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.
Read more (and listen) at WYPR.
