UPrep MS athletes say they’re finding it hard to get enough training time in, with only three hours of total practice a week. You may think this is an easy fix, though the solution is not that simple. 

Due to the limited space and abundance of teams, Assistant Director of Athletics Jonathan Kim says this would “affect upper school sports heavily,” and “push their practices later.”

Eighth grader Sadie Stoddard says the amount of practice time given isn’t enough to play correctly.

“We don’t usually have time to go over everything you need to play a sport well,” “I’ve heard a lot of kids on my team saying that we didn’t get to practice this or so on.” Stoddard said.

But not all students agree with this. Seventh grader Logan Sternfeld says that though the amount of practice time is good, the limited space is annoying.

“I think having it two days a week is a good amount but then it’s sometimes frustrating because [during] volleyball there were a lot of teams and so it was hard to have a good practice,” Sternfeld said.

In agreement with some students, Assistant Director of Athletics Jonathan Kim recognizes that MS athletes may need more practice time.

“[In] the time you do have you need to be working and practicing hard,” Kim said. “Do I think it’s enough? Probably not. But that’s just based on facility usage. And I know a bunch of middle schoolers also participate in outside activities. And those usually start in the afternoon.” 

However, he also acknowledges the effects it would have on upper school sports schedules as well as students who participate in outside activities. With US sports practices already taking place after MS practices, pushing back their schedules further could cause issues. 

“It affects the upper school sports heavily based off the fact that we have one gym that we operate out of. And so if middle school sports would want to practice more, that would push upper schoolers practices later.” Kim said. 

Eighth grader Natalie Naness suggests a solution; taking away the no cut policy.

“I would do cuts because I think people who aren’t meeting the mark for D3 shouldn’t be on any team. I also think it would provide way more room, we had four teams this year and it was just too much,” Naness said.

Although Jonathan Kim disagrees with Naness’s solution, he may consider making changes.