School sports refer to athletic programs in the context of the school setting. They refer most often to interschool competition at the middle/junior high school and high school levels in the United States. Interschool programs at the elementary level vary among communities. School sports also include intramural competition, but such programs are very rare. In the mid-1990s, intramural sports involved only about 450,000 middle, junior, and senior high school students, or 3 percent of the high school–aged population.

Purposes of School Sports

The objective of school sports is the enrichment of the high school experiences of students within the context of the educational mission of schools. As such, school sports should be educational and contribute to the overall education of all students, not athletes only. Other objectives of school sports logically follow from the educational mission: citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, teamwork, respect, and health and welfare of all students not only during the school years but continuing into adulthood.

Origins of School Sports

Two major forces were involved in the development of interscholastic sports in the United States: the school program, specifically physical education, and students. The initial focus was almost exclusively on boys. Within the school program, Luther Gulick established the New York Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) in 1903, and similar leagues were organized in 177 cities by 1915. The purpose was to encourage a healthy, strong body and mind through competitive exercises. The PSAL initially conducted “class athletics” in grades five through eight at specific times each year, not interschool competition as it is known today. Class athletics included seasonal track and field events (fall, standing long jump; winter, chinning the bar; spring, running sprints). PSALs also emphasized swimming, popular sports of the times (baseball, football, basketball), and several minor games.

Interscholastic high school sports for boys had their origins in student organizations in the 1880s. They were motivated in part by intercollegiate sports, especially football, baseball, and track and field. Activities of sports clubs attracted the attention of administrators and faculty, who had major reservations about the time and energy devoted to sports and effects on the schools, including the small number of boys involved, quality of coaching (clubs often hired their own coaches), unsportsmanlike conduct, use of “ringers” (nonstudents, professionals), outof-town travel, length of schedule, interference with school work, lack of carry-over value, injury (especially in football), and emphasis on winning, among others.

Although the welfare of high school athletes was a major issue, more important, perhaps, was concern of faculty and administrators for the reputations of the schools and the perceived need for adult control. These factors contributed to the formation of state high school athletic associations, such as those in Michigan (started in 1895) and Indiana (1903). State associations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin formed the Midwest Federation of State High School Athletic Associations in 1921, which became the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations in 1923. The name was subsequently changed to the National Federation of State High School Associations in the 1970s when the fine arts were established as a program area.

Two important factors in the acceptance, or perhaps tolerance, of interscholastic sports by administrators and faculty were the scholastic performance of boys and school retention. Boys did not do as well as girls in school, dropped out more often than girls did, and were commonly behind in grade level. Between 1890 and 1920, the majority of public school students (56%–58%) and graduates (61%–65%) were girls. Child labor and compulsory schooling laws, which were passed early in the twentieth century, contributed to increased school attendance.

A related factor was the emergence of progressive education and how it addressed the needs and problems of boys in a coeducational setting. The percentage of women teachers in high schools increased (65% in 1920), and an important role was attributed to interscholastic sports in meeting the needs of boys in this context. Educators “sought to instill a more masculine tone and temper in the schools, in part by co-opting the informal interscholastic athletics that the boys themselves had created” (Tyack and Hansot, p. 166).

Interscholastic sports spread rapidly from the 1930s through the 1950s, at a time when the medical and physical education communities were opposed to competitive sports for elementary and junior high, and occasionally high school, students. Sport opportunities for females also increased, but school sports were largely the domain of males. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which was implemented in 1975, increased sport opportunities for girls.

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This time of year, my blood runs green and gold for the Green Bay Packers. My father grew up in Wisconsin during the Vince Lombardi era. I grew up in Detroit where people only complain about the Lions. I don’t think it was ever a decision… I was born a Cheesehead.

Last night, I watched the Packers “new” quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, in his starting debut. The drama was high… it was not only the first game of the season, but the first Monday Night Football game of the season. The Packers were playing their bitter rivals, the Vikings, at home in historic Lambeau Field with more than 80,000 fans to cheer them on. It was the first game in 15 years that Brett Favre has NOT started for the Packers. A new day was dawning for the Packers and, while I still admire Favre, I was personally rooting for Rodgers knowing all of the pressure he was under.

Late in the first quarter, the Packers were literally a half yard away from getting on the scoreboard with a touchdown. It was 4th down, Rodgers had the ball and defenders were coming at him quick. He was standing as still as a statue. I could hardly bear to watch. “Throw the ball! Throw the ball!” I screamed. At the last second, he threw the ball, the pass was complete and TOUCHDOWN GREEN BAY!

It was a great play and I was thrilled for Rodgers, the Packers, the 80,000 fans, and my dad!

Later, during half-time, the commentators explained the exceptional skill behind Rodgers’ play. A skill, they say, he learned from the legendary Favre. Rodgers kept his helmet straight ahead towards the end-zone, completely perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, and used his peripheral vision to scan the field. This approach kept the defenders in the lurch because they could not anticipate if he was going to go left or go right, which gave Rodgers a big advantage.

This tactic explains why Rodgers appeared to be as still as a statue; why the anticipation of that play was almost more than I could stand. To the untrained eye, it did not look like he was doing anything; like he was just standing there and at the last second threw a “lucky” pass. Instead, it was a brilliant play. It was all about strategy!

Strategy is a tricky thing… you don’t always know when someone is being strategic. The process of using strategies often remain invisible to the untrained person but they generate remarkable advantages. Strategy has its place in many different circumstances: in sports, on the battlefield, in the business world, and even in school.
Most students, and their parents, are surprised to learn that there are strategies that can make homework and studying easier, more effective, and even more enjoyable.

In the game of “school-work,” time is often your opponent. Homework and studying can take hours, which make these tasks so dreadful. With a little bit of strategy, however, you can cut your time dramatically.

For example, imagine you will be studying a specific science unit for the next three weeks in school, with an important test at the end of the unit. How long would you expect to study for that test to get an “A”? Three, four, six… ten hours?

Would you believe 90 minutes?

It’s true… if you study “strategically”. Your brain remembers information best if learned in small chunks. So, if you review your notes and textbook everyday for three minutes, your brain will absorb the information better than if you wait until the night or two before a test to begin studying. Three minutes a day times 15 class days is a total of 45 minutes.

Three nights before the test, review all of your notes and the textbook for 15 minutes. Continue again two nights before, and then again, the night before the test… and you will have spent only 90 minutes preparing for that test.

You don’t believe me, do you?

Try it for yourself. When we use our brain strategically, it is capable of doing so much more than you can imagine. For some reason, however, we are all trained to believe that learning has to take hours and a lot of work. That’s just not true.

Anyone can benefit from strategic learning skills. “Straight A” students often earn their grades by pouring over their homework for hours and sacrificing free time. They don’t have to.

Struggling students struggle because they do not have a strategy. They are often overwhelmed (and bored) by all of the lectures, textbooks, and new information. They have no idea how to process all of it effectively. Some students can only cope by tuning things out. Others put in some effort, but are quickly discouraged. Strategies, however, can transform this overwhelming experience into a simple process and open a whole new world.

The key to Aaron Rodger’s great football play was not how fast he ran or how hard he could throw the ball… it was how smart he played the game. When it comes to school-work and homework, you CAN work smarter, not harder.

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