I know that high school and college sports teams, as they exist in the USA, are not a thing in the UK.
What I don’t know is how, then, that UK children play football (and other sports) against each other, save for on the playground when they have naught else to do.
I assume that there are leagues or something; do the parents pay a fee for their kids’ participation, or does it come out of some government sports development fund or something? Are these teams in any way affiliated with the bigger, professional clubs? And if they are, are scouts from the professional clubs showing up at games, looking for talent?
Assume that I just moved to the London suburbs with my four sons, age 8, 12, 14 and 17, and all four played football (we’d call it “soccer”) on their schools’ teams back here, and they wanted to continue playing in their new home in England. What phone calls would I have to make to get the ball rolling (so to speak)? How much money should I be prepared to shell out?
Also, at the university level: do the students compete against their peers at the same school via intra-mural sports (which is to say, this group of Trinity College students will play that group of Trinity College students on Saturday at 10:00, then must clear the field for two other groups who have it reserved for noon, and so on)? Or is organized sport just not a part of the British university experience?
Unless it’s changed since I left local government service, yes, in general they are very much a thing, and a very popular thing too. At all levels they have access to playing fields which they book. Maybe some inner city schools do not have access to playing fields, but I doubt it. Plus there are often municipal fields which adults can book.
There are school teams in rugby, football, field hockey or whatever the particular school has chosen. My secondary school had those three and my primary school had football and rugby.
Not like in America, of course. No cheerleaders, the teams don’t have their own stadia, no letter jackets and I couldn’t tell you if my school ever won anything, or even when or where they played. But the teams themselves tend to exist.
As others have said, while most school and college/university sports teams are not given the same prominence as in the USA, they most definitely exist.
Yes, there are leagues and clubs specifically for juniors (which for the purpose of football is up to age 16), some affiliated to adult football clubs and some independent. Most will offer a range of teams (depending on demand) which are stratified by ability level from a fairly early age. It’s been 15 years or so since I played at that level (I’m 31) but I’m pretty sure there were fees involved which the parents would typically pay - probably a fairly small annual fee (perhaps £20 or so?) plus an even smaller fee for each match (about £1 a time - of course both these figures will vary regionally and are probably higher now) to cover the cost of hiring the pitch and a referee. For indoor training (necessary in the winter) there was a similar fee for each session to cover the cost of hiring a sports hall. The coaches were typically parents of the players in the team who volunteered their time.
In terms of the structure, due to the popularity of the sport ability levels vary widely, but if you are one of the best players in your local team there are usually opportunities to move on to a better local team, and from there you might get a trial for the county squad, then regional, then national. As far as I am aware, scouts for the professional clubs would focus on the county games upwards, with the no-hopers having already been filtered out. I don’t know what age professional clubs start taking on youngsters but I think it’s fairly early, like age 10 or so, though due to players developing at different rates they of course look at all age groups.
I see I addressed some of this above (to a limited extent) but you should be able to get more accurate information from the local club - try http://www.thefa.com/play-football to find a suitable one.
Many, many organised sports, from football to quidditch (yes, really) are part of the university experience. All the major sports at UK universities will have intra-mural leagues. At the start of each academic year any student can try out for the main university team, which is obviously quite a high standard of play. Most big unis will run several teams for each sport in addition to the intra-mural competitions.
OK, can you expand on this a bit more? I know that some American schools take things a bit too far (for example, building multi-million-dollar stadiums and such), but British parents actually go to their kids’ games, right?
Of course. but it is much. much, much. much. much. much more low level.
much!
The average attendance for most games is a handful of parents and a man with a dog.
Thing is, it seems like in the USA it is the schools and colleges that take the place of the lower league and amateur systems that we have in the UK. There are 92 professional clubs in the 4 main leagues and it is entirely possible for a group of people to get together, create a football team and get promoted through the league to the highest level. In the USA I understand that is not the case so unsurprising that college sports fill that gap.
Most of the school games I played in involved getting on a coach immediately after school, driving anywhere from 5-20 minutes to get to the other school (obviously not for home games!), playing the match, then going back to school on the coach before going home. Rarely if ever did my parents attend a match - not because they weren’t interested, they regularly attended games I played on the weekends for local club teams, mainly because Dad was at work and Mum would be looking after my much younger brother. Perhaps they also felt I might be embarrassed by their presence (probably true). At the level I played it, it was just a fun after-school activity, the emphasis was on taking part and having a good game rather than winning a trophy (though of course competitions did exist, we just didn’t do very well in them as a rule - at least not the teams I played in).
There was a time when every town, burg, and hamlet had, at the very least, a team of weekenders playing baseball under the auspices of the American Legion or the YMCA or whatever, but those days are long gone. The minor league system still exists, of course, and it’s vital to the Major League clubs in terms of bringing up young players and getting them ready to compete at a professional level.
As for (gridiron) football, amateur and semi-pro leagues never really took off here, for reasons I’m not qualified to explain. That’s why college football is so big here; prior to Atlanta, Memphis and New Orleans getting expansion teams in [mumble mumble], if you lived in the Deep South and wanted to see a (gridiron) football game, you had to go find a college team to support.