Kids can't all be star athletes. Here's how schools can welcome more students to play [View all]

Going into his last tennis match of the school year, high school senior Lorris Nzouakeu knew he might get knocked out in straight sets. He was scheduled for one of the first matches of the day during the regionals competition in western Maryland, against a student from another school who'd won the championship last year.

"So it wasn't really looking good at the start," he laughs. "My goal was definitely to continue rallies and maintain pace and also just have fun."

"Fun" is sometimes hard to find in high school sports. Gunning for college athletic scholarships, many students and families go all in – focusing on one sport and even one position from elementary school. It's also big business – the whole youth sports industry is worth $19 billion dollars, more than the NFL.

For a lot of kids of all ages, sports are not working for them. Less than half of kids play sports at all, and those that do only stick with it for about three years and quit by age 11. That's a whole lot of kids missing out on some of the huge benefits of sports, including spacial awareness, physical activity, and team skills.

Increasingly sports educators, health researchers and parents are pushing back against this trend and arguing that playing sports should be for all kids.

During the last few pandemic years, physical activity fell, while obesity rates and mental health challenges grew, note Tom Farrey and Jon Solomon of the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program in a 2022 handbook for reimagining school sports. At the same time, interest in sports has grown, which "presents an historic opportunity for schools to reimagine their approach to sports," they write.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/07/1180481518/kids-cant-all-be-star-athletes-heres-how-schools-can-welcome-more-students-to-pl

I had to sit through boring daily study halls. I would have welcomed a flex "playtime" with a variety of sport choices rather than the rigid PE classes I was forced into. Think outside the box!