School sports are a blast! You are with your friends! You are working hard! You are having fun and getting better while doing what you love to do! Practice might go a little longer than planned, and there might be an open gym afterwards for you to get some one on one time with the coach or a friend. Homework? Who cares!! You can do it later!.....NO!! You are a “Student/Athlete!” If you are going to participate in extra curricular sporting activities, you need to have good grades!

Having good grades shows that you are capable and responsible enough to play sports! Some might say that students don’t have enough time for studying or homework because they need to focus their time on improving their skills. Responsible students can excel in both their sports skills and their academic ones, too! Megan Hodge, the 2009 AVCA Division 1 volleyball player of the year says, “Grades are very important. Depending on the level of academic success at the school, grades could be very influential when it comes to impressing college coaches and getting a look.” As you become older, grades and sports become more and more important so it is necessary to develop good responsible habits ahead of time so you will not struggle with it later in life.

If you have good grades, it is likely that you will be chosen over another student with lesser grades, to receive a sports scholarship to college. College is becoming more and more expensive and many students have an enormous amount of talent, but they cannot afford college or they can’t keep up on their grades. Therefore, they end up working at McDonald’s or Wal-mart instead of going to college and beginning their lives! According to www.sportsscholarships.com (a website of former college coaches, college athletes, and sports writers), if you want to play in an NCAA Division 1 or 2 school, you must have a 2.0 GPA (or better) in your core classes. The higher GPA the better. College coaches want to recruit athletes who will be successful in the college classroom. If you want to be one of the lucky people from your school who is recruited to play a college sport, you need to have good grades!!

In my own little home town of Evanston, Wyoming, there have been more than a few VERY talented people who were offered sports scholarships to colleges around the country. Many of them are doing fabulous! A couple of others are still very good athletes but they lost their scholarships because they couldn’t keep the grades! Some of them were depending on the scholarships for college so when they lost it, they had to drop out of college because they couldn’t afford it!

Along with some of the athletes who have excelled, there are many athletes around the country who have become extremely well known and talented in not just sports but grades! Basketball star Michael Jordan graduated with a 3.6 GPA. Track and field athlete Carl Lewis on average has a 3.77 GPA. Track star Sanya Richards was in Honors Society and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Football player Peyton Manning on average has a 3.61 GPA. All of these athletes have been extremely successful and they were able to keep their grades up! No longer should focusing on sports be a valid excuse for having bad grades. These stars were required to have good grades in order to play the sports they enjoyed so much and became so good at.

If students are going to participate in after school sports, they need to have good grades. If they ever want to become successful and play beyond high school, they need to learn how to keep their grades up. College coaches look for great athletes with good grades to recruit for a college career. If you are one that wants to become an amazing athlete, keep your grades up, and you might get scholarships then continue on to be a star!