Athletics
Within the Athletics Department there were several changes that occurred in the last 4-5 years. There were significant changes for athletics at the high school and middle school elementary level. Some of the changes were good and justified, but not everyone was accustomed or willing to adapt.
As mentioned previously, most notably was the closing and restructuring of two high schools. Creston was closed completely and this caused the district lines to be redrawn. Students wanting to participate in sports that lived in a specific region of Grand Rapids had to play at the high school closest to them. Due to the fact that Central’s restructuring removed athletics out of their building, that same result was needed. This caused a lot of disarray among the students wanting to play for their school and the alumni who previously attended the school. Parents were appalled either because the school they wanted to send their child to closed or the fact that their student-athlete would have to play for a school at a different site. Some parents and student athletes could not fathom growing up in a household as Central Ram and being forced to play as a Union Red Hawk. This was the mindset of many parents, students and families that decided not to send their child to a GRPS high school. The Athletics Department essentially had to unfreeze the communities thinking of the way sport were previously offered.
The human capital approach came into play. The Athletics
It goes without saying that athletics are enormously influential in the social sphere of high school. While academics are more impactful on one's future, immediate popularity is something numerous teenagers covet. Countless students try out for sports every year for multiple reasons, one of the most prevalent being the aspiration of becoming a school celebrity. While that is indeed an excellent benefit, the reason I initially joined the tennis team was to have a group to be a part of. But there was always this one thought that loomed over me. Why does it mean more to be on the baseball team than it does to be a member of the tennis team? Whereas students would gather and attend football, basketball, and baseball games to support the school's athletes, the tennis benches remained empty all spring. My teammates, too, realized that our sport was not favored. Naturally, we harbored resentment towards members of the admired teams. Though belonging is a natural human desire, malicious actions are easier to perform once a group has been formed. Mob mentality blinded our team and caused us to behave in ways that we would not dare alone. It is my opinion that the envy experienced by my team is an inescapable feature of society; I will present and examine this feature and what is says about our world, but I'm going to begin by reflecting on the spiteful activities my team conducted.
In “The Case Against High School Sports,” Amanda Ripley, a journalist for The Atlantic, states that America is spending more money on high school sports rather than on academic purposes. “High School Sports Aren’t Killing Academics, “ written by Daniel Bowen, a postdoctoral scholar at Rice University, and Colin Hitt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, discusses the benefits that come out of sports programs to improve the classroom and the school’s social capital. Co-founder of a sports recruiting social network, Kai Sato’s article “The Case For High School Sports,” focuses on how school does not just involve scoring well on a math test but to educate us to be productive in what lies ahead. Ripley’s article discusses how
The impact of preserving sports in high schools has been surrounded by much controversy as people suspect that it is the reason behind the poor academic achievement of students. Opponents to high school sports feel that allowing athletics to be a part of schools sidetracks the focus of the student body, which goes completely against the main purpose of schools. Indeed, this assertion is completely true and based upon plentiful evidence. High school sports undoubtedly come at the expense of student academic achievement since they divert the attention of students away from academics and they come with far too many financial costs, both of which incur negative impacts on the academics within a school. The bottomline is that sports are harming the education of students, so a school must make the decision between composing quality sports teams or providing high level academics; both of these choices simply cannot occur simultaneously.
Recently American test scores have been down but the first thing people blame for this epidemic is sports. Instead of looking at the infrastructure of our school system. Sports are ingrade in American culture and how we life so to just take them away would be dractace. Sports should stay in schools because the keep kids out of trouble, help kids get better grades, and it helps them later on in their life.
A plethora of reasons exist as to why a certain sport might signal importance to a state, but in Indiana, the sport happens to standout on a whole different level. Current Southeast Dubois Superintendent, Rick Allen, commented on why Indiana high school basketball remains superior saying, “One reason Indiana high school basketball is such a standout of a sport in Indiana is because of the community support behind the team” (Allen 2). The era of basketball between 1911-present remains crucial today not only for the big schools’ gyms in Indiana, but also for small towns gyms such as Huntingburg, Loogootee, Tell City, Ferdinand, and numerous others.
