Frequently Asked Questions

A.  Meridian encourages our student athletes to advocate for themselves as they prepare to artfully navigate our complex world. In keeping with this principle, the Meridian Athletics Department has adopted the school approach for how student athletes and parents/guardians should communicate concerns. Student athletes and parents/guardians should wait 24 hours after tryouts and/or competitions before approaching a coach about a concern. This allows time for the coach to focus on the task at hand and for student athletes and parents/guardians to fully reflect on their concern. Please do not approach a coach before or after a tryout, competition or practice.

Please respect the 24-hour reflection period. After 24-hours, student athletes and parents should communicate concerns following the this order of escalation:

Order of Escalation for Communicating Concerns or Grievance:

To find contact information for coaches and the Athletics Department, please visit Athletics Contacts.
1. Student athlete to Coach.
2. Parent/guardian to Coach.

3. Student athlete or parent/guardian to Athletic Coordinator

4. Student athlete or parent/guardian to MYP Principal: Melissa Reese

Contacts

• • • Ashlie Langlinais, Athletic Coordinator
    • Robyn Tester, Secondary Enrichment Specialist
    • Coaches: Basketball / Cross Country / Dance Team / Flag Football / Soccer / Tennis / Volleyball

A:  Each sport has a registration window. There is a multi-step registration process for each sport. Students are not successfully registered until all steps have been taken by the registration deadline. Successful registration will produce a MySchoolBucks receipt for the $52.30 non-refundable registration fee. Find a list of our anticipated sports experiences for current academic year along with the registration dates and tryout dates on Sports Registration.

Q: Why is the registration fee for each sports experience for each participant $50 (before the 4.6% MySchoolBucks Fee)?

A: The $50 registration fee is dedicated to department overhead such as department salaries. Participation fees are designed to cover the operating costs of that sports experience.

A:  For most sports experiences, no late registration is available. However, regular registration for Fall Competitive Sports (Cross Country, Flag Football, and Volleyball) takes place in the late spring to allow the Athletics Department time to plan for the sports and teams that have the minimum level of interest indicated for those sports and teams to form. A late registration is offered for Fall Competitive Sports about two weeks before the start of the school year for these sports and teams that met the minimum registration needed during the regular registration window. Late registration is $104.60 instead of $52.30.

Each sport's registration window is at least a week long and communicated via several channels.

Students who are new to Meridian and enroll after the regular Fall Competitive Sports Registration window should email the school registrar for information about possible Newly Enrolled Student Sports Registration window during the first part of the summer. Please email the registrar.

Find all sports registration windows and helpful tips by visiting Sports Registration.

Q. What if I need to withdraw my student from a sport for which they are already registered?

A:  If you need to withdraw from a sport, please follow this process:

1. The parent/guardian of the student withdrawing should email Meridian Athletics and copy the coaches. Please send a fresh email and don't reply to another email. Please include in your subject line: "Withdrawing from [sport]" and your student's name.
2. In the body of your email, please include the student's name and grade and the sport from which you are withdrawing. You are welcome to include a reason, but you are not required to do so.

Please note that registration fees and participation fees are non-refundable and non-transferable and are due in full. You can learn more about that in the Athletics Terms for Participation. (Scroll down to Financial Agreements.)

Additionally, If a student quits a team or season, or if they are removed from a team/sport, the student must write a thoughtful reflection and submit that to the Athletic Coordinator within five (5) school days of leaving the team in order to maintain their Character in Good Standing eligibility for the next calendar year. Learn more in the Athletics Terms for Participation.

A:  Developmental/Pre-Season sports and sports camps do not have tryouts to join the team. However, there are limited spots in most of these cases, and those spots are filled on a first registered basis. All other sport's tryouts will be communicated on their webpage as soon as that information is available.

• Basketball
• Cross Country
• Dance Team
• Flag Football
• Soccer
• Tennis
• Volleyball

A:  Unless the registering parent/guardian requested a payment plan, the participation fee is due before the first practice. Participation fees are invoiced via MySchoolBucks. The date participation fees is due is communicated on the sport's webpage as soon as that information is available. If a Payment Plan is requested, those dates are shared on the sport's main webpage. 

