Positives of High School Sports

Submitted By: Dennis Jarvis

t's Thursday night and one of your childhood friends just shot you off a text. You guys have drifted apart since elementary school but some ties that bind keep you in touch now and then. He and a few friends are going out to the water hole in the valley and want to know if you're coming out. Having been out there before, you already know the deal. Almost no good will come from going out there. The trek usually results in fights with the local high school, some kind of injury scaling back out after drinking, or cops paying an impromptu visit. None the less, some part of you wants to go. Wait a minute..you can't go...you have high school football practice and your position is pretty heavily contested. You text back that you can't make it. Later that night, you hear that they got in a wreck driving back out of the valley. That could have been you.
Age 14-18 is a squirrelly time from most teenagers. The impulse control part of the brain seems to be faulty for a good 4-6 years during which, there's a good chance you might make some pretty bad decisions given the opportunity. One of the positives of high school sports for a lot of teenagers is that it just keeps them out of trouble (or reduces it a little). Idle hands do the Devil's work and idle hands on a teenage are doubly productive.
We've talked about some of the pitfalls of too heavy an emphasis on high school sports but that's only half the story if we don't also mention the positives and there are many. Keeping teens out of trouble by providing structure is only one of the ways this is accomplished. A lot of teenagers feel ungrounded during that time. It's a tough period for many of them who find high school work itself to be overwhelming and the social aspect of high school life to be intimidating. Sports gives them not only a way to fit in but an outlet for all the energy that infuses high schoolers (whether they like it or not). For a lot of high school athletes, sports becomes the glue that keeps them in school altogether. The percentage of high schoolers that do not graduate is extremely high, especially in lower income areas. Sports provides a reason to keep at it for many players and that in itself, is a tremendous positive since graduating from high school has a huge bearing on future opportunities in a young person's life. High School sports can go further in that most schools have certain grade requirements in order to participate in high school sports. A young football player may be more motivated to play the game he loves than to pass algebra but the net result is the same...better grades in algebra.
There's also something to be said for the confidence and sociability that sports imparts on high school players. It takes a certain kind of confidence and resolve to out there in front of your piers, family members, and community in a competitive setting. That confidence can easily translate to performance in the workplace and is especially important in sales. I remember my friend telling me that all the outside reps for a certain internet company were Stanford lineman because they had such a swagger about them which translated directly into sales...even in a high tech product space. There's no better way to gain confidence in your abilities than through years of playing sports competitively. These positives with a touch of balance in other interests should make for strong and productive young adults.Published At: Isnare.com