The Case For High-School Sports (Response to Amanda Ripley)

            High-schools offer many activities throughout the school year. Most of these activities bring much joy to the students participating in them. Some of these activities are the sporting teams for the school. Some people believe that, “we [The United States] lag in international education rankings,” (Ripley), because the schools are too interested in athletics as opposed to academics. However, high-school sports are essential to the overall well-being of the student-athletes in every high school.

            High-school students learn important lessons for their futures in the world. As a student-athlete myself, I get to interact with my teammates to help achieve a common goal: to win the game. On the varsity golf team, our team also gets to interact with the other team often throughout the match. Throughout my years on the team, my teammates and I have learned many important life skills, including patience, good communication with others, and “lessons in sportsmanship and perseverance,” (Ripley). Playing allows me and my teammates to also learn how to strive towards a goal. These lessons will be applied to all of my work now and into the future. Some people, like Ripley, believe that even if the students learn these life skills, they might not know the academic skills needed to succeed if they do not succeed academically. Athletics and academics are hard to balance sometimes, but it is the student’s responsibility to seek help if they are struggling with their schoolwork as a result of their athletics. The student can be tutored to help understand the academics better, and there is always the option of taking a little time off from the sport in order to catch up with their schoolwork. Then, once they are able to balance their sport and their schoolwork effectively, the student can rejoin the team and learn both academic and life skills for the future.

            High-school sports can help a student get involved within their school. Throughout high-school, administrators encourage students to get involved within the school, whether that means joining a club or honor society, or whether that means competing in a sport. According to a 2012 survey of ACT-tested high school graduates, about half of the students were joined in an extracurricular activity in their high school. Within that, 45% of the students competed as varsity athletes in their school (Extracurricular Activities: High School Participation and Planned Participation in College). If sports were not available in high schools, there would be a significantly less amount of students who would be part an extra-curricular in their school. Extra-curricular activities also look very good on a college application, and if these student-athletes were not able to play their sport in high-school, their college applications will be less impressive. A person who disagrees with high-school sports might suggest creating more clubs and activities within the school to get more students involved. However, these new clubs and activities might not interest students who are unable to play their sport, making the number of students in extra-curricular activities still low. In order to keep students active within the school, we need to keep the students in their school sports.

            Imagine a student who receives decent grades in the classroom but excels in the sport that they play. When they are able to play in high school, newspapers report on the action taking place on the field. These reporters write articles about the action, and that student is mentioned in the newspaper for their athletic achievement. Any student would be excited and honored that they are mentioned in the newspaper, and this could be the only recognition that they receive in high school. High-school sports allow student-athletes to be recognized for their athletic achievements if they are not able to have any academic recognition, such as honor roll. These acknowledgements make the student feel as if they are important to the world, and could encourage them to do better in every aspect of life; this includes a better academic career. A student could get caught up in their athletic achievements that they ruin their academics, but if they begin to struggle in school, there will be no more athletic recognition since the student will be academically ineligible. The student can see him or herself in the paper and want to see themselves again. To make it there again, they strive to do well in school so they do not become ineligible to participate. Athletic recognition would not be possible if there were no high-school sports, so we need these sports to help motivate students to do well in everything.

            If high-school students were not allowed to play their sport, they would not be academically motivated; less involved in their school, and not learn important skills to be used in the future. Overall, students are better off with sports being offered in high schools than if sports were not offered.

Works Cited

Ripley, Amanda. "The Case Against High-School Sports." The Atlantic October 2013: 72-78. Print.

Unknown. "Extracurricular Activities: High School Participation and Planned Participation in College." 2013. Web.