Abillion years ago when I was in school, sports was big but not anything like it is today. I bleed blue and gold and I hope I’m second in line behind the greatest Tiger fan ever Jerry Throckmorton.
I do however have some concerns about how sports, even in our community, have become too important, if that makes sense. I wonder if it’s on a budget trajectory that is sustainable and that includes booster money.
Can a community in our current socio-economic condition continue to support our school district’s athletics like it is today?
Will we have the ability in the future to add new sports to get greater participation beyond the traditional sports of football, basketball, yada, yada, yada?
The other side of that is, can we afford not to support Big Blue?
Sports is in many ways the center of most small, rural communities. Maybe we should continue to seek ways to be creative as to how we can involve and showcase other extracurricular activities into our sports like we do with band, cheer and drill team during football games.
Wouldn’t it be great to have the cheerleaders, the Golden Girls, Rocky and the band at basketball games?
A lot of people think sports have taken over education and I can understand how some would feel that way. Yet I recently read some interesting data on school sports. As schools continue to struggle, from no fault of their own, to rebound from the pandemic to engage students in the classroom, maybe we should learn some lessons from what takes place on the field and in the gym?
Some report that four in 10 students feel persistently sad or hopeless and close to a third suffer from poor overall mental health.
My point is that high school sports can help with that.
One physical education teacher in Fair Oaks, California has said, “Social-emotional learning happens naturally in a physical education or a sports setting. Students are working together on a team, learning those teamwork skills, learning how to be a leader, when it’s time to be a leader and learning how to be respectful of one another.”
One Baltimore school cites higher graduation rates for students that participate in school athletics. The rate difference is significant, 98.5 percent for athletes compared to 62.9 percent for non-athletes.
The Aspen Institute reports lifelong impact for those who competed in high school athletics. These students are less likely to experience anxiety and depression after becoming adults and are more likely to go to college and have higher levels of self-esteem.
We have a great school system with smart and dedicated administrators, teachers and coaches. The educational challenges we face in rural America are the same challenges all school districts are struggling with so it’s not isolated to Tiger Land.
All I'm doing is asking for a friend, how do we capture the same atmosphere and the same positives that the Friday Night Lights offer?
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