Putting Sports in Their Place

In todays world, a school day has become simply the pre-game to many sporting events,
which you are required to attend. Education is often put on the back burner to satisfy the needs of
an athletic program in school, making the events a requirement or social norm to attend.
Contrary to popular belief, having athletics run through schools is not a right but a privilege. This
is forgotten many times, especially with the increase of teachers involved as coaches, creating a
tense playing field, on the field literally and also in the classroom as well. Too often a kid
receives special treatment inside a classroom for on outside activity, thus, putting kids who do
not participate in sports at a disadvantage. Although the status quo is to have athletics and sports
connected through the school, too many situations come up all the time in high schools where an
athlete deals with a sports situation in school, which should not be dealt with in school. Many
high school coaches are teachers in the same school they coach for, which causes conflicts for
players, students, and coaches. Many problems arise when having student athletes participating
in an athletic program through the school. With society placing such a large importance on
education, teens should not be spending a majority of their free time training for a sport that has
little place in their future. A sports team and a classroom need to remain two separate things.
This has not been the case, as teachers are coaches, and class time is used to talk about the results
of last night's game and other non-school related topics.

Not even just time being wasted but there are many proposals that can be backed up with
reasons to why sports do not belong in schools. To do this at its maximum effect, Athens has to
be considered abnormal, the odd-one out. Athens has a wide variety of students, and highly
acclaimed academics along with above average test scores. At Athens, many of the 4.0
students play one, two, or even three sports. Of course there are also a large number of
exceptions to that, as there are your students who just don't add up the same academically as
others do. Athens is the expectation, because in many cases your football playing student who
has practice for five hours a night is not coming home and maximizing his effort into his school
work. Students are students at school. It is becoming more and more evident in many places
around the U.S. that teenagers are athletes first, students second. The problem is rooted right in
front of us; School and sports work as one, in the same place, with the same people, even with
the same teacher/coach. Of course it would be a brutal mistake to take away sports completely
from teenagers, especially for those students in the inner city, as sports may very well be their
way onto something better"(Strauss 2).

There isnt a sure fire way to tackle a plan to replace school sports, but having a system
where athletes can compete, have fun, and still be able to be recruited into college would be
optimal. The City of Troy has recreational leagues where teenagers can compete in various
sports, but not at a very competitive level. The level of play in these leagues is nothing like what
they are in high school. So where do you put all of those higher level athletes looking to be
recruited into college sports? A system could be incorporated like the one established here:
http://www.9and10news.com/story/21133878/two-northern-michigan-student-athletes. Yes these
students played for their high school, but MHSAA (Michigan high school athletic association)
already is involved with the recruitment of athletes, as in the article they hand out scholarships to
certain athletes. Running sports for competitive athletes in a separate place outside of school will
open students up to a more mixed, diverse range of young adults, and take them away from their
teachers. Students will compete in this league, meaning they will also have to pay to play in this
league, a cost the athlete, not his or her parent, should be responsible for. This league will attract
college scouts, making it simple to view the states top athletes. As for the talented athletes that
arent at a recruitment level, they will also have an established league to compete in. In leagues
lower than the one that is made for recruitment, sports will be primarily to have fun and to
compete at a semi-competitive level with other kids. It will not mirror high school sports.
Meaning the intensity is way lower, fewer practices and games, and a much smaller time
commitment. The time sports take away from students is also a noteworthy problem, along with
others.

High school students have a lot going on, and a large majority participate in an after
school activity, mainly being sports. With a lot of pressure put on teens to do their best in school,
many spend a lot of their free time not studying, but practicing. Therefore teens arent doing their
best in their academics. With different athletic programs setup, practice will still exist, but the
extent of them will decrease drastically from where they are now. Another lingering problem that
exists in school sports is the cost of it. It isnt an absurd amount, but when compared to other
school costs, it is unjust. A high school in Premont, Texas suspended all sports because the
school was on the verge of being shut down. The school spends $1,300 for each football player
and $618 for every math student (Ripley). These statistics arent uncommon; most high school
spends more per athlete than they do per math student. Schools are not taking the fall for the cost
of athletic programs anymore, as they are throwing the cost onto parents, making the programs a
lot less considerate toward how they spend their budgets as well. The seriousness schools are
taking toward having their education come first is exhibited in many places as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdugAS5diT8. The schools experiment from Premont was
predicted to crash and burn, but instead was a raging success. 30 percent more kids passed their
classes and there was a huge decline is misbehavior. Those were some of the benefits the
principal of the school pointed out that came from suspending the schools sports.

Suspending sports has proved to work and be beneficial, but ending high school sports
will prolong those benefits. The separation of academics and athletics has more benefits than
available to the average teenager. Nothing changes for students besides the name their jersey will
display. Students will improve their education and continue to be involved in the same sports
they were involved in through the high school.















Works Cited
CNN. "Balancing Athletics and Academics." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Apr. 2010. Web. 25 May 2014.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdugAS5diT8>.
Ripley, Amanda. "The Case Against High-School Sports." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 18
Sept. 2013. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-
case-against-high-school-sports/309447/>.
Smith, Jared. "Two Local Student-athletes given Class B Scholar-Athlete Award." - Northern
Michigan's News Leader. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 May 2014.
<http://www.9and10news.com/story/21133878/two-northern-michigan-student-athletes>.
Strauss, Larry. "No High School Sports Lockout, Please!" The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 May 2014.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-strauss/no-high-school-sports-lockout-
please_b_832477.html>.