their signees and will instead hold a ceremony in February. In addition, they have, in the past, done exactly as we did yesterday and hold a signing for an individual athlete. They will also, like us, hold individual ceremonies throughout the year. I have had several conversations with AD's and there are some who honor kids who opt not to participate with their athletic program and some who do. I asked our coaches at ------- their opinion and overwhelmingly they did not think our athletic program should honor them because they simply are not part of our athletic program. I am glad that our school honored your daughter and I think it was done at the right setting in a small private classroom. 

My response back:

Mr AD ( Athletic Director),

Thank you for your response and I sincerely appreciate you engaging in a dialog about this topic. I hope our discussion leads to the best experience for future athletes at High School. 

I am aware that many schools do different things on different dates for signing day. Since there are several signing days throughout the year for various sports, I know several schools that wait until the end of the year so they can celebrate with everyone at once. Those schools are leveraging the energy from all the athletes for a community building event at their school. The person I see getting the most benefit is the young underclassman that is working diligently at their sport who aspires to play at top school - whether that’s a top 10 ranked power 5 D1 school or a top academic D3 or the kid that just wants to play for their college.  These seniors act as role models to the younger kids and leveraging that to better the school community should be the purpose of an event like this. 

While I am sure you are right that some schools choose to do individual ceremonies, judging from my Facebook feed over the past 48 hours, I suspect more often schools are doing group ceremonies. It is certainly logistically simpler and creates buzz. Most importantly, I suspect most kids want to be together and celebrate with each other.

As it relates to kids that don’t play sports for the school, your closing comment in your email makes your position very clear. As per our last conversation you rather have student athletes you don't play a school sport to celebrate in a more private event. That's a great idea to rally school spirit to be more exclusive.  I am disappointed by that and sincerely hope that you and the coaches reconsider.  There is benefit to the student body to celebrate these kids which I have already outlined. My DD was fortunate that she had a forum to celebrate but what happens to the student who doesn’t?  Their contribution to the school community is considered less than?

And I leave you with this - In the current environment, when so much in the world is about inclusion, what does the athletic department gain by not being inclusive?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,


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## rainbow_unicorn (Nov 17, 2022)

My feedback: I can't believe I wasted two minutes of my life reading this.


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## Kicker4Life (Nov 17, 2022)

gotothebushes said:


> Would love to get some feed back on this. I personally think High Schools are missing big opportunity for there Students.  Would like honest thoughts please:
> 
> To Staff,
> 
> ...


Our HS did a great job of making it a special occasion for our Athletes.  They set up the auditorium, gave each athlete their own table, balloons, a dozen Crumbl cookies, some HS swag and even let other students attend so they could cheer in their friends.  

Sounds like your HS is missing the boat!!!

sorry to hear it.


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## socalkdg (Nov 17, 2022)

Kicker4Life said:


> Our HS did a great job of making it a special occasion for our Athletes.  They set up the auditorium, gave each athlete their own table, balloons, a dozen Crumbl cookies, some HS swag and even let other students attend so they could cheer in their friends.


You guys beat our school.   We had to bring our own decorations, no swag, and no cookies.  She did have friends and family.

Daughters High School had a signing last Wednesday,  I think it was 11 players.   7 softball,  3 baseball, and 1 soccer (my daughter).   All have played sports at the High School (daughter did Varsity Basketball, Track, and Soccer).   She was able to sign, then her counselor faxed to the college.   Not sure if they told anyone that didn't play High School that they couldn't show up, but I'm pretty sure everyone there did play High School sports.   They were very proud of of everyone there, mentioning how few High School athletes end up playing in college.

I know some girls did signings with their club instead of their High School.  Not sure if these girls had the High School option, I do know some didn't but that was due to the size of the High School I believe.  I can see schools choosing their student athletes (kids that go to school and play for the school) and not including others.  Then again if the school doesn't offer that sport, that kid wouldn't get a chance to do this with the school. 

I'll ask my daughter what she thinks a school should do.  I say include any student that is signing their NLI, even if they didn't play for the High School. I do think playing for the school is a great opportunity for school spirit and school friendship.


