Graduating Students Debate Playing Sports at Universities

By: Ryan Childress
Staff Writer

Sports bring students together as well as promotes good health and would benefit many student athletes if they continued their sport into college.

In today’s world, it can be hard to balance the craziness that achieving an education can bring, friendships and occasionally a job. To make a student’s load even more grueling, many Green River students are athletes.

To non-student athletes, this workload may seem crazy and unachievable, but these students have explained why they continue to work through the large amount of extra-curricular activities.

To some student athletes, the first and foremost reason to be an athlete on top of being a student is that it helps them maintain friendships that could last forever.

In a world dominated by screens it is hard to have face-to-face interactions with one another, finding a meeting time that works in between your part-time job and class is even harder.

Ronan Klancher, a student at Green River College, said, “…it’s all about having fun and meeting up with friends.”

Klancher plays on the Green River College’s baseball team and comments that he has made lots of friends since he joined.

Klancher is not the only student who has made friends by being a part of a team, something bigger than school sports.

Xavier Bendorf has made many friends through his sports of cross country and the track team.

The main reason that Bendorf competes is to achieve his goal.
When asked about whether he would do sports in college and why they are important, Bendorf said, “Yes, [people] should do sports in college, but at the same time it depends on the person.”

He added, “The reason why I think you should do sports in college is one, you get to compete at the college level and two, you get to achieve a goal that you wanted.”

To Bendorf, playing sports is not just about making friends, but is also about bettering oneself and reaching self-set goals one wants to succeed in their future.

Goals and friendship are both amazing reasons why student athletes participate in sports, but there is one more underlying reason as to why they’re amazing.

There is a huge health benefit from playing sports. When you go outside and run with your teammates for 30 minutes and then pump iron with them to boost your hitting power, you are getting your blood pumping and strengthening your muscles, which sculptes your whole body into better shape.

Athletes know when they have bonded when they see their teammates limits and then see them push past it because they are there to help and support them.

Student athletes who bond with their teammates also have a potential study buddy. How could one better spend their time than shooting 100 layups and then heading back over to a teammate’s dorm to study for that midterm in biology.

One does not have to be the best athlete to play a sport, but if someone wanted to play and learn then they would find that their teammates will always have their back.

Coaches are sometimes seen as a second parent for athletes; players can confide and look up to these positive role models in their lives that are there to make them the best version of themselves.

With the end of school approaching fast, it is the perfect time to sign up for summer leagues or fall teams to continue the awesome experience of playing a sport and working with a great team.