Treasure Coast Sports Journal Spring 2014 Spring 2014 | Page 20

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Tr e a s u r e

A

C o a s t

School and Sports

S p o r t s

J o u r n a l

s a St. Lucie County School Board Member, I am a
strong supporter of high quality sports in public
schools. Most children love sports. Both research
and life experiences shows athletic activities are great motivators in academic success. For many young people, being
involved in school sports
will make the difference in
whether or not they stay
out of trouble, graduate
from high school or go on
to college. I recently had a
conversation that helped to
further open my eyes to
the impact our student’s
extra-curricular activities
(with a focus on athletics)
have on their education.
What was eye opening was
that the impact is derived
from experiences that
aren’t necessarily in the
classroom, but still impact
what a student learns and
how the information they
are presented is processed.
The conversation in question was one I had with my
son-in-law. He’s a college
graduate, a professional,
and a person with educational experiences at both
private and public schools.
While discussing the experiences in high school that
best prepared him to excel academically in high school and
college, I noticed that not all of them where classroom related. One of the determining factors in his desire to pursue
a college degree was rooted in the fact that he played high
school sports (football specifically), and excelled at it. When
I asked him what specifically stood out about playing football in relation to academics, his response was simply “That
I was able to do it, whatever it was, I could do it”. I probed
further to get an understanding of what he really meant.
Here is his story.

weeks of football season took place before school officially
opened. Monday through Friday we would report for twoa-day practices during the middle two weeks of the month
of August. The heat and humidity made it a particularly grueling time, but I found enjoyment in it at the end of every
practice when Coach Fed
would call us to “bring it
in”. The team would all
drop to one knee in a circle
around him and he would
speak to us. At some point
during the second week it
occurred to me that Coach
Fed hadn’t once closed
practice talking about anything that had to do with
football. It was in those
closing moments that he
chose to talk to us about
our education, about being
young men and how to
carry ourselves, about having a drive to learn all that
you can whethe