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Kerry Donoher

English 1201

Professor Waggoner

21 July 2020

Research Essay

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), there

are around eight million students that participate in sports in the US. Students chose to play

sports for all different kinds of reasons. (NFHS Writers) They might have been playing the sport

for a while, a friend might want them to try it out, a relative might have played the sport, they

want to try something new, or maybe they just want to have some fun. I chose to play soccer in

high school because I had been playing it since I was little and wanted to be on a team. Going

into high school is different from middle school and elementary school. It’s an important time in

your life to figure out who you want to be and a lot of changes happen. For my team, soccer

started in the summer with some workouts and got more serious right before school started.

Being on a team and already having new friends and older teammates helped me adapt to high

school. My older teammates helped me with anything and were very understanding in answering

any questions I had. Getting to play a sport in high school has taught me a lot of things that I

would not have gotten to experience without playing. I have met some of my best friends from

being on a team together. Playing high school sports not only helps you physically, but it also

helps you mentally, academically, and teaches you many important life skills.

Over time, the participation in high school sports has grown significantly since they first

started. The many different sports available have also grown throughout the years. There were

many different steps that led up to get to where we are today. The first school sports league in
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America was established by Luther Gulick in 1903. It was called the New York Public Schools

Athletic League (PSAL). By 1915, there were 177 other cities that decided to create leagues of

their own. The leagues were mostly meant for the boys and focused on sports like, track and

field, swimming, football, baseball, and basketball. The interscholastic athletics, when other

schools play each other in sports, really started around the 1860s with some public and private

schools but started to grow once leagues were developed. The amount of leagues and

participation continued to grow throughout the 1900s. The addition of Title IX to the 14th

Amendment in 1972 helped increase the amount of girls playing sports in both high school and

college. It states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from

the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any

education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” If a school does not follow

the guidelines for Title IX, the government can terminate the financial assistance for that school.

All of those important events have led us to where we are today with high school athletics.

When most people think of playing sports, they think about having to exercise. The most

obvious benefit of playing sports is that it helps you stay fit and healthy. Getting exercise is good

for your body and it helps lower your risk of having strokes, high cholesterol, and diabetes. It

helps strengthen your bones and muscles too. The pressure of your weight when you are running,

walking, jumping, or climbing helps you build up stronger bones. The stress on your muscles of

doing the same exercises helps them grow stronger and create more muscle cells. Exercising

releases endorphins in your brain which helps to improve your focus, memory, and even your

mood. Taking care of your body when you are younger can help you a lot in the future.
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“Odds ratio (OR) of physical activity at age 53 in relation to Sport habitus at age 15. Sport habitus (“the
total physical capital"), including cultural capital, athletic diversity, and grades in physical education
and health are, according to Engström [173], the factors most important for being physically active in
later life. For a further discussion on sport habitus, the readers are referred to Engström, 2008 [173].
Numbers above bar show the 95% confidence interval. ** = significant difference from “Very low”, p <
0.01. *** = p < 0.001.”
(Malm)

The graph shown above shows the relationship between the exercise habits at the age of 53 and

how much sports/level of sports they played at age 15. You can see that as the level and amount

of sports played at age 15 increases, so does the likelihood of them exercising at age 53. Not only

does this help you live a longer life, but also a better quality of life.

Playing sports also helps with your mental health. Mental illness affects millions of

people around the world. In the US, 1 in 5 teens has a serious mental illness. Studies show that

physical activity has had a positive effect on helping with and even preventing depressive

symptoms. It helps act as an antidepressant. Exercising can help build up your self-esteem and

cope with stress. Research showed that physical activity caused, “greater perfusion (blood flow)

and increased brain volume, increased volume of the hippocampus (part of brain that regulates

motivation, emotion, learning, and memory), and the anti-inflammatory effects of physical
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activity, reducing brain inflammation in neurological diseases,” (Malm) which helped with

mental illnesses. There is a study that was done by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research

Institute that explained some benefits of exercising. They stated that exercising leads to a state of

relaxation that can last up to two hours. It also can lead to improved concentration, creativity,

memory, and state of mood. With these traits being improved it creates a great environment for

learning. Being on a team in high school can also help improve or prevent mental illnesses. They

can make people feel like a part of something and not being left out. High school can be very

hard to find a group of people you fit in with and can cause stress or anxiety. Being on a team

can help you make more friends that you have things in common with and spend lots of time

with. Playing sports isn’t going to make your mental illness go away, but it can help you cope

with it and make some of the symptoms go away.

