PHOTO CREDITS: ALLIE BARNARD
BY ALLIE BARNARD
High school athletics serve as much more than just a means for students to get exercise outside of gym class or to fill time as an extracurricular activity. For an athlete, it’s a lifestyle- and for their community, it’s a source of unity. High school athletes not only devote incredible amounts of time committed to their sport, but also their blood, sweat, and tears. They do all this in the hopes that they can emerge victorious in local meets, advance to regional and state competitions, but most importantly, give their community something to take pride in. The complication that arises with this high school athletic ambition comes up when communal pride becomes subject to strong-armed private school recruiting. When lucrative educational offers are made to talented young athletes by private schools, it’s difficult to keep local talent at home. This enables a vicious cycle where private schools have an unfair athletic advantage over public schools, something that many public high school students have come to detest.
Rivalries are a natural component of high school athletics. Everyone wants to take pride in the fact that their home town can be the best at something, no matter what the sport may be. This has been a driving motivator in many of our lives ever since we started participating in optimist sports during our elementary years. We’ve always taken pride in those outstanding players that could be counted on to help a team emerge victorious against competitors. The star athletes always stood out as being distinguished from the rest. When students get to high school, that’s when everything changes. Rather than continuing to stand out at their respective local high schools, athletic prodigies are snatched away by private schools and we’re often left with the few talented athletes that feel enough communal pride to stick with their local public school.
It’s perfectly understandable that a talented athlete offered a high-quality private school education would take the opportunity that they’ve been offered. Being granted a prestigious learning environment and a significantly greater chance to have a winning athletic season is something that would seem ludicrous to turn down, for the parents and students alike. An advantage academically and athletically is something most families find invaluable. Who cares about community pride when there’s an opportunity to have advantages in high school that will only lead to advantages in college as well. Chances are, a student will be better prepared for college acceptances. Besides, college scouts are much more likely to take interest in athletes at these top-ranked schools. Why pay attention to the few public school prodigies when there’s clusters of talent to be found elsewhere?
It may seem rude and mean-spirited to say that a talented high schooler doesn’t deserve these previously-stated privileges, but the matter of the fact is that no student is more deserving of these luxuries than any other. If a student’s parents can afford a ritzy education, then more power to them. The reality is that there’s equally deserving kid’s with artistic, musical, and academic abilities that go unrecognized. Prodigal violin players don’t get offered reduced-tuition private school educations, and neither do talented painters. The importance of athletic success for a school gives an unfair advantage to those that are athletically inclined.
Students should attend their local high schools, despite being athletically gifted beyond others in their community. Keeping the talent at home would mean public schools could really compete with others in their area, including private schools. Not to mention the fact that they could mentor others on their teams to help build up talent. It would give local athletes a fighting chance against private schools, and that’s something to cheer about.
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