Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Is music + sports possible in high school?

My ds14 is involved with both. He runs year round (XC until November, a few months of winter conditioning, track from Jan-Jun, and then summer conditioning), just made it into a high-level orchestra for next year, taking all honors and his first AP (World History), plays in the jazz band (he's a bassist, so does orchestra and jazz band), and does chess in the winter (he's allowed to miss track one day a week, since chess is an IHSA school sport). That said, he's highly disciplined, super organized, and a very hard worker with the social life of an introvert. Yesterday, he had track from 2:30-5:15, and then stayed for jazz band (after a quick shower at school) til 7:30. Today he will leave track at 4:30 to get a quick shower in at school and make an orchestra concert call time of 5:15, hoping to be home by 8pm. Tomorrow he will head straight to a track meet after school and probably not return to the HS til 9pm - thank goodness it's a Friday. Each day he will pack both his lunch and dinner and eat on the run. I think he is somewhat of an anomaly, even among gifted kids. My older kids couldn't have done it at this age. He needs very, very little downtime, and very little study time. I don't think it's about intelligence - I have an older PG kid who would have collapsed under the load. To me, it's really about how organized your kid is and whether they want to have a social life/free time. He's not on Facebook, doesn't watch TV, and rarely hangs out with friends, all by his choice. His activities are most of his social life. He does miss out on some after-school musical extracurriculars (outside symphonies, pit orchestra for musicals, etc...) but he works hard and is moderately talented. We find that the music teachers are FAR more accommodating than the coaches. We've had a few confrontations, but we're hanging in there and trying to make it all work. Next year with even more AP/honors, and more new material (AlgII/Trig is still a lot of review for him), we may have to give something up, or just settle for not being as competitive. Our 4th has already looked at his brother's schedule and decided that he has no desire to follow in his footsteps!!

Good point as part of it is a scheduling issue.

That's funny at first glance but upon further thought it makes sense as you do need a certain number to ensure a full team. Now that I think about it, one of our local prep schools requires every student to do a sport and most kids do some kind of performing art (music, theater, etc.)

Actually, my first thought/concern was the scheduling conflict issue. It seems like the performing arts people aren't as likely to communicate with the sports people as with each other.

That's an idea - to switch off; it will probably work okay with many conflicts except for those that are very competitive and/or difficult to maintain skill level without consistent participation.

That's another consideration - the time commitment! What I have found in our area is that all school activities are after school plus sometimes evenings/week-ends as well.

We have encounter this problem in middle school already. The regular Band/Orchestra are classes but the Honor Band/Orchestra requires after-school practices and sometimes performances.

Those other considerations may become an issue as well although at present the scheduling conflict issue seem the more difficult one.

LOL - I don't mean Carnegie Hall. I am just looking at All County (regional) or All State Band/Orchestra or even just the highest school level Band/Orchestra.

It suppose it may depend on the kid (and parent) but it just seem kind of painful to always be running back and forth.

That sounds like a crazy schedule! Even at the middle school level, Honor Band/Orchestra plus sports means that some rehearsals/practices have to be skipped. It just seems like it would potentially be more problematic at the high school level, even getting permission.