Heaven forbid if you have more than one child in Anne Arundel County and you try to watch them play in different sports.

The formula through the rest of the fall has the volleyball, field hockey and soccer teams playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the field hockey and volleyball teams playing at one school and the boys and girls varsity soccer teams playing at another school at roughly the same time.

Granted, there are likely a few variables that go into the scheduling formula that contribute to this dilemma, up to and including the availability of buses to transport the teams, getting referees to work the games and the fact that many of the high school playing fields are used by local recreation and parks teams when the high school teams aren't playing.

However, those factors are in play in other counties, and you don't see all their games bunched at the same times. Surely, the schedule can be tweaked slightly so that students and parents who want to see their school play in as many games as possible can accomplish that, at least occasionally.