There have been many different studies done to show the relationship between academics

and playing school sports. One of the studies was done in Kansas that compared the academic

performance of all students in 9-12 grade during the 2008-2009 school year. They looked at the

GPA (grade point average), dropout numbers, graduation rates, ACT test scores, and state test

scores. There were 139,349 students in grades 9-12 enrolled in Kansas High Schools that school

year. During the research they also paid attention to genders and race along with athletes and

non-athletes. For GPA, they found that around 80% of athletes reported having a 3.0 or higher.

Only around 70% of non-athletes reported having a 3.0 or higher. This was also shown for

different racial groups that athletes had a higher GPA than non-athletes. The athletes also had a

higher percentage of graduation rates than those who didn’t play sports. Athletes had a 98%

graduation rate, while non-athletes had an 88% graduation rate. The study also showed that,

“Non-athletes in Kansas were over 15 times more likely to drop out of school than were athletes
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as 1955 non-athletes dropped out during 2008-2009 compared to only 126 athletes.” (Lumpkin)

For ACT scores, they varied for each group. Overall, the athletes scored a little higher than the

non-athletes. For males, the non-athletes scored higher than them for the composite score, but it

changed for who did better on the different sections. For females, the athletes did better on the

composite, but it also was different for the different sections. For that Kansas State Assessments,

they were able to use test scores from 2006-2009 to help with their research. The results showed

that, “athletes scored significantly higher than did non-athletes in math, reading,

history/government, writing, and science each year since 2006.” (Lumpkin) This helps show that

the results are similar from years before and not just this year. It helps give the study some

credibility to know that the results aren’t much different. This study helps prove that playing

sports can help you academically and that sports don’t have a negative affect on your grades.

Another reason why academics are improved by playing sports is eligibility requirements.

All high school sports and college sports have grade requirements to be able to play sports. For

Ohio high school sports you have to be enrolled in at least five one-credit courses and earn a

passing grade in each course. They don’t have a GPA requirement, but some schools can make

their own requirements that athletes have to follow too. If you do not meet this requirement, you

won’t be able to play any sports for that season until you have brought up your grades. During

the season if you are not meeting it, you could be kicked off of the team or you won’t be able to

practice or play until your grades are brought up. This was put into place to make sure that

athletes are still keeping up with their academics and not just focusing on playing sports. Schools

want to make sure that the athletes know that academics come before sports. This has helped

many athletes get better grades than they would if they didn’t have to be eligible. This was also a

way to check up on schools and make sure they are treating everyone equally. If a school isn’t
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following the rules, they could lose their programs and any funding they get for the sports teams.

Academics is very important when you play high school sports.

The most influential and lifelong concept that sports has taught people are all of the life

skills you can take away. Sport psychologists have said that life skills are, “the skills that are

required to deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They can be physical,

behavioural, or cognitive, and may be transferable to other life domains.” (Holt) There are some

things that you can teach in a classroom and just talk about them, but these skills can’t just be

taught. There needs to be first hand experience to learn them. Lessons that one can learn from

their coaches or teammates aren’t always directly talked about. They are learned from watching

others and how they respond or act towards an event. They can be shown by how one should act

or what one shouldn’t do. For example, if a referee calls a foul against a team and it didn’t look

like anyone was fouled, the coach could choose to start yelling at the referee and say bad things

about them. The coach could choose to talk to the referee about what he saw and what the call

was about. The first choice wouldn’t be teaching the players anything valuable. The second

choice would be showing the players how to respond to an outcome they disagree with. It is

teaching them how to have patience and control themselves. It wouldn’t be communicated to the

players that you should respond like the second option, but it is shown by the coaches and other

players.