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## Kicker4Life (Nov 17, 2022)

socalkdg said:


> You guys beat our school.   We had to bring our own decorations, no swag, and no cookies.  She did have friends and family.
> 
> Daughters High School had a signing last Wednesday,  I think it was 11 players.   7 softball,  3 baseball, and 1 soccer (my daughter).   All have played sports at the High School (daughter did Varsity Basketball, Track, and Soccer).   She was able to sign, then her counselor faxed to the college.   Not sure if they told anyone that didn't play High School that they couldn't show up, but I'm pretty sure everyone there did play High School sports.   They were very proud of of everyone there, mentioning how few High School athletes end up playing in college.
> 
> ...


To be fair, we had to bring our own Collegiate gear….Congratulations to you, your DD and the family!

Same to you @gotothebushes, Congratulations!


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## gotothebushes (Nov 17, 2022)

rainbow_unicorn said:


> My feedback: I can't believe I wasted two minutes of my life reading this.


Don’t respond next time! You just wasted 10 seconds reading this!


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## gotothebushes (Nov 17, 2022)

socalkdg said:


> You guys beat our school.   We had to bring our own decorations, no swag, and no cookies.  She did have friends and family.
> 
> Daughters High School had a signing last Wednesday,  I think it was 11 players.   7 softball,  3 baseball, and 1 soccer (my daughter).   All have played sports at the High School (daughter did Varsity Basketball, Track, and Soccer).   She was able to sign, then her counselor faxed to the college.   Not sure if they told anyone that didn't play High School that they couldn't show up, but I'm pretty sure everyone there did play High School sports.   They were very proud of of everyone there, mentioning how few High School athletes end up playing in college.
> 
> ...


Thanks Kicker. That would be very helpful. Just trying to gather more info on how AD’s normally would celebrate these signing events!


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## lafalafa (Nov 18, 2022)

Congratulations to those student athletes and families.

Our kids attended public school and it's was simple low key events one in fall and one in Spring where a table, chairs & podium + mike where set up and you brought almost all the decorations but could invite a limited number of guests.

This was  very special for them as they where able to have one or more of their mentors or coaches attending and got to say a few works about them.  To us this is what made the event not just a photo op.

At their HS  in a couple sports a few students actually turned pro or signed contacts before they graduated but they didn't play for the school so no mention of anything from them although everyone knew about it. 

Each year there is a opportunity for seniors to show which college regardless of sports they will attend and a big group photo op which I thought was a nice touch with a listing.


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## gotothebushes (Nov 18, 2022)

lafalafa said:


> Congratulations to those student athletes and families.
> 
> Our kids attended public school and it's was simple low key events one in fall and one in Spring where a table, chairs & podium + mike where set up and you brought almost all the decorations but could invite a limited number of guests.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing Lafalafa! This is exactly what I'm looking for so I can go back to the AD. Teachers are wanting us to push back because they believe our public school should have a Fall and Spring event aswell. Thank you again!


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## youthsportsugh (Nov 18, 2022)

Our school had one signing day for all of the sports  in February or March -- I don't recall.  Some schools have had lots of experience with many high level athletes passing through their doors and other less so.  How they are equipped to handle such an experience will vary vastly on the aforementioned.

I don't think our school did an extraordinary job, however it was nicely done and my daughter enjoyed the experience. I believe our school falls somewhere in between the Cream of the crop athletic schools and the once a decade school.

As far as not holding a ceremony for those that don't participate for the school, why would they -- The person didn't think highly enough to participate for the school... 

Each school and family are different in what they need/want from the athletic experience.


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## diamondcoach (Nov 19, 2022)

Well, as someone who has spent 20+ years as a physical education teacher and athletic administrator, holding a signing day for your student athletes sits squarely on the shoulders of your athletic director. Why would you not take the opportunity and make the effort to celebrate your student athletes? Unfortunately, I’ve met far too many ADs who put forth as little effort as possible… and would only look at putting together such an event as added/extra work.
I worked at a small K-8 Catholic school, and always followed our student athletes as they continued to play in HS and especially those that went on to play in college. For those that eventually did so, I would print out their bio from their respective college and then post it on the wall outside of my office. At one time we had (12) former student athletes playing a D1 sport. Not too shabby for a school that had only 300 kids.

