West is home to many athletes that give their time to plenty of sports and activities. We also have lots of athletes who choose to focus their time and energy into perfecting one sport to ensure success. There can be disadvantages and advantages to both of these types of athletes. The question is: what’s more beneficial for students just trying to succeed? Well, it all comes down to what the end goal is with their sport. Some studies have shown that being a multi-sport athlete leads to more well-rounded students.
According to the University Hospital’s website, orthopedic surgeon Jacob Calcei said, “A lot of the best athletes in pro sports and at the college level played multiple sports in high school. Diversifying makes you a better, more well-rounded athlete, and makes you better at your primary sport.”
It also leads to enhanced opportunities to meet new people and experience different types of team environments.
“I think being a multi-sport athlete has introduced me to a lot more people and I have made a lot more friendships through my teams,” senior Ellie Holdorf said.
With being involved in so many activities comes time commitments, which is a disadvantage for some kids.
“I think one struggle has been that I have been super busy and stressed throughout high school and I never really got an off season,” Holdorf said.
It may be too much for some kids to try to juggle multiple sports in addition to other things outside of school such as work, homework, or other hobbies. That’s where the appeal of centering your time around one sport comes into play.
“Only doing dance allows me to focus on what I love to do. Since it’s so time consuming I can’t really do anything else. I used to be a multi-sport athlete but since I want to continue my dance career outside of high school it was crucially important for me to continue to train and focus on what I want to do in the future,” senior Addison Aleksiejczyk said.
Not only does playing one sport relieve the stress of trying to balance your time, but it can also lead to more success in that sport of choice.
“When I quit everything else that I did, I moved up way faster in cheer and I progressed way better. I also feel like only doing one sport is easier on the body,” sophomore Kaylee Kormann said.
There are many benefits to being involved in one sport, or multiple. The issue comes when some people on the team are putting their 100% into a sport and other people are not because it is considered their off season sport, or they do not plan to continue it after high school.
“If you notice, West has so many multi-sport athletes which is amazing and shows how well rounded they are but if you actually look at it, the commitment level is not the same for each sport. Which honestly is where a lot of our sports fall short because you have people that are serious and want to continue their sport after high school, but then you have others that only give 75% of effort and time because they don’t have the interest of other teammates,” Aleksiejczyk said.
This may cause problems when these multi-sport athletes have events that overlap and are forced to choose between their activities. Although West holds many talented athletes, there still seems to be a lack of participation from different kids.
“I think other schools have a lot more kids playing sports and parents are putting their kids in sports from a young age and helping them focus on that sport. But at West I feel like we have a lot less athletes, so they are spread out between sports since coaches will ask them to come play other sports,” Holdorf said.
This may be why there are so many athletes at West who participate in multiple sports and activities. We simply do not have a large enough athlete pool to pull from, so coaches look for athletes already in other sports to try and recruit.
Whether you participate in one sport at West, or three, everyone just wants to succeed. This looks different for every athlete since not everyone shares the same goals. Some think choosing your activity and sticking with it is the way to go, while others think you should try to explore and do as much as you can while you are here. In the end, there are both benefits and disadvantages to each type of athlete, so you have to consider both sides when deciding the type of athlete you want to be.
