The Importance of High School Athletics - Research Paper Example

The Importance of High School Athletics For decades, athletics has been a mainstay of the high school. The field today, has expanded to encompass various options that are competitive for both the female and male students. High school is a very important step or stage of education for every student. It is where one has to pass examinations and have good grades. It is also the stage of a student’s life that socialization is very crucial for the development of the student (Giordano p21). At this stage, students get to realize their various talents and have a chance to represent their societies and institutions. Unfortunately, some high schools institutions have opted out of sports, with the reason of spending more resources on academics. It is of no doubt that academics is the primary reason for education and should be given the primary priority; but sports is important to the lives of students as well as far as their human development is concerned. There are ways athletics as sports can benefit the lives of the involved students in ways that the educators, parents and students cannot even realize. When some students engage in such sporting activities for the recognition, love for the games and other reasons, there are many other benefits accruing from these sporting activities that can turn out to be of great importance to the community at large. Athletics as Motivators People become motivated in so many and different forms. Athletics serves as a very powerful tool to extrinsically motivate students. Some students underperform in classes due to lack of extrinsic motivators that the educators can apply to boost their academic morale (Stein p52). Some students perceive academics as of secondary course in school, but embraces sports. In this case, some high schools have resorted to raising grades and specific performance, for example, 60% and above to consider students as qualified to participate in sports. These students would, therefore, strive to attain the performance level set by the educators in order to have a slot in extracurricular activities. Consequently, they will perform better that they would have otherwise without athletics (Ekeler p75). Athletics has also played a greater role in ensuring that the students stay out of trouble. Athletics serve, as motivators of enabling students remain disciplined through schooling. When students misbehave, they are suspended from participating in sports; or expelled, and this motivates them to maintain their best behavior. The prospect of participating in athletics is an effective tool for deterring students from making wrong decisions (Fitzgerald et, al., p165). Athletics Provide Opportunities Many young boys admire some aspect of athletics. There are those that would like or are dreaming of becoming professional athletes. The mainstream athletes must begin from somewhere and this is usually from the learning institutions. Be it baseball or basketball, athletics in high school can help you get recognition, hence, become a very important professional player. In addition, students who perform better at school in athletics usually get sponsorship to attend college and continue with their athletics in college (Keller & Charles p173). For some students, especially the less fortunate, athletics offers the only opportunity of furthering their education; or settling down with it as a career. Besides, High school athletics can provide opportunities through relationships and friendships. The players are usually popular among the students and relationships grow from fellow teammates themselves. These acquaintances might last for a lifetime and provide future opportunities of jobs or investment. In this case, participating in high school athletics can be life transforming. Athletics comes with Recognition Student athletes, teachers and schools participating in high school athletics receive positive media and public attention. Sports sell, and a school and a teacher whose team wins in the competitions get the attention of the media and is closely followed by the community. This kind of notoriety is celebrated and appreciated by many. It establishes a good name for the school and makes it attractive. Many families like to move to the community that values outstanding athletic programs and these families are most likely to enroll their children in such schools. These translate to more resources being pumped into the winning schools’ athletic departments, which in turn gives them more advantage that is competitive. These days, many schools work towards establishing athletic programs instead of athletic teams. The athletic programs are usually successful year after year hence they are capable of building and nurturing talents at early ages. These programs garner more athletic successes and attention as compared to athletic teams. For instance, a good student athlete at a well-known program is more likely to win a scholarship than a good student athlete in a lesser known or celebrated team. Athletics and Fitness Students who participate in athletics are unlikely to develop diseases that ar caused by lack of healthy living and fitness such as obesity, overweight and heart diseases. When sporting, the students burn out the extra calories and their bodies remain fit and healthy. They become confidence and happy with their looks. Research has established that students with high self esteem and comfortable with themselves are likely to perform better in academics; because they do not waste a lot of time worried of their looks and how the society conceives them as the unfit students do. Confidence improves their determination. Athletics as a Substitute of Drugs and Early Pregnancies Athletics instills a level of discipline in teenagers and youths, hence reducing the occurrence of juvenile delinquency. Time spent in sporting activities deter participators from engaging or participating in taking drugs. Likewise, girls who participate in athletics are less likely to have the free time of engaging in premarital copulation that can get them pregnant at an early age. Therefore, athletics in high school reduces the level of school dropouts caused by such behaviors. Community Representation Although club sports have recently become so popular for college recruiters and high