I heard the argument that some schools don’t hold a signing day if the athlete in question did not play a sport for the school. I don’t buy into that excuse. Are you telling me if that kid makes a name for themselves at the college level or professionally that the high school is not going to make every effort to let it be known they attended their school? Of course they will…Again, not holding this type of event can be chalked up as nothing other than laziness within the athletic department. And a huge missed opportunity allowing you to not only promote your athletic department but your school as a whole.


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## oh canada (Nov 20, 2022)

I will give you the educator perspective, because I am one. Why should sports receive any greater attention than non-athletic students who also "commit" to colleges. Does your school hold a signing event for the science-star who got into Harvard? Or, the music kid going to Julliard? Or, the math whiz admitted to Cal Tech? I bet they don't. So, why should a kid get special attention because they are going to a college to kick a ball?

These events tend to do more for the parents' egos than the kids'. Yes, the kids would rather have them than not, but I don't think they care about them as much as the parents do. They've already posted on social media to all their friends about it.

Mind you, I have 3 kids who are student-athletes.


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## watfly (Nov 21, 2022)

oh canada said:


> I will give you the educator perspective, because I am one. Why should sports receive any greater attention than non-athletic students who also "commit" to colleges. Does your school hold a signing event for the science-star who got into Harvard? Or, the music kid going to Julliard? Or, the math whiz admitted to Cal Tech? I bet they don't. So, why should a kid get special attention because they are going to a college to kick a ball?
> 
> These events tend to do more for the parents' egos than the kids'. Yes, the kids would rather have them than not, but I don't think they care about them as much as the parents do. They've already posted on social media to all their friends about it.
> 
> Mind you, I have 3 kids who are student-athletes.


Our school has a signing and recognition event for all students that are going on to college, JC, trade school and the military.  It's a great event.

I'm sure it's offensive to parents of kids that aren't moving on with their education, so I'm not sure how long it will last.  Can't "exclude" anyone these days without someone getting their knickers in a wad.


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## watfly (Nov 22, 2022)

To me not honoring those athletes that didn't play for the school sounds like sour grapes on the part of the HS athletic department.  Yeah, I understand the sentiment that the student allegedly "didn't think highly enough of the school" but when it comes to kids and adults, the adults should always take the high road.  Additionally, these kids got into the college not on athletic ability alone, but also in some part due to academics, of which they did participate in at the HS.


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## sockma (Nov 23, 2022)

watfly said:


> To me not honoring those athletes that didn't play for the school sounds like sour grapes on the part of the HS athletic department.  Yeah, I understand the sentiment that the student allegedly "didn't think highly enough of the school" but when it comes to kids and adults, the adults should always take the high road.  Additionally, these kids got into the college not on athletic ability alone, but also in some part due to academics, of which they did participate in at the HS.


I don't care whether club only kids are part of high school NLI celebrations, but I don't think it's sour grapes.   I like that it's up to each high school to decide how much resource they have and how they want to celebrate their NLI athletes, rather than forcing schools to conform and use more resources or cancel if they don't have sufficient funds to cover everyone.  

High Schools celebrate high school athletes because they were willing to put time and effort into the school spirit and foster better sports in their high school sport programs, at the sacrifice of playing less Club games and practices.  Club players get the celebration with their clubs because that's where they put all their athletic effort.  

Why must we want our kids to be celebrated everywhere (club, city and schools), even when they didn't help out to build the high school athletic programs?  

It's like we're asking for a participation trophy when we didn't even participate.


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## watfly (Nov 23, 2022)

sockma said:


> I don't care whether club only kids are part of high school NLI celebrations, but I don't think it's sour grapes.   I like that it's up to each high school to decide how much resource they have and how they want to celebrate their NLI athletes, rather than forcing schools to conform and use more resources or cancel if they don't have sufficient funds to cover everyone.
> 
> High Schools celebrate high school athletes because they were willing to put time and effort into the school spirit and foster better sports in their high school sport programs, at the sacrifice of playing less Club games and practices.  Club players get the celebration with their clubs because that's where they put all their athletic effort.
> 
> ...


