benefits of HS sports

As much as I wanted that article and the underlying study to provide some good support for the positive effects of HS sports, I don't see that it will do much for the ongoing debate. For one thing, the students with the lowest grades can't play sports, so they are lumped in with the non-athlete group, which then automatically has the lowest GPA students from both the athlete and non-athlete groups.

I have no doubt the desire to play (and the counsel of caring coaches like you cabbagedad) does positively affect grades by motivating kids to stay academically eligible. And no doubt practice and games motivate many, many athletes to come to school each day, but the causation stated in that article title is still a jump from the correlation presented by the study.

Ban football

Another twist on high school sports under attack.

As a general statement any group of 16,17 & 18 year old kids involved with appropriate adult supervision is likely to have less problems than if they are left unsupervised. I don't think becasue it is sports that it has anyting to do with it. If you want to solve a lot of problems extend the school day by an hour or two and have real Phys Ed with meaningful intra mural sports. You could allow for exceptions based on Varsity sports or other activities. So instead of a flood of teenagers hitting the streets at 2 in the afternoon it wouldn't happen until 3:30 or 4 PM.

If we are not willing to do that then start the day later and instead of 7:30 to 2 schedule it for 9:30 to 4. The result is essentially the same.

Luv baseball.. I agree. Supervised activities for kids are the best thing we can do for our youth. I don't care if it's drama, band, vocal, lacrosse, baseball, whatever, when kids are involved with activities that have goals and supervision they accomplish amazing things.... Not the least of which is graduating.
My state just passed huge budget cuts so it will be interesting to see if we will see activities get the axe. The current mindset is teach them reading and math and then for god sakes turn the lights off in the building and get them out the door and let the community and parents worry about the fallout.

‘15dad, you are right – on its own, the data in the article has holes (and thanks for the comment). That’s why I stated “there is so much more”. So, I’ll just ramble a bit on some additional benefits of participation in HS sports...

-fitness benefits
-affordable organized sports with facilities in place
-learn to work together through challenges to accomplish goals
-learn to push yourself to maximum potential
-camaraderie/ brotherhood/sisterhood
-commitment
-responsibility
-learn to deal with various types of bosses
-thrill of victory/agony of defeat
-social interaction
-motivation to do well in school
-motivation to attend school
-satisfy a passion
-sense of belonging
-source of school spirit and pride
-a good structured activity to do with friends
-influence of positive role models
-learn some of life’s tough “fairness” lessons before being thrown into the workplace
-increased competitive environment for those who seek it
-learn that success requires consistent hard work
-learn what it takes to climb the ladder
-learn to work together with many personalities, including some you don’t like
-sense of community
-responsible care of grounds/facilities

I’m sure others can add much more. Of course, each does not apply to everyone and I probably overlapped a few.

IMO, so much of what should be learned about life at the “young teen” stage can be learned in large part through the experiences of HS sports. Much of this cannot be learned by going from classroom to classroom and then home to read and study or ? Kids need to be engaged scholastically, socially and physically.
Luv and TrojanSkip, I agree that much of this applies to any extra-curricular activity but I am sort of campaigning to the sports side of this thing here on HSBBW due to the nature of the site and where I’m guessing most of us have true passion.
When we come up against what Trojan-Skipper is describing...

” The current mindset is teach them reading and math and then for god sakes turn the lights off in the building and get them out the door and let the community and parents worry about the fallout.”

...we should not take this lying down.