school students, playing for the high school team as an athlete still have use when it comes to representation of the community, when the students athlete participate for their school on the field, they learn the benefit of representing their community. The get to know about healthy rivalry, receive praise for a job well done and learn how to peacefully enjoy victory. If the student advances in sports, the feeling of honor for representing his community continues to run over then. High school athletics also help nurture the students’ talents. There are students who might not know about their respective talents if they never have a chance to explore and practice in on the court. Nurtured talent can take the student very far even after clearing through the education system. Many athletes out there earn a living through athletics and enjoy life. Athletics for Practice, Persistence and Patience Also known as the 3P’s, this can help the participators in understanding the various principles in which the life is built on in order to be successful even after their course in high school. Athletes require constant practice so that they can improve in their respective fields. This requires some level of sacrifice. The participators would choose to be in the field when they would rather be engaging in other activities with friends or relatives. The young participators can also learn to believe in hard work and the resultant fruit it reaps. Besides, athletics requires consistency and in order to achieve that one learns how to never give up. Athletics promotes Teamwork and Cooperation Student athletes learn the importance of their presence in the team and the impact they relay on the team. Thus, they strive to improve on their and team’s performances. Through their urge to improve the team and their discipline, they learn to respect their position in the team; hence learning two aspects of coexistence - how to either lead or follow. Athletics Provides Essential Life Skills Athletics provides students with very valuable life skills, which they gradually acquire while participating in the team works. These skills can be so beneficial that the game itself and they are instilled in the players that they stay with the skills throughout their lives making their positive impacts in the student’s life very powerful and transcending. The understanding of effort when the student players practice and compete can be applied in a broad area of living (Street p94). A person who gives an effort is luckier than a person who only has talent. Athletics is naturally trained on the rule of life that urges one to give the best effort to a task. A person who practices effort can never question him/herself in the end of any action. Hard work, which is not far from applying effort, is also taught to the young athletes in high school. During training, they are taught strength and endurance. These students learn at an early age that for one to make a positive achievement, he or she needs to prepare; and work hard when making these preparations. The ability to follow instructions that the coach gives is a tool that prepares the student athletes to have determination within the game plan and this teaches self-discipline (Grieve p72). This skill incorporates understanding own individual strengths and weaknesses and staying on the track of the task no matter the distractions that might emerge at the course of accomplishing the task. Time management skills practiced by the athletes when reporting for practices; and adhering to the end of the session prepares them to balance and adept at managing many aspects of life that can negatively overwhelm or stress out. Finally, it brings the realization that working with others is a crucial part of attaining success; and that working a lone can be detrimental. Participation, in sporting activities, help students improve on managing their time well. Student athletes have perfected their time balancing skills between schoolwork, the time they spend on practice and other numerous activities. Athletics and Mentors Positive mentors are of great importance to the student athletes. They are in abundance i.e. the coaches, and student leaders; such as games captain and the assistants. These figures have diverse experience from many years they have spent in the sports as either participators or trainers. Students can learn from how they carry themselves and the level of discipline they implicate. Good sportsmanship, discipline, respect and hard work are among the few lessons the students can learn from them. Such great mentors affect the lives of the student athletes in a positive manner, which reflects in their lives forever (Elmore p104). Athletics Instills Leadership Skills The student leaders in athletics go through a lot of experience with their teams. Those who are able to cop with the difficulties they face in the team and can come up with great solutions for this complications will go up the ranks since they exhibit valuable skills to lead (Chang p107). The leaders with the help of the senior athletes have diverse experience and can give advice to their junior members. In addition, the experienced team members also can guide and encourage the younger athletes. In case of indiscipline conduct, the senior athletes can hold the perpetrator athletes accountable. Athletics and Social Relationship People who have a common passion over certain interests such as sports tend to have strong bonds or they become fond towards one another. Student athletes become friends with those teammates that they tend to share a common goal or interest. Through the time spent on and off the pitch, they tend to create a bond or build a relationship, which is effective for emotional, physical and mental health (Fitzgerald et. al. p61). The friendship can last throughout the high school life or even after college. Athletics Creates Successful Mindset Generally, playing with other people, cooperation and teamwork makes the student athletes develop a mindset for success (Provenzo p45). The mind set for success entails: Creativity in problem solving techniques and finding ways of making improvements Developing time management skills Developing strong internal skills of coping and handling pressure Concentration and strong focus development Student athletes learn how to take responsibility to