Student athletes should be more ’student’ than ‘athlete’

The Best Damn Sports Column

By David Hoang

First off, I’d just like to say that I love sports. Whether it’s playing basketball or watching football, sports are something that I will always keep near and dear to my heart.

But when it comes to high school sports, I have one problem: student athletes and their lack of “student.”

Our school is home to champions. Our football team placed first in league and the girls soccer team took home the MVAL crown.

Yet, when the trophies are set down and the jerseys are returned, where will these student athletes go after graduation? What will they take away from the endless hours of practice? How far will the intense conditioning workouts take them down the road of their future?

Look at these names: Nate Robinson, Roy Williams, and Dennis Eckersley. What do all of these names have in common? They are all athletes who have played in professional organizations like the NBA, NFL, and MLB.

Robinson, a Logan High School and Washington University alum, currently plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA. Williams, also a Logan graduate and Oklahoma University alum, plays safety for the Dallas Cowboys. Eckersley is part of the Washington High School class of 1972 and played in the MLB for various teams, but most notably for the Oakland Athletics.

No WHS alum has received scholarships to play at a Division 1 athletics program or has made it onto a professional team in the past decade.

As stated in a participation survey by the California Interscholastic Federation, over 700,000 high school boys and girls participate in at least one school sport. The most popular sport for boys is football, with 107,916 participants.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) website, one out of every 17 high school senior football players in the United States will go on to play football at an NCAA college. An even more significant stat is 1.8%, or one out of every 50, NCAA senior football players will be drafted by an NFL team. That means for every 10,000 high school senior football players in the United States, only eight will eventually make it to the NFL. That’s less than one percent.

What does all of this information mean?

I have concluded that in California, of the 107,916 boys who play football, it’s possible that 86 of them will make it to the NFL. Basically, the chances for a Californian kid to make it to the NFL are extremely slim.

Each NCAA sports team, whether it’s football, basketball or soccer, has a limited number of scholarships it can award each year; and not all of the scholarships are full-tuition guaranteed.

Here’s what I’m trying to get at: I have noticed that student athletes put a lot of time and concentration on sports they are involved in and, as a result, end up losing sight of their schoolwork and academic priorities. Your grades will get you your college degrees and a job, but a warm seat on a bench will not.

Earlier this year, two players were not allowed to continue playing because they were academically ineligible. They were great players and starters on their team. The team’s loss in the playoffs had a lot to do with their absence.

Too much focus on sports and too little on school is a bad combo; there has to be a balance. It not only hurts them as individual players, but their teammates as well.

Hey, all of you student athletes out there, listen to me and do yourself and your teammates a favor: play well in your sport, but also prove yourself in the classrooms.