I loved coaching. It gave me information about my students, and the students of other teachers, that I could use to good affect in my classroom. I enjoyed seeing my students as athletes. I loved watching them interact with each other, form friendships, develop teamwork and team goals. I worked with them to enjoy victory and to learn from defeat.
But I also saw what sports took from education. It began with distorting the purpose of physical education. Instead of teaching life long skills to ALL students, it took a handful of students and gave them a superb education in one or two sports. It stole time from academics for pep rallies and team travel time. It stole money from the general fund to buy uniforms, equipment, coaches, and support staff. It taught several generations of poor kids, especially black kids, that athletics were more important than academics. It created scouting and recruiting of athletes from one school to another, from one school district to another. It has now created schools whose sole purpose is developing athletes in two or three sports.
Then there's the coach/teacher aspect. I know a few teachers who were able to teach as effectively in season as out. I know more whose devotion was never to their subject, but to their sport. The Ohio State Board of Education knew this as early as the 1950s when they recommended that the history minor be dropped because too many coaches were teaching social studies and the results were telling in the the results of proficiency tests and SATs. (Of all Ohio colleges, only Ohio State followed this guideline.) Woody Hayes recognized this problem in his coaching course by including a ten-question current events quiz every Friday along with a ten-question quiz over the material he had taught. When asked why, he stated, "Because in a few years most of you are going to be standing in front of a classroom full of kids and I don't want them thinking that the only thing you know is football."
When we celebrate our schools, it's for sports, not academics, for football, not music, for basketball not art, for scholarships not scholarship. We are ignoring the development of teachers, engineers, medical personnel, writers and artists. We are giving money in the form of entrance to schools and scholarships based on physical skills.
I sense that there has also been a greater separation/isolation of jocks from the student body. I went to class with All-Americans and lesser jocks. They took the same tests and were held to the same academic requirements. I wonder if that is true today. I wonder if it's even possible for the vast majority of scholarship athletes to be part of a normal student life. The time demands for practice, games, and media events have increased greatly. The time left for academics has to be the loser with more classes taken on-line, more "non-fail" courses developed to replace the established curriculum. Major programs designed to keep the athlete eligible as opposed to finding a career path.
Now comes NIL and the portal and if you can see this as anything less than the professionalization of "collegiate sports" you're way ahead of me.
As much as I have loved Ohio State football, I'm fast approaching a dilemma; can I continue to ignore what has happened to the ideal of "student athlete?" It's not the fault of the athletes. It's the fault of our education system, our institutions, and folks like me to continue to insist on bread and circuses while greater needs are ignored.
It's time to say:
1. The purpose of colleges is to educate, not create professional athletes.
2. Let MLB, NBA, and the NFL pay for the development of athletes.
3. Get sports out of ALL schools, K - 12.
4. Local clubs, associations such as the AAU will emerge on their own. Cities, towns, and villages can put sports into their parks and recreation budgets.
5. Let's stop prostituting education for the good of a handful of kids and make it about reaching more of our youth.
