This blog was provided by Cy Wainwright:
Does competitive sports contribute to education? High school sports VS College. In high school you are required to have a 2.0 same as college but does it make a difference having a teacher and a coach making sure you succeed? Where college you only have a coach? Think of Boobie Miles (Friday Night Lights) case for example. Try and predict if he was to go into college what do you see his outcome being?
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Because I believe the college experience is about more than just grades, or more than just athletics, or more than just any one facet of it, I have a difficult time connecting sports participation directly with GPA. If the only reason you're striving to get good grades is because you need them to be eligible or a coach is pushing you, I think you're really missing the point. If athletics is your only motivation or you need to be pushed by the coach to get good grades, how will that translate after college when you're done playing sports and the coach isn't there? Developmentally, I believe student athletes need to see a broader purpose to academic success than just athletic eligibility.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can say about GPA and Work ethic correlate directly. I think it is a trait that can be found in athlete. Just by looking at someones GPA you can tell about there work ethic. If someone has a 3.0 and is an average athlete I would take them over a 2.0 and a great athlete any day. In college is the true test because an athlete is on his or her own and not that many people there to push him or her.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts about Boobie Miles, If he went to SCSU I could see a kid of his caliber spending alot of time trying to stay eligible. Spending multiple hours in the greenhouse and study hall. Another scenario is if coaches just care about him playing and not helping him progressing toward a degree. They will put him in easy classes and waste four years of his time. Which happens to a few athletes in college.
ReplyDeleteBoobie Miles was never challenged in High School. He was a good player, and although most guys on the team couldn't stand his 'know it all' attitude, no one ever said anything to him. There was a moment went Boobie was crying out of control in the car with his gpa, because he realized that without football he had nothing, and this was partly because he didn't try or care to try in school. I have to agree with cywainwright that he would spend a lot of time trying to stay eligible in college.
ReplyDeleteI do think athletics can have a great impact on GPA though. I know for myself that juggling multiple sports in high school while trying to maintain a good GPA really helped with my time management skills and prioritizing my days. But I never had the view that sports was the only thing I lived for and I truly had a broader view of success beyond sports.
If Boobie had gone to college, obviously he would have went on a scholarship for football, I see him coasting through. I see him always taking the easy courses, never challenging himself, and never working too hard. I don't believe he would have even chosen a major, he would ask the players what are the easiest courses and he'd take those. Boobie would always be looking to the NFL, that is where he would make his money.
ReplyDeleteLike Kevin said, college isn't just about one aspect of college, its about all of them. College is a place to grow and learn, not just in the classroom. Its a place where one can grow socially, spiritually, and yes educationally. College is a place where you learn to be on you own and how to deal with being on your own for the first time and what it takes to survive. And from what we saw in Friday Night Lights, Boobie definitely would have enjoyed the whole college experience.
As for GPA and sports, I would say that I agree with Kevin. You shouldn't be trying to get the grades just to stay eligible. You have to want to do well and you have to want to get those grades for yourself, not the team. In the end it is you who will benefit or suffer from your actions.
If boobie miles went to college he would of either made it to professional football or he would of ended up back in Odessa TX working some dead end job with no future because there was no way he would of graduated from college. I have played with many people like Boobie Miles in high school and college who thought they were there only to play football. Many years I met a bunch of players down at the MN all state football game who had full scholorship rides to major D1 schools and the majority of them didn't care about grades or school. I kept track of most of them to see how they did and almost all of them didn't graduate from college and only a few had a cup of coffee playing professionally. The two individuals who actually played in the NFL were sons of doctors and teachers and so if they didn't make it in the NFL it really wouldn't of mattered because they had a back up plan. Players like boobie miles don't have a backup plan. They put all their eggs in one basket and when that basket breaks they are destined to a life of hopelessness.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I was the type of player that used sports as a motivation to succeed in academics. I knew without the grades I wasn't going to be able to do something that I loved to do and that is to play sports. As I began to grow older I realized how important academics is to my success in life outside of sports. As far as "boobie" goes I would hope that he would eventually realize the importance of an education. In this case I am giving "boobie" the benefit of the doubt that he would have went to college and graduated with his Bachelors degree and went on to play ball in the NFL.
