The benefits of athletics are well known. I experienced them through participation in every sport my high school offered. Discipline, competitive spirit, cooperative teamwork, a sense of accomplishment and self-worth not to mention physical fitness. School sports provide entertainment. Sports increase school spirit, even class attendance, for non-participants.
Some athletes do better academically than students with more time on their hands.
And even those who don t can excel at something. For thousands of years sports and games have helped prepare our youth for the combat called war. Today that training is provided by the video games that simulate our computer-controlled weapons of war. But thankfully sports and games are still with us. The question is whether they need be in schools .