High School Sports

Competitive sports play a large role in many high schools. In high school I played every sport; Football, Basketball, Baseball, Lacrosse, Soccer, Swimming, I even Wrestled. High school sports over the past couple of years have become increasingly difficult to keep up with due to the vast amount of preparation you’re expected to do. Most recognize that the Pro’s and the NCAA have gone too far with there’s willingness to win. That do whatever it takes to win mentality kills from the game in my opinion.

High school sports on the other hand are still a classic battle of one’s rivalry against another in shaggy glory. They give us hope that something in sports is still unsullied and restores our faith in the family values. Though in some places it has become too much of a win-at-all costs game just as college and the pros. They don’t have a super bowl that Americans watch on the first Sunday in February; there are no BCS games (Bowl Championship Series) with millions of viewers annually. Just millions of dollars spent to make the school’s sports more important than the actual education part. Coaches are beginning to care less about the student athlete and more about the athletic student. Kids getting pulled out of classes early to go play a game. Then they wonder why countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan out-perform the United States in math and science according to a recent study from the New York Times magazine.

In the story Innocent Afield, written by Buzz Bissinger, he explains how schools in Texas are spending millions of dollars on sports complexes. He also writes”coaches in some areas are making close to $90,000 a year without teaching a class”. A school in Texas by the name of Permian high scho...

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...ate the night before the mid-term instead of studying and he bombs the test. As a student athlete in high school this has happened to me before and now that I look back at it I wish I would’ve studied.

Nevertheless, I feel that sports should greatly benefit a child's self-esteem. Competition also builds self-esteem because children grow both emotionally and physically and sports help to develop a positive view of both themselves and their athletic skills. As long as children feel that they are beneficial to the team, they are developing self-esteem because they see their personal role in the team as important to the whole cause. If a child is not athletically gifted, he can always take up a more non-competitive sport such as jogging or weight training. This will also build self-esteem because the child can see his improvement and relate to others at the same time