Every child who has a childhood filled with sports dreams about playing in front of a huge crowd: friends shouting, cheering your name at the top of their lungs. The athletes who dedicate their lives to the game end up making it to the top level. Something that many people don’t consider however is the decision process that goes into what sport the athlete chooses to play.
Students across the country are being pressured and even forced to focus on just one sport. Twenty to 30 years ago, kids would play a sport in almost every season of the school year and even in the summer. Nowadays, with teams and families getting more and more competitive, kids are encouraged at a young age to find one sport that they are the best at and try to get better and better at it rather than experiencing all the sports possible. One reason for this is to help prevent players from being injured. The more sports one plays, especially contact sports, the more likely it is that an accident, major or minor, could occur. That could result in their performance being affected in their main sport, which is why so many coaches try to talk their players out of playing any sport that isn’t the one they coach.
For many kids, at a young age they find a sport that they dream about playing at the highest level. Although almost all of those dreams won’t happen in reality, kids decide to follow their passion and play with kids in their age group. Whether it be the camaraderie learned from being on a sports team or the true love for the sport itself, kids find themselves all over the world falling in love with different sports. The problem for some of those people then becomes what sport they will choose to focus on. The best way to find this out is by testing many of them out. That way, a kid can see which sport he likes the best and see which one he is best at.
Though some children will realize playing sports is not for them, others will fall in love with playing and will try their luck playing all kinds of sports until they find their knack. They then will follow this passion as far as they can, playing the sport that they’ve fallen in love with at an early age.
Of course, the world is presented with the once-in-a generation kind of athlete like Bo Jackson, who was able to excel at the professional level in two major sports: Major League Baseball and the National Football League. But for many young high school athletes who will not play at the collegiate level, the stigma that players should only focus on one main sport should be destroyed.
Different sports offer more opportunities to meet people, create new experiences and most importantly have fun. Subjecting kids to just one sport is unfair and should be stopped for the younger generation.

Geoff Pisarra

News Editor