![]() By: Jeanne Huynh From swimming to basketball to volleyball, I have played sports my whole life, and I still do to this day. Through personal experience, I know that there is a plethora of health benefits of being physically active, not to mention the impacts it has on mental ability, mood, etc. However, I can say without a doubt that a large part of the reason why I am still active today is because I have been given the freedom to switch between different sports. I am not confined to just one, and the privilege to choose from a variety maintains my interest in playing sports. Although KSJC does offer a variety, the options that are given are far lacking in comparison to the sports of other schools. Due to KSJC’s small campus, its sports department does not have access to the facilities and provisions that other schools have at their disposal, such as its own gym, swimming pool, football field, etc. Even though these complications limit KSJC to having just a few sports, the myriad of benefits that will ensue is worth the cost of developing more. Here are four reasons why KSJC should invest in more sports teams. 1. It will promote student involvement and physical activity. Being fit is a quality that most people strive to achieve in their lives, but many of the students at KIPP do not join its sports teams – and therefore do not maintain their physical health – because they feel as if sports is not for them or none of the sports offered are of any interest to them. By creating additional sports teams, the school is opening up a wider selection that will cater to the interests of a larger pool of students, thus encouraging more students to be physically active. Introducing a greater amount of sports, especially sports that are not common, serves the interests of students who specialize in a particular sport, not to mention that it also increases the chances of piquing more students’ interest, even if some students do not have prior sports experience or are currently not physically active. Below are the responses of some students who either do not currently play any school sports or only athletically involved in school sports for one season out of three during the school year because none or a limited amount of the sports they are willing to join are unavailable for them.
* Some responses have been altered for clarity. Judging by the amount of students willing to join a sports team if only it was available at KSJC, it is safe to say that, with its current sports program, KSJC is losing many prospective student-athletes. 2. It will increase school spirit. As a student, I know for a fact that my schoolmates have less pride in KSJC than students of other schools, mostly because of what the school calls its campus. The sense of pride in KSJC is fleeting, only rekindled during the occasional rally, Pack Night, or when news spreads of one of its sports team’s victory over another school’s. If KSJC wants to address the issue of its low student morale, the solution is straightforward: increase opportunities for greater student involvement in the school and allow students to feel as if their school is better than other schools. The more sports teams KSJC has, the more victories it will bring home. As a result, students will gain a sense that their school is just as competent – maybe even more so – than other schools in the area, making them feel proud to be a part of KSJC. Potentially, this will bring a realization of the benefits of representing a community on the court or field, inspiring more students to join sports teams and be involved. 3. It provides more opportunities for students who cannot afford extracurriculars. Most of KSJC’s students come from low-income families; compared to many of the students that attend larger public or private high schools, a lot of KSJC students were or are not able to afford the same privileges, including tutoring in a specific school subject, music lessons outside of school, club sports, etc. To address the issue of underserved students, one of KIPP’s policies is to educationally accommodate students regardless of their backgrounds or financial situations. The same policy should be addressed with KSJC’s sports program. Increasing the amount of sports offered also creates more openings for KSJC’s students to gain the athletic experience that many students outside of the KIPP system have automatically. 4. Being involved in sports improves academics and teaches life lessons. Countless studies have shown that student athletes perform better in core subjects, miss less school, and have higher average GPAs than their non-athlete counterparts. The reason behind this may lie not in the lessons taught in school, but the life skills learned through sports. Students who play sports acquire valuable leadership skills and learn how to cooperate with a team, how to maintain social relationships, and how to manage time, to name a few. Because having a greater variety of sports teams will spur more students to be athletically involved, KSJC’s student population will show signs of improvement not only in academics, but also in themselves. At the moment, creating a larger sports program may not be possible for KSJC, considering the limits of its location. Nonetheless, introducing additional sports is still possible if KSJC gains permission to utilize more of the facilities on its host school’s campus. However, in the case that KSJC is permitted to build its own campus in the future, it should prioritize its needs and design a campus that may accommodate the athletic aspirations of its students.
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March 2020
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