I think your comparing apples to oranges.  "Everyone gets a trophy" is recognition without merit.  Someone who gets an NLI certainly has earned it (unless they worked through Rick Singer).  The extra resource claim is a frivolous argument.  How much does it cost to add another table and a few pens to the NLI day already being held for the HS sports participant.

At the annual awards night at our school, they recognize students for all sorts of accomplishments outside of school sponsored events.  It's either sour grapes or laziness by the athletic department not to honor all students that received an NLI.  Although, truth be told I really don't care much either way.  It's a non-issue for my kid as he left MLS Next to play a variety of HS sports.  I'm just pointing out why I think club kids are excluded which is due to the pettiness of adults "educators".

Let's be perfectly honest, HS sports are a few levels below those sports with a club counterpart...at least on the boys side.  Maybe if HS sports offered a better product there wouldn't be this issue, although that's not totally within their control.  That having been said my son loves playing HS sports.


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## twoclubpapa (Nov 23, 2022)

Consider a student who was a HS varsity starter as a freshman and sophomore but then played club only as a junior and senior. Is it right to ignore recognizing their NLI?


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## sockma (Nov 25, 2022)

watfly said:


> I think your comparing apples to oranges.  "Everyone gets a trophy" is recognition without merit.  Someone who gets an NLI certainly has earned it (unless they worked through Rick Singer).  The extra resource claim is a frivolous argument.  How much does it cost to add another table and a few pens to the NLI day already being held for the HS sports participant.
> 
> At the annual awards night at our school, they recognize students for all sorts of accomplishments outside of school sponsored events.  It's either sour grapes or laziness by the athletic department not to honor all students that received an NLI.  Although, truth be told I really don't care much either way.  It's a non-issue for my kid as he left MLS Next to play a variety of HS sports.  I'm just pointing out why I think club kids are excluded which is due to the pettiness of adults "educators".
> 
> Let's be perfectly honest, HS sports are a few levels below those sports with a club counterpart...at least on the boys side.  Maybe if HS sports offered a better product there wouldn't be this issue, although that's not totally within their control.  That having been said my son loves playing HS sports.


High schools sports isn't good because of parents who think this way.  Then these same parents get upset when the athletic department doesn't celebrate their kids with high school athletes.  

The comparison isn't for the NLI alone, it's for students that participated in the high school sports AND signed an NLI.  With your comparison, the high school should be celebrating all kids, regardless of which high school they attend, who signs an NLI.  However, this isn't the purpose of the high school celebrations.  Why isn't it sufficient for club players to get the celebration with their club?  Why demand that a program take time, effort and money out for someone who isn't willing to contribute to the high school athletic program, not even for one season because you think you're too good for it? 

It's players and parents like these that have "ruined" high school sports.  If we want to build soccer as a nation, we need to bring high school and community support into the sport too.  Thinking your kid is too good to play for their high school and has to play for an "elite" club has ruined sports for most kids and preventing soccer to grow in our communities. 

If you know your athletic department does not celebrate "club only" athletes at the NLI program but you want your kid to be there, then have then play for a year at least.  If you don't want to even do it for a year, then don't expect or demand things from the athletic department.  Participate if you want the participation trophy.


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## sockma (Nov 25, 2022)

twoclubpapa said:


> Consider a student who was a HS varsity starter as a freshman and sophomore but then played club only as a junior and senior. Is it right to ignore recognizing their NLI?


Most schools celebrate these kids are celebrated at the NLI signings because they did participate in high school sports. 

I don't know of a school that only celebrates seniors but if that's their rule, then that's up to them to decide as a community or school.  There's no right or wrong to these type of decisions.


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## watfly (Nov 27, 2022)

sockma said:


> High schools sports isn't good because of parents who think this way.  Then these same parents get upset when the athletic department doesn't celebrate their kids with high school athletes.
> 
> The comparison isn't for the NLI alone, it's for students that participated in the high school sports AND signed an NLI.  With your comparison, the high school should be celebrating all kids, regardless of which high school they attend, who signs an NLI.  However, this isn't the purpose of the high school celebrations.  Why isn't it sufficient for club players to get the celebration with their club?  Why demand that a program take time, effort and money out for someone who isn't willing to contribute to the high school athletic program, not even for one season because you think you're too good for it?
> 
> ...