A:  Families can choose to pay participation fees by check by the due date. Specific instructions must be followed to ensure it is processed correctly:

• Make checks payable to “Meridian School.”
• Write the sport and student athlete's full name on the memo line.
• Seal it in an envelope with “Ashlie Langlinais” written on the outside of the envelope.
• Drop off the sealed envelope with the check enclosed to blue box outside the Athletics Office in the Mays building. Please do not drop off checks with school reception or to the school offices.
• Then email Meridian Athletics to let us know when and where you dropped it off.

A: Meridian School is a member of Texas Charter School Academic and Athletic League (TSCAAL), which offers a post-season for most of our sports. Girls Volleyball, Basketball, Flag Football, and Sub-Varsity Soccer compete within this league, which consists of other charter schools. Cross Country participates in the Regional and State Meets available through TCSAAL. Tennis participates in the TCSAAL State Tennis Tournament. Boys Varsity Volleyball and Varsity Soccer will participate in the HCAL league starting in the 2025-2026 school year. Neither, TCSAAL and HCAL offers Dance Team competitions. Therefore, Dance Team participates in area competitions and performs at pep rallies and some home Basketball games.

Q:  When does the season end?

A.  Prior to participating in any Meridian sports, students and parents/guardians must read Athletics Terms for Participation carefully. Questions about the terms, procedures and agreements outlined in the Terms for Participation should be emailed to Meridian Athletics. Please allow two school days for a response. Upon submitting a registration form for Meridian Athletics, the parent/guardian agrees to all terms outlined in the Terms for Participation for themselves and their participating student(s).

Q:  What are the eligibility requirements for participating in Meridian Athletics?

A:  Great question! There are four eligibility requirements: Academic, Physical, Financial and Character in Good Standing. Please see the Eligibility webpage for details about each.

Academic eligibility does not apply to sports experiences that do not include competitions or performances, such as Developmental/Pre-Season sports seasons, Camps and Clinics. Academic eligibility also does not apply to summer sports experiences.

A.

For sports with tryouts, cuts are generally made. The coaches for a sport run the tryouts together to make the best decisions for the sport and each team. For that reason, it is essential that all students who plan to participate in a sport participate in tryouts, regardless of possible personal conflicts due to participation in other activities.

While the Athletics Department works with other school departments to avoid major conflicts, at times, conflicts are simply unavoidable, and students will have to make choices.

For more information, please revisit the Athletics Terms for Participation.

A. Yes, limits are set weekly by team level (Middle School, JV, Varsity). Please see below.

Limits on Practices and Competitions (Games/Matches/Meets)

Dance Team Officers, Varsity Basketball, Varsity Soccer, Varsity Tennis, Varsity Volleyball

• Practice - 6 hours per week maximum, up to 2 hours per day 
• Competitions - 2 per week
• Activities (Practices + Competitions) - 5 per week

Dance Team, HS Cross Country, JV Basketball, JV Volleyball, JV Soccer

• Practice - 4.5 hours per week maximum, up to 2 hours per day  
• Competitions - 2 per week
• Activities (Practices + Competitions) - 5 per week

MS Basketball, MS Flag Football, MS Soccer, MS Tennis, MS Volleyball

• Practice - 3 hours per week maximum, up to 1.5 hours per day
• Competitions - 2 per week
• Activities (Practices + Competitions) - 4 per week

Essentially, the practice/competition limits allow five activities a week at the Varsity or JV level and four activities a week at the Middle School level. For example, if there are three competitions in one week, practices must be reduced to two for Varsity and JV; reduce to one practice for Middle School. For weeks that include a tournament, the team should remove a game or a practice during the week as they are essentially getting an ‘extra’ day in and taking time away from available academic time.

A. There will be no competitions finals week, although a competition may be scheduled the evening of the last day of finals. Some sports also have competitions during holidays. For example, Meridian hosts the Labor Day Classic Volleyball Tournament. All competitive Volleyball players are expected to be available for that tournament on the Friday and Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Cross Country could participate in meets on both weekends of Fall Break. Prior to registering, student athletes and their families are urged to look at the sports experience's Important Dates on the sport's main webpage to determine if their availability aligns with what is required of the sport. (Reminder, registration fees remain nonrefundable if you change your mind later.)