Lifestyle
According to U.S. News and World Report, 59% of Brooklyn Tech students qualify as low-income, making private sports leagues costing thousands of dollars per season out of reach for most students. .
This article is one of the winning entries in the New York Post Scholars Contest sponsored by Command Education.
Brooklyn Tech is a school of champions. Our team filled the hallways with shelves overflowing with countless banners, medals, and trophies. However, in a school of more than 6,000 students, only a select few are allowed to participate in competitive activities. Public School Athletic League (PSAL) sports and academic teams often have a multi-step tryout process where spots are awarded to only a small percentage of those interested. The technology industry must strive to find a better balance between highly engaged students and highly competitive teams.
At Tech, athletic opportunities are very limited. Of his 1,200 students who tried out for the PSAL team last year, only about 55% passed. In public schools, this becomes a question of equity. According to U.S. News & World Report, 59% of Brooklyn Tech students are low-income, putting private sports leagues costing thousands of dollars a season out of reach for most students. , the Polytechnic PSAL team is the only option. Those who can join Tech are mostly students with expensive private team experience.
Social science studies major Matt Feldman ('25) believes the problem is not a lack of teams and opportunities, but rather that teams are highly selective. “There are a lot of activities…I feel like sometimes kids aren't given a fair chance, especially when there are a lot of kids and there aren't a lot of shots of them showing off what they can do,” Feldman explained. Masu. . Additionally, he suggests that Tech is more competitive than other public schools because there are more interested students.
Tech University's junior varsity women's volleyball team exemplifies how selectivity limits the number of team spots available at Tech University. Coach David Whitman explains that even at the lower levels, “teams are kept small and experienced to prevent injuries and students sitting on the bench for the season.”
Of the 127 students who participated in the team, only 10 made it to the final roster, all of whom had extensive experience. “The JV team is not a place to learn volleyball,” Whitman said.
But JV teams should also be a free opportunity for students to explore new passions. Unfortunately, the JV and varsity teams remain inaccessible to over 90% of students who try out.
Monica McShane ’26 tried volleyball but was disappointed in the experience. “I don't think it was fair for her to play under that much pressure,” McShane explains. She said, “Even if you're the best player in the room, she can fail.”
For the sophomore, tryouts were her last chance to join JV before the more competitive varsity team became her only option. “I didn't want to feel like my life was dependent on my next move, so I tried out JV volleyball for a chance to have fun and make friends,” she says.
McShane is just one of many students who didn't make it onto a competitive team and didn't know where to go next. She wants to pursue her passion for volleyball, but she plans to join a team outside of school because she feels it takes too much time to commute to practices and games. there is no.
Tech's academic teams are experiencing many of the same challenges as tryout opportunities tick by. Debate team coach James Bathurst explains that it is very difficult to join the team after your second year. “I can count on one hand the number of Grade 11 students who passed,” he said, adding that he was the only one to pass in the past four years.
Inconsistent schedules for debate students may prevent them from attending frequent beginner practice sessions and may prevent them from taking full advantage of the extensive resources needed to train new debaters. “When we accept someone into the team, we think about it from a career perspective,” Bathurst explains. Because the senior only debates for one or two years, her contribution to the team is not evaluated the same as a freshman who can debate all four of her years.
At Tech, a STEM-based school, our robotics team, TechKnights, is one of our most popular and special student activities. Each year, the team receives 100 to 200 applicants and narrows them down through three stages of tryouts. The first two days of this process are small group activities that demonstrate the prospective student's cooperative and problem-solving skills. The final step is more personalized as a returning member of the team interviews the new applicant one-on-one with her.
Willem Long, member of the Mechanical and Robotics department, explains what the team is looking for in a candidate: With only two months until the main season, being “teachable” is essential to learning how to design, build, code, and test a fully working competition robot. ”
After an extensive and balanced assessment of each person's abilities, the team accepts only 20-25 of the 100-200 applicants.
Some teams are working on balancing competition and fairness. For Joseph Nardiello, coach of the men's varsity baseball team, player development comes first. “My concept is community-based in a sense, because I want to encourage students to go out and meet as many people as possible who are interested in this sport,” he explains. “There are 6,000 students in the tech industry, which can be daunting for new students.”
Part of the baseball team's tryouts is the “club season,” which runs from October to March, during which anyone is welcome and receives the same coaching, conditioning, and experience as official players. During this period, Nardiello evaluates prospective players not only based on their skills, but also their commitment and willingness to learn. “A player who didn't think he could make the team or play a role, he could make the team,” he says.
Nardiello acknowledges the competitive environment in PSAL sports, but still has to make tough cuts at the end of the club season. With only nine players on the field at a time, he feels it's unfair to accommodate more players than can realistically play throughout the season. “Ultimately my focus is building a winning program,” he acknowledged.
In most cases, coaches lack the time, space, and resources to promote equity and expand access to their teams.
Mr. Whitman would like to have a large team, but that is logically impossible. Multiple teams share both the indoor space needed for his volleyball practice and the outdoor space needed for other sports. During the fall season, Tech Field will be packed with four teams. “If we had a bigger facility, if we had a gym specifically for volleyball, if we had unlimited staffing, obviously we would have more teams,” Whitman said.
Anthony Cicolini, the school's athletic director, said coaches typically follow PSAL guidelines, such as each student's fundamental right to tryouts, but are flexible and can be tailored to meet the needs of individual schools. points out. Citywide, the new PSAL Access For All program will allow students whose schools don't have sports teams to try out for teams at other schools. However, tryout rights do not address competition for limited spots.
Academic teams also lack solutions to extend opportunities to more students. Bathurst acknowledges this while seeking a fair balance for the debate team. [tryout] The process is still in progress. It's always under consideration. ”
Although coaches and team leaders acknowledge that inequities exist, the competitive nature of lack of roster space persists within the tech industry. As a public school celebrated for its opportunities, Tech has an obligation to its students to strive to reduce the gap between interest and participation.
Etkin, an 11th-grader at Brooklyn Technical High School, plans to correct this injustice by aiming to become a public defender, specializing in cases where minors are tried as adults.
