Tag Archives: student athlete

You Are Not ‘All That’; Your Attitude Does Count

Posted on by
1

I’ve been to many high school games and have observed the behavior of high school student athletes.  Many of the student athletes believe because they have incredible athletic ability that somehow they are on top of the world and can do no wrong.

Players sometimes have poor attitudes towards everyone and everything because of their athletic skills.  Just because they are a star athletes they feel like they can slouch in their chairs in the classroom or walk around school with the ‘I don’t care, I’m better than you’ attitudes.

Because they have a gigantic ego many of these student athletes feel that they are entitled to certain things and should be given special treatment.

I can understand where the confusion in the minds of many of these exceptionally talented ballplayers can come from.  No one is buying a ticket to watch some kid take a math test or hear a student give a speech in history class.  We do buy tickets to see student athletes perform and this is where the confusion begins.

Most people pay attention to what student athletes are doing.  Because of all the attention athletes receive, it can sometimes play a positive or negative role.

Academics and athletic ego plays big a role in whether a student athlete ends up at a major college program, a small college program or no college program at all.  Having a 1.9 GPA and you’re a 6’6 basketball player who has the talent to play at a big time college program does not guarantee that college program will overlook your horrible grades just because you can play ball.

The NCAA will begin to penalize college programs who bring in student athletes that cannot meet the academic requirements once they’re in college.  Too many times student athletes who have poor grades coming out of high school are accepted into college and many of them haven’t even graduated.  Academic reform is about to take place.

It use to be that if you did not meet the academic requirements coming out of high school, you can still go to a junior college and then transfer to a university after two years.  Now things are changing; in order to transfer, you still have to meet academic requirements even at the junior college level in order to move up to a four year institution.

Many student athletes are not graduating from college and these changes are necessary if you’re in college to get an education, not just to be an athlete.  Far too many players, regardless of the sport, believe that one day they can turn pro and earn millions of dollars.  We all know the odds of reaching the professional level in any sport are slim to none and I do believe sometimes the ‘I can do no wrong’ attitude can prohibit a student athlete from becoming a success outside of sports.

How many times have we seen these piss-poor student athletes who think they’ve got it all going on but end up not getting recruited to play college ball and eventually become a forgotten name in their community?

I think attitude plays a large role in student athletes’ academics because it shows how good they will be athletically and whether or not they end up with a scholarship.

Student athletes, no matter where they are talent wise, should always be humble but should always be working on all aspects of their lives.

The Destruction of the High School Student Athlete

Posted on by
Reply

For a great deal of high school student athletes in this country, sports means everything to them.  Athletics is a means of freedom for many young people and without it; there may not be hope for the future and some of them will struggle throughout their lives.

In my lifetime, I have come across many high school and college athletes who did not get the maximum potential out of their athletic careers.  Without achieving a certain level of greatness, many of these athletes experience a lifetime of disappointment and frustration.

Throughout the history of sports, many athletic careers have been destroyed, not by what you may think is the obvious reason, a career ending injury or a crime that sent them to jail or prison. No, and athletic career can be destroyed by a jealous or despicable high school coach who feel that it’s necessary to sabotage the student athlete’s dream of athletic success.

It does happen all the time; the athletic success derailed by a high school coach, school administrator or some unknown individual out for revenge or just plain jealousy.

There are millions of stories of high school student athletes who were extremely talented, but who received absolutely no help or guidance from their high school coach.  Those student athletes’ careers ended at the high school level all because of a mean and evil high school coach.

This kind of thing also happens in college, where you’ll have some jackass college coach who will do whatever it takes to ruin that athlete’s career.

I’ve seen it happen; a college coach will sit a player on the bench never to play that player.  I’ve seen it with my own eyes while in college, where players are frustrated with the system or the coach and they just quit.  Being a student athlete in college and you quit playing your sport that you’ve worked your entire life to be apart of is extremely devastating to that athlete.

The fact that you were forced to quit is sometimes a life changing decision because as athletes, we are trained to never quit-to never give up.  Athletes are conditioned to give everything they’ve got to their sport no matter what.

For an athlete to make the decision to quit in college is a horrible decision to make and no athlete should ever be placed in that situation, but it does happen and surprisingly it does not matter how big or small the college or university.

Sometimes there really is no life after sports for most of these young athletes. The reason I say that is because so many athletes put everything they’ve got into being the best they can be athletically.  When you work to develop your athletic skills from a very early age all away through high school and into college sports, it’s very hard to quit.

The devastating part about athletics is how ugly it could be.  For all the joy athletics can bring there is often a side that we don’t hear about; how careers end, how players end up lost without athletics in their lives.

I’ve known many athletes who were very talented, who were the absolute best at basketball, a star in football and baseball but they seemed to be fish out of water when they could no longer play their sport.  I believe the reason is because of the passion athletes have developed over a long period time towards their sport.

After a period of athletic development, the passion for sports turns into love and sometimes love is hard to give up.

The destruction of the high school student athlete starts in high school, that’s when everything counts towards college.  When you enter your freshman year of high school your academics count towards college and everything you do is recorded on your transcript which is a permanent record.

If you do poorly academically or are persuaded to take classes that are not going to help you get into college then this could have a harmful affect on student athletes’ academic futures.

A sport, to an athlete, is like oxygen to the rest of the world; without it you will not live very long.  I think sports have that kind of affect on athletes. Sometimes if you’re doing well athletically, it’s like you have more oxygen, you feel unstoppable without it, you go through life in slow motion always searching for that burst of oxygen.

Final thoughts: When athletes train themselves for a long period of time to become athletes, it’s almost hard to think about doing anything else in their life.  Hearing the cheering of a large crowd at a basketball game is an incredible sound and feeling.  You know they’re cheering for you because of a great play you made or something outstanding you did.  Nowhere else in life are you going to run across that experience! Only athletics can do that for you.

I think that’s why you see so many former athletes who are coaches or who are involved in some type sport; it is just so they can stay close to the game.

If you like this blog post, then please sign up for my weekly newsletter. It’s free!

So you’re not going to Ohio State University or any other big-name college!

Posted on by
Reply

Many high school student athletes only know the big-name college programs and it is truly understandable to want to play at a major college program.

Many student athletes make the mistake of thinking that they can play at a major college program or that they have the talent to do so.

Trust me; if you had the talent to play at a major college level they would recruit you.

Your not going to a major college is really on the player’s talent level and skill. Some of you have it and some of you don’t.

The players in high school who have not figured this out are the ones who will end up making bigger mistakes and trusting all the wrong people when trying to find the right college program.

Many high school athletes are not focused enough on looking at many college programs.

You’ll have student athletes who will try junior college or prep school in an effort to get to the major college level not realizing that they are using up their eligibility in this dumb process!

Keep in mind; you’re not going to a major college because someone out there feels that you are not good enough to play at the major college level.

College coaches are looking for the best talent for their programs no matter what sport and they’re not going to bring in players that can’t compete at the major college level.

It does not matter that you were an Eagle Scout or sold Girl Scout cookies! Talent is king here! Either you have it or you don’t!

High school athletes do yourself a favor and have a plan on how you’re going to get recruited for all college programs.