Do you ever wonder how the sports here at Franklin Learning Center are selected? Have you thought about why we don’t have a football team?

Megan Condit, the Athletic Director at FLC, is the one to ask.

“So essentially I’m like the middleman between the school district Athletics Department and our coaches and our athletic programs,” Condit said.

The school district athletics department helps decide which sports get added to a schools athletic program, but what if you want a new sport added? What happens then?

“My fear would be spreading our estimated athletes too thin if we offered many more athletic aid options,” Condit said. “So, it’s tough because even though we’re a decent sized school, we’re still relatively small. So, I think it will be hard to add too many more things.” 

FLC has over 900 students enrolled this year, but compared to Northeast, which has over 3,300 students, we are relatively small. One way that smaller schools can give their students the opportunity to play sports is to partner with other schools to form a team. 

“So if there’s a student who’s interested in a sport that we don’t have,” Condit said, “we can always reach out to the surrounding schools and figure out if we can create a partnership with them.”  

FLC doesn’t have a football team but goes to South Philadelphia High School to play for the Southern Rams. The same with golf–FLC plays with Constitution High School.

Now students know what to do if they want to play a certain sport FLC doesn’t provide. But get ready because FLC is bringing girls flag football this Spring.

“The district is partnering with the Philadelphia Eagles,” Condit said, “and we’re trying to get women’s flag football started in the city.”

New sports can be a bright spot in what has been an otherwise difficult few years for student athletes.

“No matter how tired you are, how hard your day is,” Condit said, “if you have that positive interaction at the end of the day, where you get some physical activity–it just, it makes your day better.”