[watchful_moose]

this can only be effective if the school isn't counting on the bully to help the school win various sports competitions over the next few years.

often the school is in a tough spot because the only reason some jocks are there is for their sport ability, that the school needs.

[triceratops]

American colleges I can understand. But other than bragging rights, why should a high school give enough of a shit about championships to look the other way on bullying?

[georgeburdell]

Middle America peaks in High School. Local games are televised and commentated even during the regular season. The TV series Friday Night Lights is a reasonable reference as an outsider

[triceratops]

My school wasn't like that. I assumed Varsity Blues was fiction. Or at least, kind of outdated.

[joenot443]

Can any Americans confirm this?

Were your high school sports games televised and commentated?

[mrkstu]

In Texas HS Football is very much the central/highest tier of social status/standing in the community, and the stadiums they play in are bigger than small college stadiums elsewhere (and are televised.)

[alnwlsn]

For football, yes. Although I think it only broadcast on some small cable TV channel that you had to get special access for. There definitely were small media crews at the games (I was in the band; I went to most of them).

One year I was there, the football team made it to the state championship, and got to play in one of the big 70K-seat stadiums the NFL teams use. About half of our small town bought tickets and went to it.

I just checked, looks like mine is one of many schools that streams games live on here: https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/

[dmoy]

Really depends on where, and what sport.

If you're in an urban school in a big city, maaayyybe some of the basketball games depending on the specific school. E.g. if your school has people who everyone knows are going into the NBA draft, sometimes the more important games get put on television with commentators.

If you're in a suburban/rural school and it's (American) football or maybe baseball, quite possibly yes as a regular thing. Especially if you're at one of the 50++ high schools that has a 10,000+ capacity stadium.

Edit: yea and as other replier mentioned, there's some regional tendencies too.

[FireBeyond]

> https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-largest-high-school-...

Absolutely, there are three high school football stadiums with capacities over twenty thousand, in Ohio and Texas.

[dmoy]

Oof wow, that's bigger than I realized. I knew there were a lot of big ones (10k+), but I didn't realize there was US highschool football being played in stadium bigger than the smallest EPL stadiums.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised given a lot of college stadiums are 50k+ capacity.

[georgeburdell]

That's my personal experience growing up in a suburban area in the South (edit: in the 90s)

[danpalmer]

In this case it was at roughly age 8-10. It was a sporty school and I don't think it prioritised that above student wellbeing, not at the level of one individual player anyway.

That said, I know school sports is a way bigger deal in the US than most other countries so YMMV.