Our community is much like Shaun's...we have multiple schools to choose from and neighbors don't actually all go to the same school. We have the magnet schools that specialize in music, some in sports, others in advanced academia, etc. They are even considering a magnet Montessori school. OR you can put your child in the school that is their "default" school, if you don't care where they go.

As of now, we don't use the sports anyway, but I'm saying that if I needed to (like Zach really wanted to play a sport and there was no community league) that there should be no problem with home schoolers playing. I mean, we had home schoolers in our jazz band, which practiced first hour, and it wasn't a big deal. In fact, they were great musicians, and I think added much to our band. I was public schooled, and yes, band would count as a fine arts credit for me, and not the home schoolers, but I think if anything, they practiced more than I did, because it wasn't for a credit, it was something they really wanted to do, and really, if I got busy with something else, I did only what I had to to pass...not that I screwed up the music or anything, I just didn't push myself to improve. So, yes, if my kid had a practice scheduled daily that was everyone else's 1st period, he would go. Of course, at the school I went to, if you got to have a class designated as practice, there were rarely after school practices as well. The school preferred that classes were used only for academic purpose, and that sports were considered extra-curricular. Choirs had "zero hour" which started before the rest of the school day, as did the dance teams. Some teams had zero hour as well, but I don't know of any sports that were allowed a class hour as practice (and we won games on a regular basis, so I suppose it's not as essential as some coaches think to run your players ragged).