1

Cameron Carter Ms. Rand ENGL 1102 1 Apr. 2014

What kind of Impact do High School Sports have on Students?

In many cases now a day, to a lot of high school students, sports are more important than their academic standings. Many students only get up and go to school every morning because it is required in order for them to participate in any sport. These students begin to lose focus of what is going on in the classroom, only because of the fact that they have their mind set on practice, or the big game that is set to take place the night of. Therefore this has raised many questions, which have been swirling around for a long while now, which is whether or not high school sports is a cause of poor academics in the classroom. Many may think so, but as we all know there are two sides to every story and every situation. With that being said, through much research that I have conducted, high school sports have a positive impact in more ways than one on students who play them, from academics to building character, to providing long term opportunities through college and even lifting up a community. So I wanted to see what kind of impact high school sports have on the students who play them and those in the stands who are also affected in many ways. When the topic of high school sports and its relation to academics is brought into conversation, it tends to create a bit if controversy. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph there are seemingly two viewpoints when it comes to almost any topic that is up for debate as

this one is. Many say that high school sports are a major distraction to these students, and are the root cause for the lack of good grades, and high test scores. On the other hand there are many that argue high school sports are actually a cause for better academic standing and better grades on standardized test, as well that because of sports, the dropout rate is lower, and the opportunity for a bright future is much better. Either way that you look at it, you can find research that suggests high school sports are nothing but a major distraction, or find research on the positive effects that high school sports have on students. High school sports were not always what took over the majority of free time that teenagers had. High school sports did not really take off until the early 1900s. Around this time was when all states began to make school mandatory, so parents, social workers, and experts began to question what these children would do in their free time after school. At first there was a movement to develop more local parks and recreations, but because most parents did not want their children to be playing unsupervised, they turned to organized competitive sports instead. Even in the early 1900s sports were seen as a way for teaching children the values of cooperation, hard work, and respect for others. Over time more and more cities began to develop their own competitive sports leagues, as the number of children participating in these sports grew rapidly. Like now when sports first began to become popular, many started to question the amount of attention that these sports were consuming rather than the things that were more important like school. However that did not stop the numbers from growing, as of 2013, there are now approximately 7.7 million high school students who play on sports teams for their respective schools. When conducting my research I came across of an online newspaper article from the Huffington Post written by Kai Sato. By the title alone, I could already tell his article focused on

the positive aspects of playing high school sports. To begin with Sato started his case out strong with a quote from the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. The quote stated, In my 30 years in the business world, I have found that what an athlete brings to the workplace is discipline, teamwork, a drive for success, the desire to be held accountable and a willingness to have their performance measured. Sato then drew attention to a study that was done in 2002 that stated 82% of women in executive-level jobs had played organized sports in middle, high or postsecondary school. Already Sato made a strong argument as to why high school sports were important for the future, and not just during the high school years. Sato also discussed the impact that high school sports have on a community as a whole. An example from a high school volleyball team was brought to attention where a teammate was tragically killed in a moped accident, so the team then united with the community, and went on to win that years state championship in her honor. This article emphasized and highlighted the fact that high school sports are related to much more than just academics, that these students who play high school sports are an inspiration to their community, benefit in the workforce later in life, and use to their advantages the experiences they have as being part of a team. From a book by Gerdy, and an online article by Fejgin, I found tremendous similarities that left me with a great understanding of how high school sports builds characters in students, teaches discipline, makes them more socially interactive, and even more importantly, provides the opportunity to go to college and earn a degree, through scholarships for those who cannot afford it. According to Gerdy participating in after school sports is also a way for young teenagers to keep away from illegal activities, which could be costly in determining their future. Fejgin brings up a good point that high school sports also provides the opportunity for these teenagers to congregate and fight for a common goal, therefore lead to better ability of working

together which is highly important in college and even more so in the work force. Fejgin also did a test on high school students that play sports (Table 1). Within this Fejgon tested their grades, discipline, self-concept, locus, and educational aspirations. She found that the analysis shows that students who are more involved in high school sports have higher grades, higher selfconcept, more internal locus of control, higher educational aspirations, and less discipline problems in school. In similarity, Gerdy also touched on the fact that high school sports can factor into better grades and better test scores, however did not go into as much depth by doing studies on students who participate in high school sports. Another part of my research was articles published by different journals, one was a scholarly article by Bowen and Greene, and the other was written by D Barr-Anderson, D Neumark-Sztainer, and M Wall. Bowen and Greene begin their work with the fact that all high schools are on a budget, and that because of these tight budgets, putting money into sports instead of academics may seem like the wrong move. However they also continue on to say that,
Perhaps students learn important skills about self-discipline and delayed gratification from

athletics that also produce benefits academically. And more broadly, perhaps schools that have successful academic programs are more likely to attract the interest and involvement of parents and the community (pg. 2). More community and parental support in turn can lead to opportunities having more sufficient fiscal resources for the high schools academic programs. On page three, paragraph one and two of the article, Bowen and Greene included a bit of statistical data that backed up the thought of high school sports being beneficial. Included in this data was the fact that students who participate in high school sports had better scores on the standardized tests in the categories of mathematics and language arts. Also found in the article was the fact that students who partake in these sports are almost two times less likely to drop out