There was a study that took place at a high school in Canada to see what skills players

were learning throughout the season. They studied a high school men's soccer team for an entire

season and went to all of the practices and games. They took notes of what they saw and also had

interviews with the coaches and players. They asked the coach about his philosophy and his

approach to coaching. He talked a lot about, “telling student‐athletes that, although they could
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not change the situation (e.g., the referee’s call), they could change their attitude in that situation.

He believed that this provided the student‐athletes with a sense of freedom.” (Holt) He also tried

to build relationships with the players and tried to build trust between them. During the

interviews with the players, they asked them what skills they felt that they learned and how. The

results showed that some of the skills learned were initiative, respect, and teamwork/leadership.

Most of the lessons weren’t directly taught to them, they learned from their experiences they had

themselves or from opportunities given to them by the coaches. The study also talked about how

it depends on the structure of the program. If the coach isn’t modeling the correct behavior and

showing the players how they should act, they won’t be learning any lessons.

Developmental and social skills can be learned through playing sports as well. If anyone

plays a sport, they are eventually going to lose a game. They can learn how to have maturity after

losing and deal with it. This is a very good skill to have in life that you can learn at a younger

age than some people. It teaches one how to overcome adversity and push yourself to get better.

There was a study done by connected organized sports to helping kids with childhood trauma.

Dr. Molly C. Easterlin, the lead author of the study, said that, “something about the team

environment provides psychosocial support,” (Klass) for people affected with trauma. They tried

many different controls during the study, but still found connections to sports and mental health

benefits. Playing sports also helps teach people how to control their emotions. During a game a

player can’t do whatever they want, there are rules that you follow. If you don’t follow them you

will get a foul called against you or you could get taken out of the game. Players don’t always

agree with every call that is made, but they learn how to control their emotions. Some social

skills learned are how to get along with others, take criticism, and listen to others. The team

needs to get along with each other and work together to accomplish things. Players learn how to
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take advice from others without taking it the wrong way. People are just trying to help others get

better and not embarrass others. The team has to always listen to the coach and other teammates

when playing. All of these skills can help you in many things in life. They are great skills to

learn and be able to use in many different situations.

Sports doesn’t just affect you during high school, it has long lasting benefits. There was a

study done that showed the status of high school athletes eight years after their senior year. They

examined the educational, labor market, and health status of a group of seniors graduated in

1992. It focused on the elite, varsity, and JV players and people that didn’t play sports. For

education research they looked specifically at postsecondary education after high school and

what level of degree they had by 2000. For the labor market they looked at what kind of

employment they had in 2000 and the income in 1999. For heath they looked at what physical

activities they participated in and usage of drugs and alcohol. They surveyed the students twice

during high school, sophomore year and senior year, to figure out their, “high school athletic

participation status, level of athletic participation, participation in nonsport extracurricular

activities, sex, race/ethnicity, and household socioeconomic status (SES),” (Carlson) and their

test scores. After they graduated, they surveyed them two years later in 1994 and then again

2000. With the research, they found a positive relationship between their status and playing

sports in high school. Elite and varsity athletes experienced greater educational and labor market

success than nonathletes. They also included other controls that you could take into consideration

for further studies that might affect the outcomes.