For 150 years, college sports have been an important aspect of American universities and abolishing them would eliminate the benefits that they bring (“College Athletics Programs”). One of the greatest benefits of college athletics is that they bind the school to the community. People who live in a college town love to support their institution and showing up at numerous athletic events displays how far their dedication goes. Not only do college sports attract people who live in the college town, but also alumni and future students. The school’s spirit and unity extends far beyond the
There has been many occasions where high school teachers have to make a hard decision when an athlete is failing, what should they do. I believe that no high school athlete deserves any help from their teachers in order to play. They should be able to complete the circumstances needed in school if they truly wanted to play the sport these athletes are in. If this idea was allowed in high school what will happen to these kids later on in life like in college, will they be able to accomplish the goals at that point when it matters most?
Throughout history, the growth in value and demand of Division I athletics has caused many people to question
A 2016 study by the NCAA revealed that there are nearly eight million students who participate in high school athletics in the United States, yet only 480,000 of them will compete at NCAA schools ("Probability of Competing Beyond High School"). Of that approximate 16% who become a student-athlete, an even smaller percent will graduate and become professional athletes. For example, data from the 2015 NFL Draft demonstrates that there is less than a 2% chance of playing in the NFL. During the 2015 Draft, there were 72,788 NCAA football participants, only 16,175 of those were draft eligible for the 256 slots which equates to a 1.6% chance of being drafted to the NFL. According to the NCAA, of the 256 NCAA players selected in the 2015 NFL draft 236 were from Division I FBS institutions, 17 were from Division I FCS programs, two were from Division II programs, and only one was from a Division III program. Student-athletes from the power five conferences accounted for for 200 of the 256 draft picks (SEC=54, ACC=47, Pac-12=39, Big Ten=35, Big 12=25) ("Probability of Competing Beyond High School", 2016). With there being a small percentage of playing professional sports after college, the importance of a college degree has become a priority for many student-athletes.
Staffing a school is the most important responsibility and service a principal has to attend and to provide a school. Students have a right to be taught by highly qualified teachers and in this case a highly qualified basketball coach. The case study #16 presents a situation where the principal has to begin recruiting to fill a basketball coaching position that has been long filled by two brothers that are ready to retire due to health reasons. The principal feels the pressure to have to fill this position, but finds it a bit challenging for a number of reasons—salary considered too low, not enough interest in “girls’ teams by the community, racial and gender concerns, and scandals in nearby district concerning males coaching girls’ teams. An athletic director for the high school suggests that she look into asking the parents of the players. (Kirschmann, 1996)
In the article, The Case Against High-School Sports suggests that American schools are putting too much focus on sports than on education. After analyzing the gathered information, I have concluded that sports are being pushed over education in the United States. In this article, I found myself agreeing with many of the points the author was making. The United States is far behind many countries in our educational system; we don’t seem to take education as seriously as we do sports. We also spend an unbelievable amount of our average school funding on athletes, while sometimes spending less than half on each student. Lastly, we have plenty of evidence of schools improving with school sports cuts, but we haven’t been successful in creating a real balance.
In the state of Oklahoma, there have been multiple revenue failures since the beginning of the year and nearly every public school has been forced to deal with mid-year funding cuts. In the face of all this lost revenue, is it a reasonable solution to eliminate athletics as a cost-saving measure? This financial issue is something that not only effects current students, but future students as well. Although there is a lot of disagreement surrounding whether or not colleges should keep athletic programs, both college athletic enthusiasts and advocates for eliminating college athletics can agree on wanting what is best for the colleges and the students, and therefore, keeping athletic programs in college while allocating 50% of their revenue
On May 11, 2017, Dundee Central School had a Board of Education meeting. Nine members were in attendance. The main focal point of the meeting was student Athletics. Member Kelly Houck brought up that student Athletics are becoming an issue with attendance. Less and less kids are participating in sports. She stressed that this was not a budget issue, it was a capacity issue.
Welcome remarks by Ms Rapp: Thanked everyone for joining and introduce new employee D’Angelo Galang who replaced Missy Gingrich as the Far East Activities Coordinator.
Do sports have a role in the lives of students? In an article posted by the Atlantic authored by Amanda Ripley on October of 2013 titled "The Case Against High-school Sports", Ripley questions the added value of sports to high schools and its students, outlining that the focus on sports has resulted in poor international test results. The article further used schools in various cities and countries, such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Finland as exemplary examples, stating that at some institutions in these cities and countries have shifted or eliminated sports in the school system and are heavily focused on being purely academic institutions, which as stated in the article yielded higher rankings in international standardized test.