of school, which is a significant number in terms of dropout rates. Anderson, Sztainer, and Wall in a slight manner created a different aspect of whether or not high school sports are related to greater academic achievement. The three of them brought up the point on whether or not it is the physical activity itself that is related to better grades, or the fact of competing as part of a team and having to obtain certain academic standings in order to do so. Whether the case is having to make good enough grades in order to play on high school sports, or if physical activity in general is the root cause is a very hard question to answer, and one that does not have a direct answer to. However with that being said, Anderson, Sztainer, and Wall found that both males and females who participate in high school sports have a higher GPA. Although my research consisted heavily on the positive aspect of high school sports, there are still many that think sports are nothing but a huge distraction. A blog post by David Safier brought to attention why high school sports should be cut permanently. Safier made a point that the U.S. does not rank well at all compared to other countries in test scores, and the reason being is that after school sports are distracting these students from focusing on their studies. He stated that most students who play sports are spending 15-20 hours a week practicing or playing games, whereas other countries do not spend near as much time focusing on sports, which in turn is why their scores are much better than that of the United States. Safier finished his blog by saying, Are we actually harming our students educations by overemphasizing sports in school? Thats impossible to say. But its hard to argue that our students are better able to compete in a world market because they can throw a better body block, shoot a more accurate three pointer or smack a small ball farther with a stick than students in the rest of the world. The controversy surrounding high school sports on whether it has a positive or negative impact on students is never going to go away. People are always going to have their opinions,

and try to form statistics in order to back it up, but in this case, there will never be an official right or wrong answer. With this being said, high school students ned to take action by getting involved as much as possible, and sports is a perfect way in doing so, however these students also need to make sure their priorities are in order, and find the perfect balance between sports and school work in order to be successful in both aspects. What I mean by this is that if it takes doing homework on the weekends in order to keep the grades up, or having to see a tutor on a regular basis to pass a class, then this is what students should be doing. If students can avoid these sports becoming too much to handle and getting in their way of strong academic standings, then I only see the bright side to playing high school sports. In conclusion, high school sports are not going to go away. Experts will continue to harp on the negative aspects that these sports have on high school students, but it is important to understand that these are only opinions that are not going to affect students from stepping on the field or court after school every day. As I mentioned earlier, the controversy will forever remain, yet it will never grab the attention of these students, as they will only continue to do what they love and what they have a strong passion for. With that being said as someone who played sports all four years of high school, I believe the pros outweigh the cons. If students were not spending hours at practice after school, they would probably be spending it on the couch watching TV which in turn could be harmful to their health. If instead they were spending their time doing homework alone, how would they interact with their peers in college, and at their jobs? They may never even learn what it is like to respect others, become discipline, and possibly create a bond with their teammates that can be life changing in many ways. Lastly what needs to be understood most is that these students have to pass their classes in order to play sports, and there is no telling what their grades would be if they did not have to pass just to be given the

opportunity to participate, which in turn, if unable to play these sports, could lead to more dropouts.

WORK CITED
Daniel H. Bowen, Jay P. Greene. "Does Athletic Success Come at the Expense of Academic Success?." Journal of Research in Education. Volume 32, Issue 21. (2013): 1-5. UNCC. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. Fejgin, Naomi. "Participation in High School Competitive Sports: A Subversion of School Mission or Contribution to Academic Goals?" Sociology of Sport Journal. Volume 11, Issue 3. (1994): 211-230. ERIC. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. Fox, CK, D Barr-Anderson, D Neumark-Sztainer, and M Wall. "Physical Activity and Sports Team Participation: Associations with Academic Outcomes in Middle School and High School Students." The Journal of School Health. Volume 80, Issue 1. (2010): 1-7. MEDLINE/PubMed. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. Gerdy, John R. Sports in School: The Future of an Institution. New York: Teachers College Press, (2000): 5-27. WorldCat. Print. Safier, David. After School Sports are Bad for Education. Standard Blog. Arizona.com. Arizona. 14 Mar. 2008. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. Sato, Kai. The Case for High School Sports. Huffington Post. 7 Sept 2013: 1. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

Reflection
The most interesting thing that I learned during the inquiry process was the historical component. Like I mentioned in my paper, people have different views to whether or not high school sports have a positive or negative effect on students. However even when high school sports were first organized, it was done so because these sports were thought to teach teenagers discipline, respect, teamwork, and improve on their social skills as well. The reason why this drew my attention was because of the fact that one of the main reasons why high school sports started is the biggest argument for those who are trying to make the same point in todays society. My biggest struggle during the research process was initially finding well suited research for my topic; however after changing the keywords in which I was putting in the search engine, I was able to find much more significant information. In terms of the writing aspect of it, I was struggling to make the research flow throughout my entire paper, and not having it take over my paper, to where I was using meaningless research to fill in space. I was able to overcome this obstacle by breaking up my research into separate paragraphs, that way I could really elaborate on the importance of my research and how it related to my inquiry topic. From the very beginning I knew what my topic was going to be and I stuck with it the entire time, even when I was struggling to initially find research sufficient enough to answer my inquiry question in a valid manner. It is important to include a historical component in the paper to give the audience some background of how the topic in which we have been researching came to be in the first place. I also think the history is important because we as writers want and need to see how our topics were thought of back when and how our questions were answered in the past compared to how they are now in order to see what kind of progress has been made. I honestly do think that my analytical and evaluation skills have benefited during the entire

10

process of conducting useful research and being able to have it flow with the historical component, as well as my action plan and opinion. These skills have grown through my ability to pick out the important parts of my research and only use what will be best served when finding the answer to my inquiry question. Also through evaluating my action plan for these students who play high school sports, and being able to tie it into my opinion in a manner to where I can get my point across without being to bias. During the process as a whole, I am most proud of my ability to form what I think to be an action plan that would work for all students who are caught up in the mess of letting high school sports get in the way of performing at their best in the classroom. During the research process I found out most of everything that I wanted to know coming into writing this paper. If I had to choose something to know more about, it would be finding out more parents opinions on their children playing high school sports, and the effect that they think it has on them, in the classroom, and other off the field activities.