Sounds suspiciously like sour grapes to me.


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## sockma (Nov 28, 2022)

watfly said:


> Sounds suspiciously like sour grapes to me.


Sour grapes because I think a person who is able to but unwilling to contribute to a program doesn't have a right to feel entitled to a benefit provided by the program? 

Or are you assuming that I have sour grapes because  you think my children are not "elite" enough to play at a high level?  Whether my children are included in their high school NLI ceremony doesn't bother me because I can respect and understand why Athletic Directors choose to use their resources to celebrate athletes who contribute to their programs rather than spend time, energy, and money organizing for entitled  parents who think their children are entitled to be included in a program's ceremony  just because they are that "elite", without any contribution.


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## watfly (Nov 28, 2022)

sockma said:


> Sour grapes because I think a person who is able to but unwilling to contribute to a program doesn't have a right to feel entitled to a benefit provided by the program?
> 
> Or are you assuming that I have sour grapes because  you think my children are not "elite" enough to play at a high level?  Whether my children are included in their high school NLI ceremony doesn't bother me because I can respect and understand why Athletic Directors choose to use their resources to celebrate athletes who contribute to their programs rather than spend time, energy, and money organizing for entitled  parents who think their children are entitled to be included in a program's ceremony  just because they are that "elite", without any contribution.


The former minus the editorial portion.  I wasn't aware that students couldn't be acknowledged for their accomplishments if it didn't benefit the school directly.

Like I said my son has left club soccer and enjoys playing a variety of high schools sports so it doesn't impact him whatsoever, but I do appreciate the sacrifice and commitment it takes for a club athlete to commit to his/her sport year round.

Admittedly you do touch a nerve with your HS resource excuse.  I've spent the last 4 years of my daughters HS career fighting the administration that was trying to eliminate programs for high achieving students.  The principals also used the resource excuse when in reality it was a matter of "will".  Fortunately other parents joined the fight and we were able to save a number of programs.

The great irony of this is when a one of those club kids happens to go pro the HS will be the first to promote the fact that the student came from their high school.


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## Red card (Dec 2, 2022)

oh canada said:


> I will give you the educator perspective, because I am one. Why should sports receive any greater attention than non-athletic students who also "commit" to colleges. Does your school hold a signing event for the science-star who got into Harvard? Or, the music kid going to Julliard? Or, the math whiz admitted to Cal Tech? I bet they don't. So, why should a kid get special attention because they are going to a college to kick a ball?
> 
> These events tend to do more for the parents' egos than the kids'. Yes, the kids would rather have them than not, but I don't think they care about them as much as the parents do. They've already posted on social media to all their friends about it.
> 
> Mind you, I have 3 kids who are student-athletes.


i bet you are  really fun at parties


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## GT45 (Dec 14, 2022)

gotothebushes said:


> Would love to get some feed back on this. I personally think High Schools are missing big opportunity for there Students.  Would like honest thoughts please:
> 
> To Staff,
> 
> ...


Wait so you are bugging the AD of a program your daughter chose not to be a part of because he did not include her? How entitled are you? How ass backwards is your thinking? She made her choice not to participate. Why would he honor her? You are the exact definition of the entitiled soccer parent.


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## gotothebushes (Dec 14, 2022)

GT45 said:


> Wait so you are bugging the AD of a program your daughter chose not to be a part of because he did not include her? How entitled are you? How ass backwards is your thinking? She made her choice not to participate. Why would he honor her? You are the exact definition of the entitiled soccer parent.


Correction, I'm looking at the other  5 GIRLS WHO PLAYS High School soccer my friend. Your another tool I bet is really fun at parties. Its Entitled not Entitiled BTW!


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## crush (Dec 14, 2022)

gotothebushes said:


> Correction, I'm looking at the other  5 GIRLS WHO PLAYS High School soccer my friend. Your another tool I bet is really fun at parties. Its Entitled not Entitiled BTW!


AD's today can be total clowns bro and so are some parents. They blew it big time with your dd. My kid obviously did not get a ride to college but the new AD was so supportive of my dd doing something different then the rest and they honored her choice to continue to play the great game. Sorry to hear about this.


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