Correlation between Playing Team Sports in High School or College and the Chances of Getting a Good Job

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

The topic I chose to study for my report is inequality in college athletes regarding academics. The first article I read was, Class and Cleats: Community College Student Athletes and Academic Success by David Horton, which was published in New Directions for Community Colleges. The second article I read was, Are Athletes Also Students? The Educational Attainment of College Athletes by Dean Purdy, Stanly Eitzen, and Rick Hufnagel, which was published in Educational Researcher. I chose to study this topic because there is apparent inequality between student-athletes and non student-athletes in aid they are given academically.

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.

Playing sports in high school and college helps athletes build strong character traits and good habits that will help them throughout their lives. Athletes understand the importance of being on time, working hard, not giving up, and working as a team. All of these things help athletes become better people. Many employers like to hire former athletes because these character traits make for great

Mark Hyman, author of Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession With Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids says, “There’s no evidence that kids who specialize in one sport are more likely to go pro or get a scholarship. None.” Hyman explains that there is no evidence of kids having more success if they specialize in one sport. Dr. Matt Matava, a sports-medicine specialist at Washington University in St. Louis also says that “you’re more likely to have success in most sports at the college level if you diversify while you’re growing up.” Matava says a similar thing- that people are more likely to have more success in sports if they try a variety of sports. Both quotes imply that people will not have a better life if they centralize on one sport- in fact, their lives may be worse. Focusing on a single sport- and putting himself/herself under pressure- is not a good thing to do, as these two people are trying to tell us. Success is important- not doing a lot of one sport. It won’t do much

Playing sports or even having the knowledge of them can result into happier and more social students. In the video Notebook: Kids and Sports, Katie Couric states, “Playing sports cannot only give kids more confidence, it can also give them more rewarding friendships” (Notebook). This implies that our school can be more successful if we have greater variety of sports kids can join. Although being happier and more social isn't the only benefit of being in sports.

There are a lot of aspects that should be taken into account when determining what makes an athlete successful. One could argue that natural ability is one of the determining factors which leads to success. For example, if an athlete has dreams of playing in the NBA then height makes a difference. There aren’t many successful players in the league under six feet tall. One could argue that level of competition plays a role in the development of an athlete. This could include the skill level of the opponent or outside factors such as playing conditions or game circumstances. These types of arguments play a role in athlete success, but will not be used in this paper because they are factors that are out of the athlete’s control. This paper

The impact of college athletic programs on academics has always been a controversial and contentious topic. It seems that athletic programs have some contemplative effects on academics of colleges and universities. Different people have different ideas about how college athletic programs should be carried on. College presidents, administrations, student athletes, parents of students, and athletic trainers are along with these people who point out different facts about the fallouts of athletics on academics. A bunch of people suggest that athletic programs should be dropped from college system, while another group suggests that athletic programs should be taken care with more advertence. An analysis on the effects of college athletics on

Will going out for more than one sport help athletes? Some may say no and some may say yes. Even though some athletes think it is better to only play one sport in high school, statistics and examples prove it is better to be a multisport athlete.

High school sports make student athletes strive for better success in their education. Sure some Schools have a minimum G.P.A requirement of 2.0, and to get that all your classes have to be “C” or better. Well that’s better than letting them have a 1.0 and letting them play. It makes them have something worth studying for, For example my friend Bryan Garcia does not like school or work but he is always looking for ways to make his grades better so that he may play with the John F. Kennedy soccer team. Also not all the states in the United States of America have a G.P.A requirement to play in a sport activity, twelve out of the fifty states in the USA require a G.P.A to play."A High School Athlete 's GPA Vs. Average High School Student 's GPA." Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.”Sports participation is associated with higher GPAs, lower dropout rates and stronger commitments to school compared to the average,non-athlete high school student”. Also they made a study for Kansas in 2008-2009 between athletes and non-athletes,Academic Performance Of Athletes And Non‐Athletes, and Page 41. COMPARING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES IN KANSAS IN 2008-2009 (n.d.): n. pag. Web.”high school athletes earned higher grades,graduated at a higher rate, dropped out of school less frequently, and scored higher on state assessments than did non-athletes”. Student athletes have a greater chance of graduating with a 3.0 or more. They are more

A concussion is defined as “a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces” (McCrory, Johnston, & Meeuwisse, 2005). Based on current research, findings show a relationship between academic performance and student athletes suffering from post concussion symptoms (Baker et al., 2015; Ransom et al., 2015; Swanson et al., 2017; Wasserman, Bazarian, Mapstone, Block, & Wijngaarden, 2016). More specifically, researchers have found that concussed student athletes had difficulty returning back to the classroom. Surprisingly, some reported having problems with vision and the severity of the concussion also effected

Many people enjoy the college experience, but even more so when you get the opportunity to get to play the sport you love. Meeting new teammates, living in a new town, making new friends can all be apart of a wonderful college experience. Top athletes also inspire young athletes and kids to have dreams to go to those universities. They also instil a new sense of team and family within each person. Based on many important factors and the vital roles athletes play in universities, they should be paid for their performances.

Research has proven time and time again that participating in a sport while growing up has a direct connection to the success

Yet another thing sports can do is teach a player many life lessons. According to Scope Magazine's Tim O'Shei, sports teaches perseverance, team spirit, and fun. Many sports coaches will not allow players to participate in a game if the player's homework is not done on time. Some studies even show that some grades may drop after the season is over because of the lack of motive in a student. A student could also learn how to be a good sport by congratulating his or her team even if they lose. They should learn to be a good sport because whether the team wins or loses, the good spirit of the team would remain. A good team spirit could also make it fun and motivational for everyone else. The perseverance, team spirit, and fun in a team player could make both a good role model and a fun person to be around.

Sports and the general physical activities have been associated with a plethora of benefits. Not so much in correlation with education though. The debate on sports and academic performance relates as to whether sports affect academic performance positively or negatively. Mostly, academics, especially in high school and colleges, require an enormous time commitment. In the same way, sports demand time commitment. Apparently, academics and sports run linearly and either would consume the time of the other. Such would be the argument put forth by the claimants of the negative effects of sports on academic performance. The opponents to the positive correlation of sports and academic performance ground their arguments largely on the time commitment that the two require claiming that sports would consume a student’s time for study hence affecting their academic performance. Proponents of a positive correlation between sports and academic performance summon an extensive range of evidence showing that students who participate in sports perform well in academics. The proponents’ arguments are fetched from the proven benefits of exercise which improve a student’s overall well-being and motivate their academic performance. Opponents would, however, argue that the studies that find athletes and sports persons good at academics do not show how such correlations occur in that other factors could be the actual causes of the correlation and not sports in themselves. Regardless, opponents to the claim that sports affect academic performance positively cannot deny that sports affect the overall well being of any human being. As such, there is no denying that sports affect academic performance positively where a balance among the two is maintained.