Kids can't all be star athletes. Here's how schools can welcome more students to play

[Jilly_in_VA]

Going into his last tennis match of the school year, high school senior Lorris Nzouakeu knew he might get knocked out in straight sets. He was scheduled for one of the first matches of the day during the regionals competition in western Maryland, against a student from another school who'd won the championship last year.

"So it wasn't really looking good at the start," he laughs. "My goal was definitely to continue rallies and maintain pace and also just have fun."

"Fun" is sometimes hard to find in high school sports. Gunning for college athletic scholarships, many students and families go all in – focusing on one sport and even one position from elementary school. It's also big business – the whole youth sports industry is worth $19 billion dollars, more than the NFL.

For a lot of kids of all ages, sports are not working for them. Less than half of kids play sports at all, and those that do only stick with it for about three years and quit by age 11. That's a whole lot of kids missing out on some of the huge benefits of sports, including spacial awareness, physical activity, and team skills.

Increasingly sports educators, health researchers and parents are pushing back against this trend and arguing that playing sports should be for all kids.

During the last few pandemic years, physical activity fell, while obesity rates and mental health challenges grew, note Tom Farrey and Jon Solomon of the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program in a 2022 handbook for reimagining school sports. At the same time, interest in sports has grown, which "presents an historic opportunity for schools to reimagine their approach to sports," they write.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/07/1180481518/kids-cant-all-be-star-athletes-heres-how-schools-can-welcome-more-students-to-pl

I had to sit through boring daily study halls. I would have welcomed a flex "playtime" with a variety of sport choices rather than the rigid PE classes I was forced into. Think outside the box!

[multigraincracker]

1. I'd like to see a wall between

competitive sports and education. They do not mix well.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Not gonna happen

[murielm99]

4. Maybe not, but I agree with cracker.

[Thunderbeast]

3. Way too much emphasis on interscholastic and club sports

Too many kids (and their parents) BELIEVE that it is the ticket to college athletic scholarships (another huge waste of money). Rather than focus on recreational sports with life-long health benefits, all of the resources go to a talented few.

My great-niece from an affluent family is on her way to a small Christian college on a full-ride scholarship awarded when she was a high school junior.

I just don't see a societal value to this model.

[mopinko]

5. there was a trend a few years back

for schools to offer more personal fitness and less team sports.
i was a klutz who hated pe. i would have been much better off w that approach.

[IbogaProject]

6. I've seen both sides

In NYC we did a posh little league baseball and the jock dads really favored their own kids, from what I know beyond the league's own policies. So my kid, who was skilled but one of the youngest didn't get a fair amount of action. On the other hand we did the city rec center flag football and that coach, who was the recreation center director was so nice and really emphasized the fun part, and fielded all the players. That focus on getting every kid into play, paid off and they rose to city rec center flag football champions. The championship was a little sad, the other finalist were from a very poor neighborhood and their adults were just too hyped on trying to get a name for their kids, it was so weird having an opposing grandmother over on our line trash talking our kids.