Increase Emphasis on College and High School Sports: Helping or Hurting?

Increase Emphasis on College and High School Sports: Helping or Hurting?
As students grow older competitive sports become an important outlet that can easily alter a child’s life mentally and physically. Nowadays, competitive sports in high school and leading into college have become increasingly emphasized, and the question arises as to whether or not these competitive sports provide positive or negative effects for the child.
As a high school student-athlete, I am well aware of the immense pressure that emerges during the sports season. With such a prominence put on sports, schoolwork becomes hard to handle. Homework gathers in heaps; waiting to be completed, endless practices and games consume your entire calendar, and sleep becomes a burden while trying to complete every single activity. Along with the pressure of managing school and sports together comes an increased anxiety among student-athletes. According to Athletic Insight for Sport Phycology, “ In a recent investigation, of all the students interviewed half of the male athletes and over half of the female athletes indicated that stresses associated with sports participation, such as pressure to win and excessive anxiety with schoolwork significantly affected their mental or emotional health.” (Wilson, Pritchard). The anxiety that is caused by intense sports seasons will hurt a child’s mental health and emotional health in the long run. Additionally, with the fiercely competitive sports come ultra-competitive, voracious parents: creating a higher stress level for the student-athlete and potentially corrupting the parent-child relationship in the distant future. Parents that live through their children for selfish reasons can become a serious problem, “Parents who push too hard, especially when emphasizing winning and success above all, can easily wipe out any motivation to play” says Dr. Henry Goitz, chief of sports medicine at the Medical College of Ohio. In Contrary, competitive sports also contribute to a number of positive affects for the student. Through the gruesome sport practices and overwhelming amounts of homework, athletes develop much stronger personal skills and an exceptional work ethic. As a student-athlete, it is expected you maintain a satisfactory grade point average in order to play in high school games or even compete at the collegiate level. According to NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), student-athletes need to maintain a minimum of a 2.5 GPA and successfully complete 16 courses in high school; encouraging student-athletes to manage and preserve their education and work to their full ability at a high stress level, preparing them for their future. Furthermore, competitive sports can serve as an outlet for teens that will keep them out of trouble. High school and college are a time where many students experiment with drugs and alcohol that could possibly injure or kill them. Competitive sports withhold dangerous drug use by threatening students to be excluded and forbidden to play on their team again, and encouraging the idea of a healthy lifestyle. As reported by the NCAA drug testing results, in 2005 only 1.9% of the women participating in track and field used drugs of any sort. College athletes have a comprehension of the importance of staying away from drugs in order to keep their life, school and sports from being taken out of their lives. In this day and age, competitive sports have an increasing importance in American society and 55.5% of all American students play a sport of some kind (Koebler). Competitive sports can provide a way to develop new relationships, a way to stay out of trouble and a way to develop acceptable personal skills for the future. In contrary, competitive sports can create anxiety and stress on the student-athlete, and destroy relationships with aggressive and competitive parents. The reality remains: competitive sports will remain influential and highlighted in our culture, despite any positive or negative effects for student-athletes across the nation.