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Being an student athlete essay
Being an student athlete essay
The importance of being a student-athletes
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Have you ever wondered what student athletes are or what they exemplify? Student athletes are ordinary people like you and me, with the exception that they excel at sports and are given the opportunity to play while receiving an education. Societies believe these students are the most outstanding ones in their class. They are expected to have the highest grades as well as to be the best in their sport. I believe they go through a lot of hard work and tension to be able to play a sport while receiving an education. What many people do not ask themselves or do not even consider are the challenges they face to get to where they are. So, what are some of the challenges faced by student athletes? For this research paper, I will answer this inquiry by observing and interviewing several student athletes in various settings to get thorough information about their perspectives. A stereotype society has regarding student athletes is that they only care about playing sports and nothing else. Even though several student athletes do get overwhelmed with all of the things they are expected to do, and to do impeccably most of them do care about their education. Some struggle so much they end up wanting or giving up and not completing successfully the student or the athlete part of being a student athlete, or sometimes both. “It’s tempting to believe …show more content…
Society needs to know what the students feel they need in order to succeed and accomplish their goals. Many believe that student athletes are just there to play sports but no, they do much more than that. They know all of the things that they will have to face when they sign that contract, but they are willing to do all of that stuff because of the passion they have. And with that passion they are able to do anything that they set their mind to, but of course a little help wouldn’t affect them at
When I was accepted into the University of Oklahoma, I was not aware of the tradition or prestige that the football team carried. Moreover, I had no idea about the honor it was to don the crimson and cream in the arena of athletics. And, I never envisioned rooming with them. I enjoyed sports, but I loved reading and writing more. Initially, I was focused on building a collegiate career that one day would propel me to my goal of studying law. Yet, the more time I spent interacting with the athletes, the more parallels I noticed between their personalities and mine. Their diligence, perseverance and compassion were all traits that I could identify with since they were reflective of me. For the most part, the majority of the athletes were hungry to achieve and they desired knowledge at all costs; a combination that still resonates with me today.
Throughout the country young men and women are losing their priority for an education. To attend a university should be a highly cherished privilege, and it should be an even greater honor to play athletics for the university. Therefore, the writer supports the decision that the “student” comes before “athlete” in student-athlete. Playing for pay should be considered a job for “professionals”. In the rulebook, the NCAA views college athletes as armatures. This statement sums it up best. When athletes go to college, not all of them go in with the mindset that athletics is going to be their future job....
High school sports are approached with clashing opinions. Some of these opinions are positive, and supportive of athletics. “Athleticism, among many activities, offers teens a physical outlet to exert their troubles, anger, emotions, and other feelings” (Chen 1). This can be observed in nearly all of the football players in Friday Night Lights. This can also be noticed in the world today. “Athletics help high school students understand their own abilities and talents” (Chen 1). This piece of evidence is very accurate when describing high school athletes. Sports can make a high school student humble. As can be seen by the preceding information, high school athletics can have a positive impact on a student’s life.
Everyone has experienced some type of stress in their life. Whether it has been from work, school, or troubles at home, stress is stress. If anyone had played sports in high school, you know the challenge of balancing school and sports. Imagine that stress, then multiply it exponentially. Everyone knows that college is a much more rigorous version of high school. The only reason some athletes made it to college is due to scholarships for their performance on the field. If they don’t perform well on the field, that scholarship might get cut. This makes practicing the athletes main priority. However, college athletes have to concentrate on their grades so they don’t drop out of college. These athletes know they may not make it to the pro’s, so they know they have to have a back up plan. This back up plan is called a college degree. So college athletes have to concentrate both on sports and classes. Sounds kind of challenging. This is why I believe student athletes should be allowed to miss classes occasionally due to their sport. Athletes are under much more stress, are required to attend practices and classes, and complete their homework. This is simply impossible to do, at least for a human. I believe that this is an important topic because it affects all college athletes.
Learning to set goals and achieve them as a student-athlete will help them become a well-rounded individual. Student-athletes should not be paid to play and the amateur status should remain as it has for generations. Student-athletes have not matured enough at this stage of life to be able to handle all of the additional responsibilities that would be forced upon them with the professional status. Put the almighty dollar aside and let student-athletes be student’s first, amateur athletes second, allowing them to grow and mature into tomorrow’s effective leaders.
Playing a sport in college is equivalent to working a full-time job (Thomas). There are rules that allow major-college football coaches to only demand twenty hours of the players time each week (Wieberg). However, studies show that those athletes are doubling those hours per week during the season (Wieberg). Other sports are putting in the equivalent of a full time work week (Wieberg). Some NCAA officials are concerned with the amount of time spent stating that beyond forty hours is inhumane (Wieberg). Most of the athletes compete and do whatever it takes to succeed, so they enjoy spending countless hours on sports (Wieberg). Many athletes even have struggles in the classroom because they do not have enough time to study. Student-athletes at top Division I schools think of themselves as athletes more than students (Wieberg). Less than one percent of college athletes actually make it professionally (Wieberg). That means these kids should focus more on their education than on athletics. In reality, these official...