ReplyDeleteI think Boobie would have succeeded in college because there are so many avenues that athletes have in college to succeed in the classroom. College athletes have study tables, an academic advisor, tutors, coaches that check grades and attendance, and a network of upper classman teammates that can help you with homework and picking classes to take when registering for classes. One of my teammates did her master's thesis if an athlete's motivation on the court was the same as in the classroom. She found that the two motivations were equal for female college basketball players. I think that gender plays a role in motivation for school in college athletes, as males tend to think that they are at the college to plays sports instead of get a quality education. The bottom line is coaches need to stress the importance of getting a degree because the majority of college athletes will not make it to the professional level, and need a degree to get a better paying job.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that college is about more than just one aspect of the experience. That being said, I think the GPA requirement can be a blessing and a curse. Having a minimum GPA requirement motivates many students to attend class and maintain their grades. However, this can also lead to a lack of learning by which athletes study just to “make the grade.” They do not retain the information over a longer period of time. Moreover, the GPA requirement can lead to increased pressure to cheat. This pressure is placed not only on athletes, but also on instructors. There are numerous examples of courses in which an athlete will pass, simply because they are an athlete. Often all that is required is a successful performance on the field, court, ice, etc. Additionally, instructors often feel pressure (from within or from coaches) to pass an athlete or they may cause the athlete to become ineligible. I taught at a Division I school for two years and was asked to submit progress reports a few times a semester by coaches. I was thankful that I was never pressured to alter an athlete’s grade but I was always cognizant of the desire for athletes to stay eligible. I believe if Boobie Miles ever made it to college he would find the classes which he could succeed in and would view college as minor roadblock to the NFL. I do not believe he would have ever graduated.
ReplyDeleteI can only hop that Boobie would realize the once and a lifetime chance he has and grow up and get a degree and go on to become successful. But judging from the movie Boobie might be back in Odessa pumping gad a the Holiday gas station. Many kids go through this in high school and college. It is our jobs as friends and educators to make sure they realize the importance of whats at stake and try to make sure they take full advantage of it.
ReplyDeleteI think that competitive sport contributes positively to education. When in athletics in high school or college you only have a small window of time to complete assignments because of the hectic schedules. Also being physically active also improves your mental health and moods as well as influencing the development in the cognitive, language, social and emotional areas. I actually think in college, it might depend on the coach, but my college coach looked into my grades more than my high school coach. As for the teachers, in high school, some of them might have looked out for my grades, but again, I feel as though my college coach made sure I was doing well and understanding my classes. If Boobie Miles would have been in my situation he would have been successful.
ReplyDeleteI would have to disagree with the comment that looking at a GPA you can tell someones work ethic. Some people can not try at all and get all A's, and some people can spend hours and hours studing and only get C's. GPA can be used to evaluate a person but there are better ways to do so.
ReplyDeleteMy perosnal experiece with this topic is we were always told that we were "student athletes" not the other way around. At college we were first and foremost there for an education, and secondly we were also there to represent and compete for our school.
ReplyDeleteOur coach enforced strict policies for our schoolwork. If we were caught missing class or homework, the entire team would have to run the stadium stairs at 5 a.m. The idea was that everything anyone did affected the entire team in some way.This eventually made me value the face time I had with my teachers.
We were also required madatory study hall hours. I hated this for my first two years, then finally realized that my coach was giving us a quiet room with computers and tutors, everything a student needs to succeed in the classroom. Our team had created a culture where academics and sports both were high priority.
In high school I didnt have this kind of support, I was very fortunate to recieve this kind of academic motivtion. The program my coach kept me on was the reason I graduated with a good GPA.
I think competitive sports give kids some motivation to focus on academics when they might not have otherwise done. College athletes typically have at their disposal more help and more structure than the average student does. The person still needs to put the time in and do the work. Most college athletic departments have a higher cum gpa than does the rest of the student body. As far as boobie goes, it is hard to predict...I think it would have been a struggle but he would have had an opportunity to do it...with out football he most certainly would not have. his problem was nobody taught him in high school that football can be taken away from you in one play and then what are you going to do?
ReplyDeleteI think overall everyone had good responses but just remember that athletics provides a structure that not many thing in high school and college can provide. So with out them many of us GA's and other athletes wouldnt be where we are today.
ReplyDeleteSport most deffinately provides motivation for certain individuals to succeed in the class room. For the average student athlete sports have shown to provide a means for motivation to succeed in the class room. It can also provide structure as well as motivation for the athlete that would have otherwise not been able to succeed as a student.
ReplyDeleteNot only in the class room, but in our communities, sport is a way to keep individuals occupied when negative alternatives present themself (i.e. dangerous communities for our high school athletes, social life in college).
I am a firm believer that that sport participation builds a firm basis for life, regardless of ones furute career.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the importance of grades and how it correlates with a persons work ethic. Going to larger schools provides an athlete to choose between more professors and even though they are supposed to hold their university to the highest academic standards some teachers will let the elite athlete get away with more or give him/her the benefit of the doubt. In addition, most elite athletes have tutors whose main job is to make sure the athlete pass all the classes with a 2.0 nothing more nothing less. I think its some kind of oxymoron when we expect these athletes to have a great work ethic and down grade them as they move forward if they do not display it however, if that same standard is applyed to their academics how would the athlete react as well as the public.
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