Allison Wood
EMS Press
Traverse City East MS
1st Place
MS Division, News Writing
Sports Feature Story
Aubree Weller ‘19 wants to play softball, basketball or volleyball in college. But she knows doing so requires more than just her athletic ability.
“I do think that students should have a certain Grade Point Average (GPA) because if they are on the sports team and they’re not owning up to their grades, they are not going to be able to get into a good college to continue playing,” she said.
Middle school has had a no-cut policy. Anyone can play on any team. For sports played from kindergarten through eighth grade, the school uses the Learning Enrichment Athletic Program or LEAP.
The mission statement for (LEAP) program is that it is to “support successful academic achievement for all students,” there is no formal grade policy.
“It’s an ambiguous set-up,” assistant principal Ben Berger said. Berger directs the LEAP program at East. “There’s no real black and white.”
But poor grades and/or bad behavior can still be addressed.
“We don’t have strict guidelines,” Berger said. “But being a student athlete is a privilege so if your grades and behavior don’t reflect that, we’ll address it on a case-by-case basis.”
In high school, athletes are required to take and pass at least four classes in the semester before the season and maintain a 2.0 GPA for all classes taken during the season. If that standard is not met, athletes must sit out for at least week.
But many believe the standards for middle school participation should not be as strict as those in high school.
“I think in the middle school the ability to participate in sports shouldn’t be based on their GPA but based on their effort and attitude. For high school and college it would be different,” Dave Haughn said. Haughn is a former coach of multiple high school sports.
In high school, grades matter at a whole other level. While many high school athletes hope play in college, the odds are not in their favor.
According to NCAA research, of more than 1 million high school football players, only 6.5 percent will play in college. It’s even harder to make the basketball team in college. Of more than 500,000 men basketball players, just 3.3 percent will continue to play in college. For women, just 3.7 percent will play collegiate ball.
In college, not only do you have to be one of the top players in your sports, you also need to have good grades because they are vital to your chances of a scholarship.
“ I would not like to continue sports into college because I wouldn’t be able to manage a sports and keeping up with my academics.” Bronson Wood ‘15 participates in football and golf at Traverse City Central High School.
But the grade requirements for athletes may help students keep their grades up. Students participating in one or more interscholastic sports had an average GPA of 3.151, while non-athletes had an average of 2.4, according to a study of interscholastic sports participation published in the journal of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
According to NCAA, starting in August 2015, high school students-athletes who hope to pursue sports in college will be required to meet higher academic standards. College freshmen only need a 2.0 GPA to be eligible for competition now, but new rules require student-athletes to have a 2.3 GPA to have immediate access to compete.