Reflections on Teaching High School Student Athletes

One Monday morning class, I remember congratulating a student for the win on Friday night. They thanked me. When I said I watched, they didn’t believe me. A teacher driving across state to an away game was unheard of. Students didn’t even do that, so they thought I must’ve heard the results from one of the coaches. By the next game, and up until the September before graduate school, I brought the Captain America shield so students would know I was there, and to remind them about defense.

This was the first of three shields (2013).

I made it a point to go to games so each of my students would have someone they knew in the stands supporting them. They had lives outside of the classroom, and playing sports was one way to connect a school community.

The student athletes I worked with tended to be very well rounded academically. Instances of student athletes being “twice exceptional” or 2E, having academic gifts and talents alongside a disability, learning or otherwise, seemed to be mitigated on the field. They chose their activity and became well-practiced in it.

All my professional high school science teaching experience comes from Louisiana. Archery, diving, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, and water polo didn’t seem to exist there, but in Seattle, I can point to people I’ve met here who played in high school. We had enough sports, though. I won’t dive into the economics and education finance dimensions of this topic quite yet, but I wanted to casually reflect on some of the teams students were a part of.

Swimming

This sport has the highest density of high academic achievers. Most of the swimmers were affluent; training required off-campus facilities. The swimmers also tended to be musically-inclined.

Track and Field

Since there were so many events and so much down time, I remember finishing lesson plans and grading papers at these meets. The wide-representation of schools also allowed me to catch up with other teachers outside of professional development time. Students ran, jumped, and threw objects. I recall an uptick in engagement whenever I used track and field problems for my physics class. Triple memes: Ghost Love Score Epic Maneuver, Leeroy Jenkins, and Xena.

 

Cross Country

This was one of the sports I hadn’t watched, but since I was often on campus after school, I’d see some of my students run their nth lap. We didn’t have indoor tracks, and as you can imagine, Louisiana is really humid. Even at football games in the evening, cross country students were still running around.

Soccer

Both men and women’s soccer were well-represented in my classes. I also saw a mix of family incomes in who played. They were all heavily involved with leagues, and I know someone who played semi-pro.

Basketball

The school I taught at was a basketball school with students going on to the NBA and WNBA. We had a student lead her team to victory in the NCAA championship, and those who followed were highly motivated. When these alumni return, it draws a huge community crowd.

Baseball

Over the years, I hadn’t had very many high achieving baseball players. Maybe it was because their season was late, but anecdotally, the young men who played baseball were the most stereotypical hybrid of slacker and jock profiles. They also left for games during class a lot of the time. It might also be that one particular group of students were wrapped up in cheating for my dual enrollment chemistry class early in the year.

Softball

Softball players, on the other hand, were often themselves very organized. However, I noticed a lower level of staffing to record game statistics. I always heard of scouts at the baseball games, but not much for softball. Still, I think their team dynamics were more wholesome.

Volleyball

This was the one sport students seemed to know most about because it’s one of the few actually played in their P.E. classes. I really appreciated the annual visit from my high school physics teacher since she coached the opposing volleyball team. The group hug after every rally was also very consequential in lowering team animosity.

Tennis

This was more of an individual sport, and it showed. Tennis rage was very clear. I remember a fairly cliquey bunch who were all striving to outdo each other.

I remember asking my one friend who played for Tulane and University of Wisconsin – Madison if that was normal, and I remember well her hustle and grindset mentality.

Powerlifting

These meets didn’t seem to happen often, but I remember a few record-breaking students. They tended to fill the gentle giant stereotype, and they always wanted me to just watch them pick up something heavy.

Wrestling

This wasn’t as big in the schools I taught at, mostly because of the representation of other sports.

Bowling

I’m considering it here. Bowling was inarguably an accessible activity with a lot of the social benefits of other sports. It was also easy to make physics problems about.

Cheerleading

I have to be honest. This was the one activity I feared because the chances of a head injury seemed so high. Yes, they practice a lot, but the risk was very high. Usually, the injuries were to limbs, but I recall at least one student each year having to cheer from the sidelines. The cheerleading competitions were also during the school day, so makeup tests were difficult since I constantly rotated versions.

One of the strangest cheerleader flexes was doing a pushup or tumble for every point, and against some teams, the counts got pretty high.

One cheerleader was nicknamed “One Above All” because she maintained a grade above 100/A in my class. When someone asked, “How did you do that?” she said, “I listen and take notes.” In a few years, she’ll be “Doctor One Above All.”

Football

One benefit of a football team in the South is how large the roster can be. This inherently made it so a lot of my students played, and aside from starting and play time, they didn’t need dramatic cuts. It was very competitive, with so many Louisianian young men striving to play in the SEC. Some football training facilities are definitely pay-to-win. I know I wasn’t going to discuss school finance, but those astroturf renovations for stadiums always made me raise an eyebrow. I get that in Louisiana the fields tend to flood, and yes, I care about reducing injuries, but astroturf, considering all other educational outcomes didn’t seem like the best use of resources.

As an aside: Also, the stand tunes meta was very strange. There were songs from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, obviously picked out by the band director, but also the list of pop songs curated by the drum majors. At the time, it was a lot Fall Out Boy, Adele, and Imagine Dragons, but also some Disney, cartoon, and video game themes. 

 

Since the marching bands had a half-time show season, marching season, and concert season, I loved watching performances evolve as they incorporated new students after band camp, but also as student athletes balanced their play time on the field and in the stands.

Discussion

I found it interesting that so many students who asked me for letters of recommendation played some sport. Some even played a few. Often, the reasons were social, different sports had different seasons, and for college admissions. Except my particular school and basketball and swimming, most didn’t pursue their sport in college beyond intramural.

The benefits of school sports have always been apparent to me, and I always had great appreciation of the social opportunities it provided. These students were rarely bullies. In fact, I heard the most criticism for the students who “just went to games” who didn’t participate in extracurriculars.

Student athletes had a drive that could be developed. A lot of them were hardworking. Few were motivated by having their rights to play taken away. Arguably, I think a lot of student athletes, at least in their season, were even more motivated to excel academically. Athletic, kinesthetic intelligence was also demonstrated and developed through activity and deliberate practice.

With all that said, high school sports are gendered and racialized.

How will they get to and from practice? Who shows up for their games?

Parent behaviors were also interesting. For their own kids, they were often critical, but for others it was always “Good hustle. You’ll get ‘em next time.” The fact some had to volunteer because they held some position in the booster club was also a curious window into some school politics, even going into the school board space. As I mentioned in my reflection about football, money and staffing gets earmarked for the athletic director budget, but austerity is the norm for covering classroom materials.

The politics of who gets to play is also concerning. In Louisiana, like other southern states, there is more than a specter of banning transgender students from a wonderful educational and affirming experience. I pause to ask, “Who benefits from taking away an opportunity?” The idea that scholarships are up for grabs ignores the very real observation that very few students continue to play in college. The immediate benefits to students playing sports far outweigh any negatives, which all come from discrimination anyway.