Athletics

1. Sportsmanship, responsibility, and commitment will be taught and honored.
2. Each player will be considered a very important member of the team.
3. Team goals will be set by each coach and group of players at the beginning of each season. The level of competition will be agreed upon by the Athletic Director and the Administration. 
4. It is important that players have every opportunity to play in games.
5. It is the coach’s responsibility to communicate the guidelines and expectations to students and parents at the beginning of the season.
6. Before the season starts coaches are given guidelines by the Athletic Director.
7. Some sports may have one highly competitive team and one less competitive allowing for more equal play time at the eighth-grade level. Selection based on skill is not the practice for any teams below the eighth-grade level, as it is the objective at these levels to create teams of equal skill. (Exception: traveling basketball teams may begin at the seventh-grade level.)
8. Some coaches at St. Odilia School are volunteers. All volunteers must pass a background check and complete Virtus Training before the season begins.

1. Parents are required to make arrangements for transportation to all practices and games that their child(ren) needs to attend. We discourage coaches from providing rides for their athletes.
2. Parents are to pick up their athletes promptly from practices and games. Coaches are responsible for athletes and must stay late until all athletes leave the premises.
3. Players and coaches cannot be responsible for caring for or watching team members' siblings during games or practices.
4. Parents should be sure their child(ren) picks up any trash they bring to the gym/field and help put away chairs following home basketball and volleyball games.
5. Soccer parents are expected to work/volunteer for a shift at the concession stand during the season. Profits from concession stand sales benefit the athletics department. A volunteer sign-up will be emailed to parents at the start of the soccer season.
6. St. Odilia strongly encourages our parents to attend athletic events and expects them to display Christian sportsmanship at all times.

1. Athletes are expected to model Christian values while participating in their sport. They must attend practices and games, and follow all school and team rules.
2. Team members participating in a practice or game may not leave the playing area unless they have permission from a coach.
3. Only team members are allowed to be present at team practices.
4. Athletes are responsible to clean up any trash or belongings they bring to a game or practice.

The following information has been taken from St. Odilia Parent Handbook.

Eligibility Requirements

In order to help students balance their curricular and extracurricular lives, the Middle School Faculty has adopted an eligibility program. Students must maintain a C- average or better in each class. If a C- average in each class is not achieved, the student will be suspended from all extracurricular activities for one week. A student not maintaining a C- average in a specific class may keep their eligibility if, in the assessment of the teacher, they are putting forth their utmost effort. The suspension is from Wednesday to Tuesday. Suspension time will be used to improve the student’s average in the subject area(s) of concern. The student is responsible to bring home a notification of ineligibility and return it signed by a parent.

 The notification is to be returned to the teacher who issued it. After one week, if the grade has been raised to a C-, missing or poor work has been completed, and/or in the assessment of the teacher, the student has made a significant effort towards improvement, and the student will be reinstated in all extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities include but are not limited to: Athletic teams (both St. Odilia teams and High School partnership teams) , student activities such as ski trips, Quiz Bowl, non-academic field trips, Robotics, Student Council and Yearbook.

A student may become ineligible due to discipline issues as well. The eligibility rule also applies to students who have received multiple detentions due to discipline problems. (See discipline consequences pages in the St. Odilia Parent handbook for more information.) For a student to participate in an after-school extracurricular activity, the student must attend, at a minimum, half of the school day on which the activity will take place, and in the case of an illness, must attend the last half of the school day. An exception is made for a student attending a funeral.

Since the winter athletic season is longer than the fall or spring seasons, the opportunity to extend the athletic experience to traveling teams may only occur for basketball. Traveling teams may only be organized for seventh- and eighth-grade levels. Traveling basketball teams have competed under the St. Odilia name in the past. These are special circumstances initiated, organized, and run by qualified, motivated parents or staff. If an individual is interested in organizing a traveling basketball team, they must contact the Athletic Director by May 1st of the preceding school year to obtain a copy of the procedures required.

Questions, concerns, or problems with a specific issue during an athletic season must first be addressed with the coach. If, after consulting with the coach, the concern is not satisfactorily addressed then the Athletic Director should be consulted. If the coach or Athletic Director has not resolved the issue, then the issue should be submitted to the Principal. The school administration is the final authority on all athletic concerns.

Participants in after-school athletics will be dismissed when “teams” are called during the dismissal procedure. A team may be dismissed before that time only when the coach has gotten approval from the Athletic Director or School Administration. Teachers will be informed of this by the daily attendance report.