Weight of high school athletics on where you chose to live

Great topic.  We moved to where we live now when the the oldest 2 were entering 2nd grade (twins obviously) and did not expect to be here more than 3-5 years (now 16 yrs) so we gave no thought to high school athletics.  We were only trying to find an elementary with a good reputation and a neighborhood where the basketball goals in the driveway were set at 8'.  Between our 3 sons'  5 years in the HS baseball program they played in 3 Texas 6A state championship games (notice I had to leave out the word...won).  Throw in a 23-3 record the last two years of HS football with a trip to the round of 8 senior season and 2 trips to the LLWS...and my wife picked it all virtually on her own...Sometimes you have to write stuff out in the midst of the madness to reflect on how fortunate you have been...thanks for this topic and unknowingly helping with that...

Zero consideration to athletics. It was the best public school district in the state at the time. My son was in pre-k at the time. Fast forward to high school and we end up sending him to a private prep because the public schools are now not very good at all. 

I really did not care. However, i am grateful my kid's school is pushing competition in both academics and athletics. I wish my son would make the science olympiad or make the cut on the mathletics team.

My family moved to my hometown when I was 4 because my dad got his one and only job offer to teach college-level history here.

I grew up here and started working at the  local newspaper the day after I graduated from high school. Worked close to full time while attending college and grad school about 30 miles away  and eventually became a VP at the state's largest newspaper while working about six blocks from my house. In the process, I met my husband, who is the third generation of his family to live here.

Didn't look at all at high school athletics or academics. We made all our opportunities right here at home, and so have our kids.

No.  We moved from one house to another in the same school district a month before keewartson was born 24+ years ago.  The high school had just been built with, of course, a lot of unknowns but there was a splitting/squabble  of a nearby neighborhood on high schools.   Son got to play in the state tournament twice.  I figured on just one year's squad, 7 would play D1, with two more in D3, and three of those 9 are now playing pro.

Last fall, thebaseballcube listed how many players are currently playing pro ball, by high school, and in our state, keewartson's high school had the most at 6.  Two in the first round.   We were very very lucky.  

We didn't choose our home for HS athletics, but as son approached HS age we did decide to remain there because it was a very short commute to one of the top academic/athletic high schools in our region. 

We definitely chose academics over athletics.  Both kids played select sports (soccer or baseball) so we knew we had sports covered. More important for our family to have the kids attend a good academic school to compete academically and prep them for college.

Fun to support and watch school athletics, track, basketball, etc that the kids played in but we don't attend football games or other events. We were a grand slam sponsor last year for the baseball team. Super glad we didn't sponsor this year. Yikes.

Didn’t consider HS athletics at all. Looked only at neighborhood, school district, and location. In hindsight I wish we would have given it some consideration. HS baseball experience for my middle son was so bad that youngest son transferred after his freshman year. The baseball experience was better for him but the academic benefit of the change was the big payoff. 

Our kids were tiny when we moved here, so we gave athletics no thought.  Turned out tht this area is the powerhouse in most sports, but we had no idea when we picked it..

Athletics had zero weight with our home choice 20 years ago...it had more to do with home value and educational opportunities.  Our County offers many specialty and magnet schools, so it really doesn't matter where you live in the County when it comes to education.   We live in the same County as keewart.    There are a lot of talented baseball players that come from our area...it seems to be in the water or something.  

I don't know of any students moving to play for a certain baseball program however I do know of many that moved for a certain football program including my oldest & middle son's school that won multiple state football championships.  

Athletics were not on the list of considerations when we purchased our house.    We wanted to stay in the county (only one HS) as one of the neighboring counties does not have as good a school system in regards to academics (I should know, I was educated in that county - parents still live there).

We were lucky though - about the time my son tried out for Varsity the AD had hired a new coach.   The previous coach was terrible - had a very bad season (3-17 reason) and had no clue how to properly coach.   It was all about him.   New coach turned the team around with the team qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in many years.   Next year they had a better record but did not make the playoffs.   Son's senior year they won the district championship and made it to the state quarterfinals.

