The Value Of Interscholastic Athletics
...ball game, working out batting averages in baseball, strategizing football points, and subtracting retirement years from rookie years. Not only ere my arithmetic skills strengthened, my appreciation for sports and the athletes, increased. I feel that watching sports, playing video games and learning about the games, helped me in my performance. While playing football video games, it helped my quarterbacking skills because I learned how to better read defenses, basketball video games taught me how to better manage the clock. I appreciated sports, I loved them, that was what I always thought about, I would sleep with a ball, any type of ball, a football, baseball, basketball, nerf ball, anything. Sports taught me appreciation and dedication that can not be learned in any classroom, or any teacher. It is simply developed from participating in athletics. What if there were no sports? The way public schools are heading, my children may not have the opportunity to play sports. Without sports, kids turn their interests towards other things, such as drugs, alcohol, or possible they lose their interests in everything. Causing them to go to school and go home immediately after school and have nothing to do. Leading to unhealthy eating habits. Friends can last a lifetime. Most often friends are made in sports. I can relate to it first hand. As a freshmen in high school I was forced to leave many of my friends that I had made through sports and move to Mill Creek. I had many preconceived notions of Mill Creek. I felt like I would not fit in. As Walker Percy stated, I listened to others opinions of Mill Creek and they immediately gave me an image of the city that would be tough to change. I was nervous to go to school and meet new people. Now as I look 3. back, the one thing that helped me make the transition was participating in sports. My closest friends are also athletes. I still talk to some friends back in Oregon, but only the friends who I played sports with and went to “battle” with. The friends I made will last my entire life. We will all share in experiences and help each other and we will all stay together throughout our lives. I am thankful for my participation in sports and I wish every kid could share my experiences and friendships with me. I learned how to respect people and to not let anyone down. The importance of teamwork and unity. Skills that would not have been learned if I were not involved in sports. I am thankful for my relationships and skills learned and developed through my athletic career. Percy states that you will never look at something the same way until experience it. Experiencing sports helps a person develop into someone better. One may question how sports can help a person develop into a better person. It is not the sports that make a person a good person, it is rather the person, that makes a good person. Maybe that is true, but until one experiences going to practice everyday with a group of people with a similar interest and share the same goals, they can not question the value of athletics. Teams go through ups and downs. They stick together when the chips are down and celebrate when things are going well. Unity develops, along with trust, teamwork, respect, and how to get along with others. In the working world, those who participated in athletics will agree that some of the greatest times of their lives have been when they were playing sports. Today in life I am still influenced by the sports I used to play and watch. The process of choosing a college includes remembering where some of my favorite athletes 4. attended. Many kids will attend the c...