I worked with a head director once who had a very complicated process that all but guaranteed very few earned a letter jacket before then end of their junior year. We started losing students to athletics because as long as they made a team - any team in any grade - they got a jacket. Band kids were upset they had to wait to get a jacket just because they were in band, so they quit. I made a bold suggestion. Give every band student a jacket at the end of their first year as long as they participated in every full ensemble performance. Not S&E. Not region band. Just the full ensemble performances. All football games, all pre-UIL and UIL events, all concerts, and even all pep rallies and parades. Nearly all the students who hadn't already earned a jacket earned on the first year. It fixed two problems. First, we had less students bale because of a jacket and b) our eligibility went up (nearly 100% all year). When kids can get jackets for doing nothing just because they made a team, we really have to ask ourselves: Why the hell do have to make EVERYTHING so hard for ourselves? Sometimes (ok, nearly every day) I wonder if we are our own worse enemies.