their own actions and individual performance Learning when and when not to take risks These skills will help the student athlete even later in life as they go far beyond sports or high school experience, but to greater scopes of life. Conclusion In conclusion, the positive impacts of high school sports positively influence the lifes of the participators for many years even after clearing through the education system. They develop life-long skills and mind sets. Ultimately, they serve as very rich sources of memory. For many years after clearing high school, a student may fail to remember his or her teachers; including fellow classmates, but the only memories that could stick with the student for such a long time are the moments faced on the pitch. Gaming moments are normally accompanied by extreme excitements that are hard to forget in a lifetime. People hold such memories forever; memories that give them joy even at old age. Teachers who are close to the games i.e. the mentors, games masters and even coaches are easily remembered. It is also hard to forget fellow teammates and this bonding becomes a very crucial part of the memory. It could even evoke other memories that are closely related to the games participated in, for example, one can vividly remember the instances that occurred at the gaming events. Annotated Bibliography Chang, Calvin H.. Handbook of sports psychology. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009. Print. This is a very important book for an individual looking for adequate information concerning sports and how it affects the psychology of the sportsman. It embraces the psychology structure of all ages and demographic groups when determining the influence of sports on their psychology and life at large. It also teaches the reverse of this thesis i.e. how the psychology of a sportsman affects his or her performance in sporting activities. Ekeler, William J.. The black students guide to high school success. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. Print. This is a book that is based on purely research work on how sporting activities influences the academic performance of the socially discriminated persons, but who engage actively in sports. The research was entirely based on the Black race. Since they have been stereotyped against in the matters of education and sports, this book bring into light the truth of the students from the black race and how sporting activities have influenced their performance in school. Elmore, Mark W.. Investigation of high school athletes perceptions of ideal coaching personalities. Eugene: Microform Publications, College of Human Development and Performance, University of Oregon, 1987. Print. This is also another research book that entails the coaching activities in schools, what student athletes prefer in their coaches and the how leadership in the team is developed. It also entails how coaches directly influence the lives of the players and their mentorship powers. Fitzgerald, Hiram E., Robert A. Zucker, and Kristine Freeark. The crisis in youth mental health: critical issues and effective programs. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Print. This book talks about the mental health of the youth and what affects it. However, at some point, it touches the effectiveness of sporting activities in stabilizing the mental health of the youth. It informs the various importance or advantages of sports to the mental health, including how sports helps in the development of the youths’ mental state. Giordano, Ralph G.. Fun and games in twentieth-century America: a historical guide to leisure. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003. This is a general book that informs its readers on the contemporary sporting activities. It entails the development of sports: its application in the educational system of America, and how sports influence the lives of the participators. In its last pages, the book highlights how the fun and excitement involved in sports contributes to the social welfare of people. Grieve, Andrew W.. Directing high school athletics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Print. The book is all about the high school athletics, how it is directed and governed in high schools. The major part of the book that makes it relevant to this subject is how it informs about the application of athletics to influence the lives of the students: in both social and academic contexts. Keller, Irvin A., and Charles E. Forsythe. Administration of high school athletics. 7th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1984. Print. The book highlights the methods used in administering athletics in high schools. It gives reasons considered by these administrations to ensure that the outcomes are positive and the betterment of academic performance. The book proceeds to outline the dangerous or destructive administrative methods that some schools have applied on the high school scenario. Provenzo, Eugene F.. Encyclopedia of the social and cultural foundations of education. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2009. Print. With this book, one learns the social and cultural foundations of different set ups and how they influence education. In this context, it has gone into details explaining the sporting activities in the social and cultural set ups relative to academic performances. Stein, Rita. Connecting character to conduct helping students do the right things. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2000. Print. The core information conveyed in this book is the application of sports to influence conduct and behavior of students; and how this resonates to the choices students make and their academic performance or success. Street, Scott A.. Life skills for the student-athlete. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print. This book entails the use or application of sporting activities (athletics) to instill skills in the student players; skills that are different from the talent itself and academics, but those that improves the players understanding of the society; and how choices and consequences interrelate. It highlights different patterns of behavior sportsmen exhibit and how they are gradually instilled in the sportsmen through athletics. Its setting is entirely on the high school student athlete. Read More