How Athletic Is Your School? Norristown Ranked Low In Philly Area

Norristown School District has one of the area’s lowest rated sports and fitness programs, according to a new ranking by Niche.com.

The “Best Sports” study does not judge a school solely based on the competitive success of their varsity teams, but rather on the overall role that sports and fitness play in the daily lives of students.

Norristown was rated 87th out of 115 in the Philadelphia Metro Area, and did not make the cut for the state’s top 100.

Niche identified three of the key criteria analyzed in their methodology:

• Students report sports and fitness playing a significant, positive role in student life, including varsity sports, athletic facilities, and school spirit;
• Students actively take part in a variety of intervarsity sports offered by district schools;
• The administration is invested in the students and works to provide the best possible educational experience.

Of the factors considered in compiling the rankings, survey responses from Niche users were the most important, comprising 45% of the weight of the study’s results.

123 users responded to surveys and ranked various aspects of Norristown school district, including their sports.

“We do not have much student involvement,” commented one anonymous user in April, identified only as “high school senior. “I understand that we don’t for our football games because we don’t have bleachers. Yes, you may have twenty kids supporting the team at all events but they are usually related to a player on the team. We don’t have as much school spirit as most schools do - students don’t want to embarrass themselves. Our football/field hockey/soccer field is new and very nice. Though, the rest of the sports facilities are not that nice.”

Other users said that the administration is only focused on certain sports.

“As a current student at Norristown,” commented a high school junior, “The school only cares about 3 sports; football, basketball, & track.”

Several local schools did very well in the rankings. Upper Dublin High School’s sports and fitness programs were ranked the 9th best in all of Pennsylvania.

Other nearby districts included 5th place Lower Merion and 10th place Downingtown.

Raw data also played an important factor in compiling the study, as 20% of the weight of the rankings was based on the number of sports offered by the school. The percentage of boys and girls that played a sport was also important.