Although there are lots of positives that come from playing sports, there are also some

negatives. Playing sports could induce more stress or pressure onto an athlete. Between playing

sports, having tough classes, working part-time, and having time to hang out with friends, it can
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be a lot for some people if they don’t manage their time very well. Pressure on athletes can come

from themselves, coaches, or even parents. Playing sports is a way to have fun and some people

can take them too seriously. Athletes can also feel pressured into playing a sport because of a

sibling or parent that used to play. It should be up to them to make the decision and play because

they want to. There was another study done to see if high school sports participation has

anything to do with future education, labor market, and health outcomes. This study showed the

opposite of the previous study, it showed that there was no consistent evidence for education and

labor market benefits. It did show that male athletes are more likely to exercise as an adult, but

not any less likely to become obese. It also agreed with the statement by Heywood Hale Broun

that, “Sports reveals character, it doesn’t build it.” There are lots of different studies done on this

topic with lots of different outcomes.

Those are just some of the many benefits that playing high school sports brings to

athletes. When I started playing sports, I had no idea that there were so many things that I would

be learning and that I would be helping myself. Playing sports has helped shape me into the

person that I am today. I have met so many people and life long friendships that I wouldn’t have

had the chance to meet if I hadn’t played sports. At every practice or game, you are learning

things even if you don’t realize it. Playing high school sports has helped myself and so many

others physically, mentally, academically, and has taught so many different life skills. Getting to

help your body physically and mentally can help you a lot in the future by reducing the risk of

health problems or helping you stay in shape. Without the academic help and learning life skills,

I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. They have helped with my future plans and provided great

experiences for myself. If you have thought about playing a sport, do it and take the lessons you

learn with you to use later in life.

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Work Cited

Carlson, Deven, et al. “What Is the Status of High School Athletes 8 Years after Their

Senior Year?” Statistic in Brief, Sept. 2005, doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

Accessed 11 July 2020.

Health Direct. “Developing Life Skills through Sports.” Healthdirect, Healthdirect

Australia, Feb. 2020, www.healthdirect.gov.au/developing-life-skills-through-

sports. Accessed 20 July 2020.

Holt, Nicholas, et al. “Do Youth Learn Life Skills through Their Involvement in High

School Sport? A Case Study.” 2008, files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ797193.pdf .

Accessed 11 July 2020.

Inan, Serin and Tolga Tildiz, directors. How Playing Sports Benefits Your Body and

Your Brain. TED, TED-Ed, 28 June 2016, ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-

sports-benefits-your-body-and-your-brain-leah-lagos-and-jaspal-ricky-singh.

Accessed 11 July 2020.

Klass, Perri. “Team Sports May Help Children Deal With Trauma.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 8 July 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/well/family/team-sports-may-help-children-deal-

with-trauma.html. Accessed 11 July 2020.

Lumpkin, Angela, and Judy Favor. “Comparing the Academic Performance of High

School Athletes and Non-Athletes in Kansas 2008-2009.” Journal of Sport

Administration and Supervision, MPublishing, University of Michigan Library, 1

Mar. 2012, quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jsas/6776111.0004.108/--comparing-the-

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academic-performance-of-high-school-athletes?rgn=main%3Bview. Accessed 11

July 2020.

Malm, Christer et al. “Physical Activity and Sports-Real Health Benefits: A Review with

Insight into the Public Health of Sweden.” Sports (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 7,5

127. 23 May. 2019, doi:10.3390/sports7050127. Accessed 20 July 2020.

NFHS Writers. “The Case for High School Activities.” NFHS, 2020,

www.nfhs.org/articles/the-case-for-high-school-activities/. Accessed 11 July

2020.

Ransom, Michael R., and Tyler Ransom. “Do High School Sports Build or Reveal

Character? Bounding Causal Estimates of Sports Participation.” Economics of

Education Review, vol. 64, June 2018, pp. 75–89. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.04.002. Accessed 11 July 2020.

Silverman, Tami. “Back to School and Back to Sports: The Pros and Cons of School

Athletics.” Indiana Youth Institute, 13 Aug. 2019, www.iyi.org/back-to-school-

and-back-to-sports-the-pros-and-cons-of-school-athletics/. Accessed 18 July

2020.

United States Courts. “The 14th Amendment and the Evolution of Title IX.” United

States Courts,www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-

activities/14th-amendment-and-evolution-title-ix. Accessed 20 July 2020.