Today was the first official day of practice for my high school dance team girls. And it was one of those days when everything seems to go wrong within the first 5 minutes of being at school. We weren't on the room schedule (even though I scheduled us MONTHS ago), one of my girls had to go home sick, and all sorts of other little things.

My big problem is with one of my senior girls. She tells me TODAY that she tried out for the basketball team, and made it. The basketball team practices every day. We practice twice a week, at the same time they practice. The basketball coach said that if we could work out a schedule, he would allow her to do both. I had my own thoughts, but I asked the team as well what they thought. Some girls thought that if this girl thinks she can do it, let her do both. Other girls thought that she should stick with her initial commitment to the dance team, and they didn't think she could give enough to both teams to be effective on either. One girl brought up the fact that our constitution says you CANNOT do another school sport during the dance team season. I don't know why I find this such a difficult decision. It seems obvious that I shouldn't let her do basketball after she already made the commitment to dance team. We let the girls do dance and cheer 2 years ago, and that ended up being terrible for everyone. I'm worried if I don't let her do it, she will be bitter the entire season. Or she may quit (even though she said if she can't do both, she would do dance team only). I looked at the game schedule today, and she has a couple games on practice days, and a game on our first competition day! My only other thought is that maybe I tell her she can be on the team, but if she does basketball, she can't compete....or doing competition would be dependent on her showing enough dedication and commitment the first half of the season. I don't really want to risk losing her either, because we are a small team already.

Thoughts?

I think that as long as she can attend all your practices, she should be able to do both, but if basketball means she misses say, a class once a week (out of the 2), then it's not fair on the others in the group and she will have to choose. Given the choice, will she compete with you or play the basketball game? If there is a supp on the basketball team to take her place and she is dedicated to the competition, then that should be ok.
It depends on how her peers in both activities will suffer.

My girls are only allowed to play basketball if they skip it for dance. They've already committed to dance and can then say to the basketball coach, "I can play ball IF I can be at dance on x and y days..." and he's pretty good about it so I am flexible whenever i can be. If we have practice days that arent super crucial for that girl, and she has a game coming up, Im more than happy to send her to basketball. So far all of my ball players have been very good dancers, and always make a point to get with a friend and learn anything they have missed.

If you have a coach that is willing to be flexible then you really need to consider that relationship too. Having coaches, teachers, custodians on your side is super important. Its easy to be forgotten, overlooked by the school - especially by coaches of "real" sports. They'll be the first to put you on their list if you aren't careful.

I agree that it's at least worth a try to let her do both, and if it's not working out you can always say I gave it my best shot but it's not working out-you will have to choose to committ to one or the other. Good luck! There is no easy way out of this one!

Yes I agree with everyone as well. I think you should allow her to try both as long as it will not conflict with dance practices. Remind her that both are TEAM sports and she will have to be fully committed to both. At the same time, you don't want to hold her back at something she can potentially be good at. Just try to make it go as smoothly as possible for the both of you guys. Good Luck!