SPORTS

In their journal article, “Using High School Football to Promote Life Skills and Student Engagement”, authors Martin Camiré and Pierre Trudel said, “sports promote and advocate for positive sportsmanship, citizenship and the total development of student athletes through interscholastic sport.” Participating in school sports programs can benefit a student, their family, and even the community they live in. Besides maintaining great health, playing sports builds characteristics students can use for the rest of their life. A student involved in sports will have a good attendance rate and an overall good grade point average. Sports also occupy a student’s time and remove him or her from drugs, alcohol, and street violence. Within sports, there is also hope for English language learners, troubled students and students in poverty.

Students gain many important characteristics while playing sports. Sports offer students a chance to grow as an individual and build character. In his journal article, “Does sport affect character development in athlete”, author George sage said, “A popular saying in England is that ‘the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton’ (a private boarding school). This quote suggested that Arthur Wellington, the victorious British general at the Battle of Waterloo, had acquired skills and values while playing sports at Eton that prepared him to defeat Napoleon.” As a former student athlete and current coach, I agree with what Sage says as the things that I learned as a student athlete have impacted my personality and work ethic in life. Of the many characteristics a student can pick up, the most valuable ones are discipline, work ethic, confidence and moral behavior.

Students need discipli...

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... taught. A coach can sometimes be a kid’s biggest motivator, someone who is there to push them and guide them through adversity. Overall a coach is a special figure who can connect with a student in a way his parents or teachers sometimes can’t.

Many times people like to advocate winning and losing as the only factors to sports. Playing sports is an advantage for any student because there are things you learn that the classroom doesn’t offer. With the help of coaches and individual experience, students learn many lessons that help them build character and even do well in the classroom. Sports also give students another chance to excel and stay in school if they struggle with their education. The time that students occupy at practice is time away from trouble. When it comes to sports, winning is great, but learning and developing as a person is even better.

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