The Intrinsic Value of High School Athletics

by Jackie

It’s my week to blog and two encounters that I had with two different people in the course of a week brought me to my blog subject: The intrinsic value of high school sports.

The first situation was when I was on a training run with a friend. She mentioned that her 8^th grade son was going to run cross country at the local high school in the fall. She was surprised that another parent cautioned her that participating in a sport would be too demanding for a freshman, because of homework, adjustments, etc. My friend and I chuckled at that because we both  ran cross country in high school together years ago and nothing could have been further from the truth. Cross country was a very positive focal point for us in our high school years.  And based on the fact that we are still running 30 years later, it obviously influenced our lifestyle choices as well.

My oldest daughter is a freshman swimmer at a Catholic high school. In my opinion, her involvement in high school athletics has been the catalyst for success.  Her involvement with the swim team has meant an instant study group every day after school with her teammates, before heading off to swim practice. She has also learned how to balance her homework with her practices and her responsibilities at home (well, maybe not so much the last one). As she and her teammates headed into Christmas break, which included two 2 hour swim practices a day, with a 2 hour dry land workout in between, the upper classman gave advice on the best ways to study for mid-terms which were right after break. She was offered assistance by her teammates with her studying and actually any advice in general. She was surrounded by positive role models that she listened to, quite honestly, better than she listened to me.  Her experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive, very similar to my own. The friendships she has made are priceless. 

The second encounter I had was with an Athletic Director during a meeting. He shared with my colleagues and I his concern for the future of high school sports. He said some parents are very driven by their children playing at the pro or college level, actually taking their kids out of high school sports, to play in club or AAU setting, which they felt would offer a higher level of competition. He said the piece that some of these people were missing was seeing the intrinsic value of high school sports: The value of participating with your classmates in a team environment; the shared experiences - will last a lifetime.

If you have had the privilege of participating at any level of high school sports, I hope that you will understand the passion of my blog.  And please share your comments on what your high school sports experience meant to you.