Student Athletes

Students First, Athletes Second

By D. Fran Morley

Check the day planner of any young person today (yes, they have day planners), and you’ll see a jam-packed schedule. There’s school, homework, special projects, clubs, sports, time with friends and family—any parent will tell you that finding a way to balance all these daily responsibilities is a challenge for students. What role can event planners, coaches or volunteers play in this scenario? How can they encourage their young athletes to find a balance in life, particularly when it comes to athletics and academics?

Mary Tedrow, a high school English and journalism teacher in Winchester, Va., is a strong advocate for the need to balance athletic participation with academic performance. “For too many young people there is too much emphasis on their sports performance. I’m not anti-sport, but it makes me sad when I see students who don’t value their education because (they think) they are going to be a pro athlete,” she said. “How many actually go on to the pros? Very few, and pro sports are so competitive. We fail our children when we don’t emphasize the need for a good education.”

Tedrow believes part of the solution lies in better educating parents about the importance of maintaining balance. “Also, someone needs to be an advocate for students. Coaches already have so much to do; I’d like to see more community mentors who can talk to kids and help them see the value in achieving a good education and developing some interests outside of sports.”

Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc., the nation’s largest youth football and cheerleading organization, has always recognized the importance of education, said Jon Butler, executive director. “We’re the only national youth sports organization in America that requires its participants to perform adequately in the classroom before permitting them to play.” The organization requires a minimum grade point average of 2.0, but there are exceptions, Butler said, adding, “sometimes Pop Warner may be the only positive thing in a child’s life. In that case, if a child does not have a C average, we require signed permission from a school authority for the child to play. There have been many cases where a child only stayed in school because of playing with Pop Warner.”

But when it comes to special recognition, Pop Warner emphasizes grades over sports—something Butler believes other organizations could emulate. “We don’t allow individual recognition, only team recognition; no MVPs,” he said. “Our kids only get individual recognition for what they achieve in the classroom.”

Positive Influences & Learning Tools

Coaches and event organizers need to remember that kids’ lives are different today from what they remember of their own childhood, said Jonathan Peck, speaker, consultant and co-author with Coach Mike Jarvis of the book Skills for Life. “Parents have a harder job, too, whether it’s a single mom or dad raising the family or two parents working multiple jobs. The whole landscape has changed.”

Sports participation can fill a good spot in a child’s life, given proper balance, Peck said. “The problem is when people are all gung-ho about sports and they forget about other priorities. Sports are a great way for a kid to learn about teamwork, goal setting and hard work; but, with the changes in our society, kids are losing out on something important, and that’s time with their family.”

According to Peck, a recent study of national merit scholarship winners found that all the kids, regardless of race or other demographic differences, had only one thing in common: they all spent time each day around the dinner table with their family. “Traditionally, kids learned a lot about life around the table at home, but (for the most part) that doesn’t happen any more.”

Peck believes this is an area where coaches and sports volunteers can help, especially with boys who don’t have a father figure. “Coaches have the opportunity to interact with kids and provide male leadership, something that might be lacking at home, and that can make all the difference in their schoolwork and in life.”

The Boy Scouts of America’s Venturing Program is all about making that connection with young people, according to Keith Walton, associate director for Venturing. For young men and women ages 14 to 20, Venturing “combines sports and education in a fun way, with a goal of helping young people become responsible and caring adults,” he said. Venturing provides young adults adventures and challenges that give them the skills needed to make smart, ethical choices and the skills to pass their new knowledge on to others.

“Venturing participants learn about such things as rock climbing, scuba diving, sailing, or mountain biking, and they are required to take their new skill and knowledge and teach it to others,” Walton said. “They have to write reports, work with their teachers, and teach the younger children. This type of mentoring, with older kids helping the younger, can apply to almost any sport or situation.”

Similarly, linking academically successful college or high school student-athletes with younger students can prove useful, said Peck. “Student athletes can be great mentors. A 19-year-old is just out of his or her childhood and understands what the kids want and need to know, and the 12-year-old sees a grown man or woman with whom they can relate.”

Programs that link sports with education or character-building activities can be incorporated into most any sports program, training or competition, according to Melissa Brown, assistant director of Character Counts. “Our program, Pursuing Victory with Honor, is useful for coaches, athletic directors, administrators, planners and others. At the middle school and high school level, it’s important to remember that these kids are students first, athletes second,” she said. “Any sports organization or event needs to have a clear mission—is it trying to develop stellar athletes or well-rounded youth who learn valuable lessons from their participation in sports? Anyone who works with youth sports needs to remember that they are mentors and examples for better or worse.”

Character Counts offers two-day certification training, one-day awareness programs and free information on its website, www.charactercounts.org.

It’s a complicated world today, according to Peck, and “it shouldn’t be all about who wins and who loses. Of all the kids between the ages of 6 and 18 who play sports, only a very few will go on to become career athletes. So, it should be about how sports can help improve the character of the people who participate. That’s the thread that should go through everything we do with kids—at home, in school and in sports.”