By Nate Dougherty
In many places, the three-sport high school athlete is an endangered species. Whether it's fall baseball, indoor soccer in the winter, or summer volleyball leagues, more young athletes are being pressured into choosing one sport to play year round. This becomes especially important when college scholarships are on the line and student-athletes are more or less forced to pick one sport just to keep up with competitors.
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But Eric Braun is bucking conventional wisdom. A senior at Pinckney (Mich.) Community High, Braun decided to play basketball in the winter rather than focus on preparing for the upcoming track season. Though he admits basketball isn’t his best sport, he knew he could fill a leadership role that would be more important than practicing wind sprints for spring track.
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"I considered not playing basketball, but with my position on the team as a leader, I didn't want to let a group of guys down that I had been playing with forever," Braun told the Livingston Community News.
Critics say the pressure to attend camps and play a primary sport all year is taxing on young athletes and can lead to overuse injuries. It’s an issue Dr. William Rose, a Middletown, N.Y., physician, has seen firsthand. In the past few years he’s treated a growing number of young athletes, which he attributes to the specialization trend.
Rose says the pressure to stand out among college recruiters—about one in every 58 high school student-athletes will get some kind of scholarship money—is leading many young athletes to burn out. Because of this, minor injuries can eventually become serious joint and ligament problems.
"When kids get injured, my biggest challenge is getting them to stop," Rose told the Times Herald-Record. "They look at me like, 'Stop everything?'"Yes!" Rose tells them, "for a week or two."
The push against specialization is something Justin Sorensen has also taken to heart. The soccer-loving youth decided to give football a go in high school and became one of the country’s most accomplished place-kickers. He booted a 62-yard field goal, the Utah state record, and has accepted a scholarship to play for BYU next season. Sorenson said he’s learned a lot from playing soccer, especially about team dynamics.
"Soccer, for me anyway, is a lot more team-oriented," Sorensen told The Salt Lake Tribune. He added that football doesn’t seem as team-oriented, at least for a kicker. "We're kind of the lonely, outcast losers," he joked. "[Soccer is] a little more relaxed. It's not all on you."
Despite the pressures on young athletes to specialize in one sport year-round, some schools are fighting back against the trend. South Lyon (Mich.) High School actually allows student-athletes to play two sports in a single season, declaring a primary sport which takes precedence over the secondary sport. It also gives an Ironman award to student-athletes who play three sports for all four years.
Even though they may fall behind competitors in the college scholarship quest, student-athletes who play multiple sports find other benefits. Take Denzel Benson, a senior at North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Ind. As a freshman he was doing poorly in classes, and the school’s baseball coach made a deal that if the grades improved Benson could be the team’s manager. It worked—his grades went up, and the next season Benson played on the j.v. squad.
For Benson, playing three organized sports during his high school tenure—he also played basketball and football, which he plans to play when he goes on to Anderson University next year—helped keep him focused on his studies.
"I used sports to motivate me," he told The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne. "I did my work in class, stayed up and stopped sleeping in class. I did what I had to do. Sports really motivated me to do everything, to respecting my coaches to coming out here and doing everything out here for these guys even though I wasn’t the best player out there."
Nate Dougherty is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.
FEEDBACK:
I see many athletes who do club sports at the same timd as varsity
sports and there is a definite conflict. These athletes believe they
will be seen by more scouts if they play club soccer year around. They
play 6-7 days/week and come to me for various overuse type injuries.
Some will not give up either sport. They may play club soccer and high
school basketball during the same season or year round softball - going
into club after a school season with no break. Parents pay high fees for
club sports and believe their kids will been seen by more scouts if they
participate in club sports.
Many of these athletes do not participate in weight training because
they are always in a season. Some have been injured and decided to
eliminate one. Some continue to play through minor injuries and parents
push them to continue to play. These are 14-17 y.o. athletes and their
bodies breakdown from overtraining. I continue to treat sprains and
strains that will not get better because the athlete and parent continue
to push. It is unfortunate trying to specialize has its price
- P.J. Gardner, MS,ATC
Athletic Trainer
Colorado Sports & Spine Centers
Liberty High School
All comments will be reviewed before they are posted.