Student Athletes

I am a high school teacher  and coach in westchester county NY.  I have found that student athletes rend to perform better while in season then when not.  Many students play high school sports, whether the big name sports like football and baseball, to the lesser name sports like skiing and swimming.  I have found out though that students who play any sport at any level in high school tend to perform better in classroom while in season.

 I have noticed that my soccer players do better during the fall than in the winter or spring.  I have looked at grades of other students who play 2 and 3 sports throughout the high school year and find similar results. 

There could be many factors to this being true.   One could be that students have less time for homework and studying, therefore give it extra attention.  Since a typical student athlete doesn’t get home until after 5pm on a given day during their season, they only have a few hours of time before bed to eat dinner, have some down time, and do HW.  However, when that same student does not play a sport during a particular season, they have more free time because they are getting home around 3pm, which gives them more time to get lazy and then not do their work.  Another reason for improved scores during a sports season would be the incentive to stay eligible.  Every school has requirements that a student athlete must adhere to, to stay elgible for their season.  All the more incentive for a student athlete to do their work and perform well in the classroom.  Lastly, could be parental pressure.  Many parents allow their children top play high school sports provided they keep their grades up.  Many parents have pulled their children off teams due to a drop in grades.

Athletics are very important to a students growth and social life.  We all shjould be pushing students into getting involved in sports or any extracurricular activities at school.  From personal experiences, getting involved may actual improvbe student success.