Pros and Cons of Participating in a High School Sport

High school sports played a huge role in my teenage years. I did track all four years, cross country for three years, and soccer for a year. Looking back over my high school experience, I can see both the pros and cons of doing sports.

Pros of Participating in a High School Sport

1. It helps you learn the importance of exercise.  I learned to love exercise and realized it needed to play a part in my life. It allows me to feel better, be more productive, clear my mind, and become happier. These are things I realized I never wanted to give up. 
2. It provides a great way to meet new friends. I met so many incredible people. 
3. Sports teach you multiple life skills. Every sport and person is different so life skills will vary. Sports helped me learn commitment, hard work, leadership, determination, and more. 
4. Motivates to get better grades. To play a sport, you must have a certain GPA. 
5. You can have coaches that change your life. I had coaches that made me who I am today. They helped me more than they will ever know. I am so grateful to these coaches. They were incredible leaders who led by example. 

Cons of Participating in a High School Sport

1. It is time-consuming. Sports take time! I put in hundreds of hours practicing and at sporting events. 
2. You can have coaches or leaders that promote poor choices.  I went to a soccer camp that taught me how to have poor sportsmanship. I have seen coaches who use fear, anger, and harsh words to coach. 
3. You can have coaches that shouldn't be coaches. Coaches can have a lasting negative impact on athletes. Sadly, this is all too common. 
4. Peers can be mean. I have no coordination. My family was a soccer family, and I was awful at it. Our high school also struggled in soccer, but I was the worst of the worst. Some teammates were not great at hiding their frustration with me. This can be hard when you are a teenage girl. 
5. It can become the only thing that matters for years to come. Some too many people graduated yet could never move past their high school sports days. Their teenage years were the highlight of their life. They tried to relive their glory days any chance they got. If they had kids, they would try to live through their kids. This is an unhealthy mindset. 
6. Some sports can lead to permanent injuries. There are many people out there who suffer from a high school injury. My dad damaged his knee badly while playing football. 

"Our goal is to help the world make decisions with a list of Pros and Cons. We invite all to add to our lists to help others make the most educated decision possible. We are all in this world together to help each other and learn from what others have learned from their lives journey."    - Pros and Cons Team  Written by: Kristen