Academic success is important for both high school and college athletes. To be eligible to participate, athletes must maintain a certain GPA. Student athletes that don’t make school a priority, not only miss out on playing time, but also fail to prepare themselves for the next step in their life. For high school athletes, that means prepare for college while for college athlete, it means preparing to enter the workforce. Although, both high school and
Students should not be able to play sports with a low GPA. Students should have good grades to play sports, because it is not fair to other students who play sports and keep their grades up. You can not get into college just for sports. You need to have a high GPA too. Other people need sports to help them get good grades. Student athletes should have to maintain a certain grade point average to participate in sports because it helps them develop life skills, gives them a future, and helps them with their confidence.
The overarching reason for this ongoing debate for college athletes all relates to money. At 18 and 19 years old, most athletes do not have access to the amount of money they could potentially make in the NBA. Not only money, but also any sort of benefits that can be provided to them such housing, transportation or significant revenue that can improve the lives of not only themselves but their families. An article reviewing the NCAA business model and the paying of student athletes explains that:
Black student-athletes are taught to value sports over academics at a young age because it is seen as the “only way out”. Black student-athletes are heralded for their athletic prowess from middle school up, so they begin to focus less on their education and more on their sport. Unfortunately, so do the teachers. Black student-athletes are more often than not just given passes, as schools value what their athletic abilities could do for them over the academic success of the athlete. Even normal black students can be seen the same way just because of the perception that they might be an athlete. The sad truth is that the athletes that don’t make it to the professional level are left without the education needed to be successful.
Rebecca Lobo once said“Athletes who take to the classroom naturally or are encouraged to focus on grades should be able to do well in the classroom. I believe the reason you go to college is to get your degree. It's not a minor league or an audition for the pros.” many athletes should read these and apply it to their life because college isn't about trying to play in the pros if you're an athlete sure you can have a dream, but you need to also get a degree that should be the main focus not getting a tryout or an audition for the pros. Every year around one hundred seventy-seven thousand athletic scholarships is given out to those that stood out in their sport, whether it was basketball, football, or even baseball. The kids receiving these scholarships are given a free
For these students, their academic pursuit is warded off by negatives such as being underprepared for college and not ready for the rigor of college academics (Reynolds, Lacey, Dawlah Fisher, and Kenyatta Cavil). A large portion of young black children are not going to be prepared for college life because of the athletic environment that they are placed in at a young age. College is commercialized in every aspect of the experience. Thus, for millions of black youth who aspire to becoming a professional athlete as a major goal, education matters only to the extent that maintaining eligibility to participate in sports in elementary and secondary schools through college is necessary in order to fulfill externally imposed requirements (Marvin, Dawkins). Today’s generation of a good grade is a 70 or higher. A child can carry that type of mind-set throughout their entire school experience until college approaches. The school systems are settling for mediocre and colleges are expecting exceptional. School, media, and surroundings of the young generation create this visual of these hopeful children getting into a college through athletics and mediocre academics.
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
In most of the USA, schools would offer a variety of sports programs to their students in order for them to have a chance at becoming an athlete and competing against other schools. On the other hand, there are schools in various other countries that do not give their students any opportunities for school athletics. In a nourishing school environment, we all know that academics and in-class abilities count first when it comes to learning. In this world we live in people argue that after school sports might be the reason for poor academic performances and dropout rates in sports-featured schools.
Jeff Scurran is the head football coach at Carolina Foothills High School in Tucson, Arizona and he wrote an article on why football is a necessity that society can’t get rid of. “We are teaching kids traits desired by many professions, including the military. I took my team on a trip to West Point a few years ago. I wasn’t surprised to find out that every freshman cadet was required to play on an intramural football team. Because in football, we are teaching kids hustle, determination, teamwork, effort, discipline, intelligence, and that hard work pays off.” High school football is one of the only sports that teaches so many traits that are proven to improve your academics, and could eventually assist you in life in general. “Look at the ones who stay, learn, put in the work to develop their technique- and put in the classroom to remain academically eligible. Other sports promote this but the combination of teamwork and toughness in football is second to none,” Scurran says in his article, “These are essential qualities to being successful in life; the intangibles are
Athletes at school might get carried away just focusing on their sport. Playing a sport might not be a distraction and the student could just be stressing academically. They might be using their hobby to relieve stress, but this can lead throwing away their education as well. Education should be the number one priority. Honor roll, or just average grades in general, will increase the chances of students getting accepted to the college of their choice. If an individual wants to do the things he or she loves, college will play an important factor. Setting this rule for athletes will motivate them to do well in school if they really love the sport they
These athletes just can’t sit their thinking about what they did in their playing career time. Even athletes that are currently playing professionally are going back to school in the summer time or taking extra classes to get a degree. Some of these player are in the NBA like Stephen Curry. He stayed at Davidson a small athletic school for three years on scholarship before going into the NBA draft Stephen curry got drafted in the 2009 National Basketball Association NBA Draft went back during the off season of his NBA season to go to summer school taking a few classes in order to graduate from Davidson College in North Carolina. He came back and got his degree. Other Notable athletes that look more at education then getting paid in college were athletes like Fetus Ezeli, who came from Nigeria during his teenage years, and went to Jesuit High school located in Sacramento never got to play for their team but he got offered a scholarship to play for Vanderbilt. At that time he was looking forward to becoming a doctor not a basketball player, School was important to him and he stayed until he got his
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.
These days, teachers pass school athletes in order for them to continue playing. They don’t care whether or not if they do the homework or actually understand what is being taught, as long as they keep the school wining in that certain sport then they will pass. Henry Gates stated, “The failure of our public schools to educate athletes is part and parcel of the schools’ failure to educate almost everyone”. Most young black athletes can’t read or write but they still get passed year to year. It’s know that 26.6% of black athletes at the college level earn their degree, which means that they didn’t have enough pass knowledge to continue to excel in higher education and they still didn’t make that goal of being a professional athlete.
When participation in a sport in high school, it may interfere with class work, meaning an athlete may have to leave class early in order to participate in a game or tournament. With doing so, it is up to the student to get their work done. They have to make it up on their own time in order to make up what they missed in class. This teaches students time management and motivates students to try their best in order to make up work they missed. All coaches should take into consideration that if a student does not have the grades, then the athlete may not participate in competition or practice. Even this rule applies to the team’s best athlete, grade ineligibility applies to everyone. When it comes to high school, the sport itself generates motivation to keep the student on top of things and wanting to thrive for greatness in academics and athletics as well (“Merkel,”). All students should know that grades come before athletics. This will make student athletes aware of the minimum GPA that will be needed to be maintained in order to participate in athletics (“The Benefits of Participating in Sports”). Consequently, it forces students to learn
Do sports and grades have a relationship, or not? According to Should student athletes have to get good grades to play sports? Grade and sports are polar opposites, they have nothing to do with each other. If someone has the potential to become a great athlete, nothing should come of that.