Running head: Sports in Middle School 1

Sports in Middle School

Armani J. Richard

Arizona State University Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

SED464
Sports in Middle School 2

This paper will address the benefits and drawbacks of having sports in school. For solely

American students the consensus is extremely in favor of the benefits of athletics for student-

athletes. The biggest difference in opinion is the fact that some say American schools spend far

too much money on sports and as a result are sacrificing the academic success of a much larger

percentage of the student body.

The first thing that many people often say concerning the benefits of sports in schools is

that it provides a way for teens to positively develop crucial social skills. The University of

Missouri’s health care resources page found that sports allow teens to “effectively communicate

to solve problems (“Benefits of Sports for Adolescents,” n.d.),” which directly meets the Arizona

Professional Skills standards of complex communication and collaboration, to name but two. The

National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHA) also points out that even

though sports don’t directly teach skills such as being able to take initiative to complete a goal

despite “not find[ing] evidence that the student-athletes were directly taught about the life skills

(“The Case for High School Activities,” n.d.).” Another major societal benefit of having school

support their sports programs is that for females there has been a noticeable decline in,

“unplanned pregnancies, drugs, obesity, depression, and suicide (Anderson, 2012).” For a

successful sports program that will have the best benefits for students, the NFHSA found that

coaches needed to make “personal development of their players was a top priority (“The Case for

High School Activities,” n.d.).” In the spirit of the development of the character of student-

athletes, the NFHSA found that successful coaches, like teachers, will act as a model for the

positive characteristics that are expected of student-athletes.

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In an academic environment, student-athletes demonstrated increased grades, increased

scores on an achievement test, and will pursue post-secondary education. The National Center

for Education Statistics conducted two national longitudinal education cohort studies with a

finding that student-athletes “had higher math achievement test scores and expectations for

attending college (“The Case for High School Activities,” n.d.),” this has held true for students in

the 1990s and through to the early 2000s. School athletic programs have also demonstrated

academic success not only among non-persons of colors but persons of color as well as they

statistically have “much higher grade point averages much higher graduation rates, and much

lower dropout rates than non-athlete students of color (“The Case for High School Activities,”

n.d.).” Though there is no good concrete explanation from the research conducted for why

student-athletes are seeing the increased academic performance; though some theories are that

sports promote school esprit de corps, and because well-run sports programs have their coaches

promote pro-educational social norms that emphasize education. Though at the collegiate level

and a small sample size of 147 student-athletes, Daniel Oppenheimer of the Zocalo Public

Square, wrote that many student-athletes don’t think that their fellow teammates take academics

seriously, and therefore to fit in the student-athletes begin taking academics less seriously and

this creates a “distressing and self-perpetuating cycle (Oppenheimer, 2015).” Hence the need for

schools to have a program that places a premium on academics first.

An anecdotal example of schools spending far too much money on athletics can be seen

in how the Redwood High School Foundation (RHSF), which is a charitable organization that

raises money for Redwood High School. During the 2015-2016 year, the RHSF spent 27%

towards academic resources and 30% on sports resources, and while those numbers may seem
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close, it should be noted that in the Redwood High School 56% of students participated in

athletics, whereas 100% of students participate in academics. With that 30% spent by the RHSF

at least $500,000 that was also matched by the school district, to build Ghilotti Field, which

some feel is money that would have been better spent on academic resources. In the instance of

the Ghilotti Field, we see an example of a very straight forward cost, whereas generally the true

budget spent on sports is “buried in unidentifiable places (Ripley, 2013).” Examples of this

would be schools paying for meals, transportation, security, painting lines on the field, and other

expenses. The oversight of the school's budgets is overseen by the school's principals where they

can oversee as many as 10 different budgetary documents at the same time, as a result of this

many principals lose sight of the importance of academics.

Superintendent Ernest Singleton of the Premont Independent School District in Texas

was faced with the threat of being shut down due to financial mismanagement, and academic

failure in 2012. Faced with this potential crisis Singleton decided to cut all funding for athletic

programs, resulting in $150,000 being saved over the year and allow schools to shift their focus

towards academics. Singleton then used the money saved and other funds the district received

through charitable donations to give teachers much needed raises and renovating science labs. As

a result of this, the first semester without sports saw 80% of their students passed their classes

compared to 50% of students passing the previous semester. When Singleton was able to balance

the budget, he brought back sports to the school district, though he only allowed one travel

tournament per season to be played by the teams. An example of schools going the complete

opposite direction of Premont would be the case of officials in Pasco County, Florida, where
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“700 education jobs and they extended winter break in 2011, but sports have been left mostly

untouched (Ripley, 2013).”

While student-athletes perform well when compared to fellow Americans but on the

international level, America consistently ranks relatively low for a developed country in an

international academic test. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

organization conducted an international math test where America came in at 31st place. In the

spirit of trying to follow the trends of other successful countries, some Americans say that

schools should drop athletic programs all-together, as the primary function of the school is to

increase academic readiness, not physical readiness, and if parents want their children to partake

in sports they can go to private clubs. Internationally 20 countries have higher graduation rates

than the United States, this is in spite of the fact those 20 countries only spend nominal amounts

of money spent on athletic programs. Scientist from the Organization for Economic Cooperation

and Development dislike the theory that sports can sustain classroom engagement and that

instead schools should create “engaging environment you can offer students is one of cognitive

challenge combined with individualized pedagogical support (Ripley, 2013),” as an emphasis on

sports will only result in students being interested in sports.

Though touched on lightly in the preceding paragraphs the emphasis can’t be stressed

enough that only student-athletes who only compose 40% of a given senior class, will see the

benefits often associated with sports programs. There have also been studies that show that as

athletic teams do well, the grades of the respective fan base begin to drop as the non-athletes are

more focused on watching their team play.

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So as seen in this paper we can see very clearly that sports do have a positive impact on

the ability of students to be able to function. Unfortunately, though the success of these

comparatively few student-athletes comes at the expense of the non-athletic students. There is

also the argument that sports drain the finances of schools and a school’s primary mission is to

educate the youth. Parents who want their kids to go into professional sports, they should bear

the financial burden and pay for private clubs.

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References

Anderson, K. (2012, May 7). The Power of Play. Retrieved from Vault :

https://www.si.com/vault/2012/05/07/106189982/the-power-of-play

Conrow, L. (2017, April 28). More funding towards academics, less for sports would improve

learning for all. Retrieved from Redwood Bark :

https://redwoodbark.org/34692/opinion/funding-towards-academics-less-sports-

improve-learning/

Oppenheimer, D. (2015, April 20). Why Student Athletes Continue To Fail. Retrieved from Time:

https://time.com/3827196/why-student-athletes-fail/

Ripley, A. (2013, October). The Case Against High-School Sports. Retrieved from The Atlantic :

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-

sports/309447/

UNK. (n.d.). Benefits of Sports for Adolescents. Retrieved from MU Health Care:

https://www.muhealth.org/conditions-treatments/pediatrics/adolescent-

medicine/benefits-of-sports

UNK. (n.d.). The Case for High School Activities. Retrieved from National Federation of State

High School Association: https://www.nfhs.org/articles/the-case-for-high-school-

activities/#chapter3