The Pros And Cons Of Middle School Sports

I believe that in middle school, it is a necessity for kids to be involved in extracurricular sports to learn knew skills that they can apply on and off the field. Due to budget cuts, more and more schools have had to cut extracurricular sports. I know that I want sports to come back and so do many kids in middle school. Sports will benefit your health and many other aspects that help you become successful.

Some schools that still have middle school sports have realized that when a kid plays a sport, they learn new skills that they can apply to real life. For example, an article states, “Participants in middle school sports teams can develop interpersonal and leadership skills and increase their social circles.” ("Should Middle Schools

Have Sports Teams?") When kids are on a team, they have to learn skills that will help them work with other people. This helps them when they have to work with people, they will have the social skills to work productively. Also, another article says, “Students may form connections through sports teams that wouldn't otherwise occur.” ("Pros and Cons of Middle School Sports.") Kids could make friends through sports. They may not be able to make many connections with them but the one thing that can bring them together are sports. It is important for kids to have friends in middle school or they could become severely depressed. Lastly, the article states “Sports teams also provide experiences for developing leadership skills, as members of the group are called upon to rise to leadership positions.” ("Should Middle Schools Have Sports Teams?") Many kids need to learn leadership skills to take charge of something. When they are working on a group project and their partners aren’t working, they need to be able to lead them.

Middle school sports help kids become much healthier and lose lot’s of weight.

For example, an article states, “A 2006 study on female athletes found that when female students are given more opportunity to participate in athletics in high school, their weight and body mass improve.” ("Home." PublicSchoolReview.com.) Many kids are becoming overweight. “The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the percentage of children aged 12 to 19 considered obese increased from 5 percent in 1980 to 21 percent in 2012.” ("Pros and Cons of Middle School Sports.") There needs to be Middle school sports or even more kids will become obese. When a kid starts playing a sport, he could really get hooked on it and play every week. Before you know it, your kid could be losing more and more weight until they are not overweight anymore. Also, another article states, “Middle school sports such as track and field or cross-country, which can have large squads, provide an excellent opportunity for students to get in shape.” ("Pros and Cons of Middle School Sports.") Students that join a sport and like it won’t be overweight. They will be too focused on their sport that they will be aware of what and how much they eat because they want to do well in their

sport.

School sports help make sure that kids will not make poor decisions in life. For example, one website states “A 2002 study by the Department of Education that found students who spent no time in extracurricular activities in high school were 49 percent more likely to use drugs and 37 percent more apt to become teen parents.” (Home." PublicSchoolReview.com) When kids are in school sports, they are too busy to make bad decisions. They would also be worried if they did something like this, their coach would find out and they would get kicked off the team. Also, the same website says, “A 2001 survey found that students agreed they would not spend as much time in sedentary activities like watching television and playing video games if they had other options after school.” (Home." PublicSchoolReview.com) This piece states that when kids are involved in sports, they would not have the time to watch tv and play video games all day. If they liked the sport, then they would play it more then they watch tv. Lastly, the website states “
A survey conducted by the Minnesota State High School League in 2007 and reported by the NFHS found that the average GPA of a high school athlete was 2.84, while a student who was not involved in athletics had an average GPA of 2.68.” (Home." PublicSchoolReview.com) when students play sports in middle and high school, the coaches are constantly pushing their kids to get good grades. If they do not get good grades, then they will get kicked off the team. Kids would not want to have bad grades to risk not playing for the team.

In conclusion, I believe that middle schools should have extracurricular sports. Without them, kids could fall behind in fitness, education, and the social skills that they desperately need to be successful in their future.