It is Sunday night, Major League Baseball is finally playing a game that counts, and I decided it is time to write my Sunday column.
I know it is late for this, but it is a topic I have wanted to touch on for some time now.
The topic: high school athletes give more of their time now than ever before.
Without looking at the numbers, it seems like more high school students are playing more than one sport per academic school year. Some are even partaking in sports in the fall, winter and spring seasons.
This is an incredible amount of time and energy committed by the athlete, who is also a student. That’s right; they are called student-athletes for a reason.
These athletes are not paid, they do not receive a ton of apparel from their school to roam around in on campus and do not travel to road games in luxury buses.
Instead, they pay for their own gear and apparel, travel in school buses, and do not receive any type of stipend for their time (athletic scholarship).
High school athletes are a group unlike any other in sports.
They are working their hardest to get noticed both in the classroom and on the field in an effort to earn an academic or athletic scholarship to a college or university so they can further their education and athletic careers.
The idea for this column comes from comments made during the winter sports awards ceremony this past week at the high school.
Many administrators, teachers and coaches in attendance made a point to celebrate the accomplishments of the student-athletes by saying how much time they dedicated to their respective sport.
If you have never played high school sports, you have no idea the type of time commitment that goes into doing so.
Even if you play just one sport, the off-season does not include much downtime for the athlete. He or she probably spends time in the weight room, watching film, studying the game they play or running to increase stamina.
All of this takes a lot of time, which means that student-athletes are never really in an off-season. The definition for an off-season for a high school athlete is the fact that they are no longer playing competitive games.
Now, some of you might argue that the commitment level to play sports is greater at the college level. As a former college baseball coach, I have to disagree with this sentiment.
Many college teams have the ability to practice at varying times during the week because of class schedules of the athletes. Teams can practice in the morning, early afternoon, evening or night without repercussions from the school or state athletic governing body.
Because of this, high school teams are limited to the time as to when they can practice. This means that student-athletes leave school and head right to the fields, courts, pools, alleys and gyms for practice. Then, they head home to complete their homework and maybe even workout.
Such a tight, rigid, demanding schedule can wear on even the best of athletes. But, high school athletes seem to have a built-in resilience to it. For some, such a rigid schedule makes them stronger as a student and even a better athlete.
So, as it says in the title of this article, the dedication of high school athletes goes unmatched today. They deserve more credit and recognition for the work they do on and OFFÂ the field compared to what they get right now, especially for what they do off the field.
