{"id":237,"date":"2015-11-25T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T03:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.wpengine.com\/?p=237"},"modified":"2015-12-03T15:46:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:46:52","slug":"making-the-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Making The Grade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allison Wood<\/strong>
\nEMS Press
\nTraverse City East MS
\n1st Place
\nMS Division, News Writing
\nSports Feature Story<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aubree Weller \u201819 wants to play softball, basketball or volleyball in college. But she knows doing so requires more than just her athletic ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that students should have a certain Grade Point Average (GPA) because if they are on the sports team and they\u2019re not owning up to their grades, they are not going to be able to get into a good college to continue playing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The mission statement for (LEAP) program is that it is to \u201csupport successful academic achievement for all students,\u201d there is no formal grade policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ambiguous set-up,\u201d assistant principal Ben Berger said. Berger directs the LEAP program at East. \u201cThere\u2019s no real black and white.\u201d<\/p>\n

But poor grades and\/or bad behavior can still be addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have strict guidelines,\u201d Berger said. \u201cBut being a student athlete is a privilege so if your grades and behavior don\u2019t reflect that, we\u2019ll address it on a case-by-case basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But many believe the standards for middle school participation should not be as strict as those in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the middle school the ability to participate in sports shouldn\u2019t be based on their GPA but based on their effort and attitude. For high school and college it would be different,\u201d Dave Haughn said. Haughn is a former coach of\u00a0multiple high school sports.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to NCAA research, of more than 1 million high school football players, only 6.5 percent will play in college. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201c I would not like to continue sports into college because I wouldn\u2019t be able to manage a sports and keeping up with my academics.\u201d Bronson Wood \u201815 participates in football and golf at Traverse City Central High School.<\/p>\n

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). <\/span><\/p>\n

According to NCAA, starting in August 2015, high <\/span>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allison Wood EMS Press Traverse City East MS 1st Place MS Division, News Writing Sports Feature Story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,67],"tags":[48,24],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nw","category-sportsfeaturestory","tag-48","tag-divisionms","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kelsey Parkinson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=3"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-3P","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}