Based on the intense training involved in sports at the high school level, students often regret the interference that sports training have on the amount of time they spend on academics. Apaak and Sarpong suggest that “student-athletes must typically balance the roles of being full-time student and at the same time being athletes” (Apaak & Sarpong, p. 1). Nonetheless, the dual roles can compound the psychological and emotional challenges that can impact personal development in the average teenager. With this in mind students, who are athletically inclined, regret playing sports because sporting activities often impinge on the time that should be spent on academic performance. Training programs are often intense and time consuming and many high school students find that they spend more time in training and less time acquiring the formal curriculum. As such, the academic performance of these students tend to decline and students find that after high school they are unable to get into suitable colleges if they are not prepared academically. Of course there are those programs that allow for sport scholarships to prestigious colleges, but low academic performance can have a negative impact on how well these high school students maintain their scholarships. Their regrets will intensify even more when they recognize that the reason for these challenges are a direct result of the fact that they spent more time on sports and less time on their academics while they were in high school.
In conclusion, high school sports can be intense and players often find that they spend a large portion of their lives playing sports and less time on achieving personal, social and educational benefits that one can attain through the socialization skills in school. Even at the high school level, a professional attitude towards sports is important and intense and high school students find the training overwhelming. The training programs are so intense that students find that they spend most of their time playing sports and less time on achieving a higher educational attainment. As a result, these students will undoubtedly regret the time they have spent playing sports in their later years as they would have missed the opportunities to develop social skills and relational bonds that can help them in the future.
Works Cited
Apaak, Daniel & Sarpong, Emmanuel Osei, Internal Challenges Affecting Academic
Performance of Student – Athletes in Ghanaian Public Universities, (2015) Journal of Education & Practice, Vol. 6 No 14, Retrieved from www.files.eric.ed.gov 5 February 2016
Gibbs, Megan, To Play or Not to Play College Sports (2011) Orchard House, retrieved from
www.collegeexpress.com 5 February 2016
Pappano, Laura, How Big Time Sports Ate College Life (2012) Education Life, Retrieved from
www.nytimes.com 5 February 2016
