PE Or Team Sports in High School

It depends on your kid's interests and abilities. If he excels at a particular sport, or if he really enjoys a certain sport, try out for the team. If not, do general PE. Remember that sports require a lot of additional time commitment.

My high school offered fun PE classes, like dance, tennis, swimming, etc. that were not actually teams.

There is no better or worse. Just what you will most enjoy.

I am in the Plano ISD and most of the team sports have tryouts which have been concluded by now. The team sports are also run under the UIL rule. UIL has specifics on team members regarding grades, qualifications, etc.

Team sports in Plano and Arlington as well (all over TX) are very compeitive and most of the students on the teams have been there for some time. We have some Freshmen (9th grade - high school) playing a variety of sports at the Varsity (12th grade -- Sr High School) level.

If your child has never been in team sports or shown interest, I would think this is not the time to start. However, if you have a very driven child who is willing to work extra hard to pull it off, good luck.. it can be done.

My daughter is Varsity Cheer and has been cheering since 8th grade and she never had to take PE as long as she was active on the cheer squad. My understanding is that the marching band and the drill team are not in PE either due to all the working out and training that takes place outside the classroom.

Team sports take up a LOT of time outside the classroom which involves a good amount of $$ per sport, fundraising for the sport, and a lot of family volunteer hours to make things happen.

Good luck

All Arlington high schools host very competitive sports teams. There are usually tryouts involved. If your child has a strong interest in a particular sport and is willing to work really hard, attend practices outside of school hours and travel for tournaments, then a sport might be something they want to pursue. The high schools usually have a varsity level, a junior varsity level and also have 9th grade teams in some sports like basketball. Also, you can earn a PE credit for ROTC and I believe --marching band--because of the physical activity in those programs.

Like others mentioned, there are other options. Golf and tennis are team sports, but seems more individual. Also, weight training class is pretty popular for some kids.

I was told by the parks and rec offices last year when we called about summer classes they might be offering for kids that when someone goes to apply for college scholarships if the do a sport that is not "the popular" ones like football, basketball, soccer, golf, baseball, etc....that the school will often have money's to offer prospective students to play that sport for them on the college level.

Those would include tennis, BMX, cross country and track, volleyball, and even wrestling. These sports are not the main ones anyone thinks of when they think of a college sports team. Each department has funds set aside for scholarships for prospective students. If they don't have hundreds and hundreds of students to offer those to and can only select a few they will offer more money for education to those that are even halfway good at the others.

So if my granddaughter enjoys tennis we are going to make sure she gets to stay taking lessons, she is successful in every sport she takes on so we do have a few to select from. But if it helps her in the end to go to a good college then it's long tern goal is much more important that do I take PE of try out for a sport. I would try out for every sport starting now and see if I get to do at least one then work on improving that one and planning on it being something I can offer to a higher education facility in exchange for money to go to school there.

It seems to me that if your kid was interested in sports, then they would already be involved by now. I am not sure what you are actually asking - Which would be a better experience for them? Which would be best for college? My kids are not into athletics, so they have always done general PE classes and hate them, but they have to take it. I tried to get my son to consider tennis or golf in high school, but you have to try out for these teams and depending on your school, they can be very competitive. I was very concerned about him being in general PE at the high school he was attending. I was afraid that the PE classes would be with a bunch of rough kids, but it worked out fine for him. My younger son is in band and so when he goes to high school, marching band will count as his PE.