Athletics had no impact on where we live, but athletics had a big impact on where our kids went to school. We used our state’s school choice program to transfer both of them when they reached 7th grade.  Academics at both districts were equal.  Decisions were made to transfer based on football and volleyball respectively.  Baseball didn’t factor into the decision.  Son is 2020 and daughter a 2023 and it was a great decision to transfer them and something both wanted to do. 

For us, we had a choice to build a house on two similar lots that had different HS's serving them (in the same subdivision).  Athletics did partially come into play in the decision (10%), as the schools had similar academics.  Not that we wanted the school with the 'best' athletics, but having a good HS coach can make a big different IMO.

Here's a question.

For the question are you saying HS sports has bearing on getting to the next level? More so than Summer/Travel ball? 

For football, absolutely.
For baseball, not even close. 

Being somewhat transient, (buying and selling 9 homes in the past 30 years due to re-locations) I never looked at school athletic programs. However, overall school ratings were extremely important and have a direct impact on re-sale values. Most recently we used greatschools.com as a measuring stick.

@Eokerholm posted:

Here's a question.

For the question are you saying HS sports has bearing on getting to the next level? More so than Summer/Travel ball? 

For football, absolutely.
For baseball, not even close. 

Too much is made about the next level.  We moved our kids for the high school athletic experience, not for the next level.  My daughter will probably not play college volleyball.   Our son will play college baseball instead of football.  His high school football experience was probably the best thing he has been a part of in his life.  The memories and friendships will last forever.  That is why they moved districts, not to get to the next level.  

I was texting with my (adult) son yesterday. I thought of this thread idea since he mentioned he ran into someone about a month ago from his high school whose family moved just because of basketball. Then I recollected there used to be posters on this site who asked if moving for baseball is a good idea. Also, when my son was fourteen our high school baseball program blew. It completely flipped starting with soph year when he made varsity with a new coach who knew his stuff. At fourteen and fifteen privates were recruiting my son. We looked but decided he should stay at the high school. The high school’s gifted program was as good as these top privates academics and 12K less per year after scholarship. I was amused two offered 50% academic scholarships if he agreed to play at least two sports. 

Our high school had a very good basketball program. As good as it was there were two other high schools in the conference that were traditionally better over the years. Since our very large district received seven of the sixteen state slots it was common for two and sometimes three of these schools to make states even if they didn’t win their conference or district. One of the schools sent the most players to D1 and had three play in the NBA.

I liked the dad. But he had a rainbows and unicorns view of his son’s ability. He saw the NBA in his rose colored glasses. A lot changes in basketball in high school as some kids become 6’6” and others stop growing. His kid dominated 14u then stopped growing at 6’1”. I always told kids and parents when I coached 14u and below travel unless a kid is going to grow to be at least 6’4” he better the the best dribbler or shooter in town. He can only play point or off guard. Big kids can play just because they’re big and can rebound.

Thr kid got “screwed (lol)” soph year and didn’t make varsity. They moved to the neighboring powerhouse program with the legendary coach in the next town. After all, the coach at our high school didn’t know what he was doing. The kid made varsity the next two years as a rotation player. He never started. It’s what would have happened had he stayed at our high school. But, to add insult to injury our high school beat them three of four games those two years and a fourth time to eliminate them in district play. 

First house was in an intercity and the public schools were a disaster. We couldn't afford the local private offerings, so before our oldest went to kindergarten, we moved. Academics were the deciding factor, although we did want to live in a community that spent their fall Friday nights at the HS football game, even though neither of my kids played. We were lucky and chose a community that has been on the rise and the school system grades out very well. 

HS athletics wasn't the reason why we moved when TMM just turned 9. It was Fall Ball. New to town a couple years earlier, we rented a few places before we could settle in. The two Little Leagues in our area only had spring ball. A friend at work invited our son to play in his area's PONY league in the fall. It was very well run by competent folks and we all had a blast. It was an easy choice where to look for a home. We made lots of friends and had 5+ additional years of ball there. Son also played for their Sunday Select team when he wasn't playing AAU or travel ball.

My wife and I separated before son entered HS and she took a job in the midwest. I read in the papers that she thoroughly interviewed schools' baseball coaches before settling in. She knew what she was doing. It was a good match for our son. 

No consideration for athletics what so ever!