Driving by a high school on a warm, Fall day, it is easy to notice all of the athletes. Soccer players are on the soccer field, cross country is running laps around the track, tennis players are practicing on the courts, the football team is in the weight room, and volleyball players have a match in the gym. No matter what sport it is, every high school athlete dedicates countless hours to their sport. Although playing sports is a big time commitment, they teach students important lessons that cannot be learned in a classroom.
Background Sports play a major role in the life of many Americans. People spend lots of time focused on sports—whether it is playing or watching. Christine Emba, a writer for The Washington Post, reported that forty percent of kids in America participate in sports. Almost half of the children in the country are involved, which
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Although kids who participate in sports have less time for homework and studying after school, they tend to be more successful in the classroom. The Journal of Sport Admission and Supervision did a study where they compared the academic performance of athletes and non-athletes. They wrote an article stating, “51.8% of athletes reported having a GPA of 3.5 or above, while 39.8% of non-athletes reporting this level of performance.” The percentage of students having at least a 3.5 GPA is significantly greater for those who play a sport. High school athletes are also motivated to do well in school for the purpose of getting college scholarships. Athletes who are playing a sport with the intention of continuing in college put a lot of effort into school. The High School Sports (HSS) section of USA Today revealed that many athletic scholarships are partial academic scholarships; they range from twenty-five percent – sixty percent. This reveals that athletes do extremely well in school, especially considering everything they have to