Howard-Hamilton, Mary F., and Julie Sina. "How College Affects College Athletes." New Directions for Student Services (2011): 35-43.
All college students sitting in classrooms today face challenges that can impede their success. A challenging course schedule, competing demand for the student’s time, and college readiness are all factors that can hinder a student’s performance in the classroom. Moreover, these challenges also have the ability to impact the student’s overall student development. While most students share a common set of stressors, there are certain groups on campus that face pressures and challenges that are not shared by the majority of their peers. Student athletes are such a group. Joshua Watson (2005) noted the positive benefits of participating in intercollegiate activities, but also noted that such participation can lead to issues of “maladjustment, emotional illness, and psychological distress” (p. 442).
Many people believe that College athletes have it easy, and who wouldn’t think that? A free education, free living; getting to travel and play the sport that many people would love to still be able to. Student athletes also get to pick classes earlier than a regular student and have the ability to be excused from classes to go to games and special events. The life of a student athlete sounds like an enticing thing for many people; especially those who are not student athletes on scholarships or walk-ons to a college team. The rising cost of attending college has made the younger athletic population work just as hard to receive a scholarship to play a sport, because they may come from poverty where they can’t otherwise afford to attend school, which is beneficial to them. Understand, that college is a place where academics comes first, and everything else is second; this includes athletics. But are these athletes treated fairly and given all the right things they need to succeed in life, let alone college?
College is a time for young people to develop and grow not only in their education, but social aspects as well. One of the biggest social scenes found around college campuses are athletic events, but where would these college sports be without their dedicated athletes? Student athletes get a lot of praise for their achievements on the field, but tend to disregard the work they accomplish in the classroom. Living in a college environment as a student athlete has a great deal of advantages as well as disadvantages that affect education and anti-intellectualism.
Youth sports can be a learning experience or it can be a health risk to the athletes. Youth sports can teach young children the value of hard work and discipline or it can be emotionally and physically damaging. Three main points are how sports keep you healthy, how they build character, and the values that they will learn from sports and how they will use in the future. These three ideas prove that youth sports can be healthy, they build character, and can teach them the value of hard work and discipline for your kid.
“Maintaining good academic standing is part of the student athlete culture,” according to women’s head soccer coach Jack Hyde, “It’s part of their responsibility...they embrace it,” he said (Stricklen). “I love football and I wouldn’t want to mess it up by not getting good grades in all my classes,” said Narayan, a student athlete (Given and Tribou). However, more and more student athletes are not finding studying and keeping their grades up a priority. Most student athletes dream of one day becoming a professional athlete, but without good grades, they won’t be able to go to a good college to play for. Being an athlete with good grades also benefits them when trying to get scholarships. Becoming a professional
College athletes are not forced into playing the sport that they have devoted their time to during their years in secondary education. They continue to play into the college level for their love of the game. And for this, many college athletes are offered full scholarships. Today’s tuition for many schools are so expensive that without the scholarships that some of the students receive, they would not be able to attend college at all. For these students, college sports offer a great avenue to obtain an education that otherwise would not have been available for them. This allows them opportunity to study something that they can use to build a better life for themselves and their families.
For decades there has been a debate on student athletes and their drive to succeed in the classroom. From the very beginning of organized college level athletics, the goal to want to succeed in athletics has forced students to put academics to the back burner. In spite of the goal to want to succeed over a hundred years of attempts to check limits of intercollegiate athletic programs on colleges' academic standards still seems to struggle to this day. This brings to surface one of the most asked questions in sports, “What effect does college sports have on academics and economics?” Herbert D. Simons, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington, authors of “Academic Motivation and the Student Athlete” researched the topic on whether athletics and academics benefit each other. Bryan Flynn, the author of “College Sports vs. Academics” poses the question “Should institutions of higher learning continue to involve themselves in athletic programs that often turn out to be virtual arms races for recruiting talented players who bring big money and prestige, but put academics to the back burner?” Although both authors agree that sports have an impact on an athlete’s academics, the focus of their argument differs.
The Secrets Of College Sports Nowadays the student is being mistreated by the University that he/she plays for. The definition of student athlete is “an individual who engages in, is eligible to engage in, or may be eligible in the future to engage in, any intercollegiate sport”(“Student Athlete Law & Legal Definition”par.1). Research shows that student athletes living expenses are not the best as they sometimes don’t have enough money to pay for rent. Also, school expenses are an issue even for the big name schools such as tuition, room and board.