Dear Cardinal Sports’ fans,
Summer is in the air, the beach calls, and families enjoy a break from school and work. I
wanted to share some thoughts over the summer as you begin your plans for the new
academic year regarding participation in high school athletics.
High school sports in many ways are better than ever. Coaches, facilities, media coverage
and opportunities for young people have never been greater; 21 different sports at Bishop
Ireton. Those options give today’s athlete choices not available a generation ago. Do you play
one sport with a focus on a college scholarship or play a number of sports during the year;
different teammates, different experiences? Can the athlete do both?
Our coaches want to win; they believe that participating on the summer league team,
attending the open court/field, and so forth make the athlete and the program more
competitive on game day, but they also realize our stated policy is to encourage
participation. The student/athlete perhaps dreams of a scholarship opportunity and doesn’t
want to jeopardize either their playing time now or their scholarship opportunities while
they play other sports. Pressures, real and perceived, can develop.
St. Francis de Sales suggests to us to “live in the moment”, to realize the gift of this day. High
school is the last opportunity for the vast majority of young people to play sports
competitively, even for some that aspire to more after graduation. As your athlete considers
the year ahead, they ask themselves the question, “if I knew my athletic career was to end at
graduation, would I play more than one sport”?
If the answer to the question is “no” that is fine. If the answer is “yes” however, I would
encourage students to try those activities. Certainly Ireton depends upon the multiple-sport
athlete, and in fact, our best athletes are most often the multiple-sport students. They gain
great pleasure from the different experiences, teammates, and coaches. That is the objective
of our program, to better prepare students for life, not just athletics.
The quest for the “big payday”, whether it is a scholarship or contract, is often a difficult
experience. Many more students leave Bishop Ireton with academic scholarships than
athletic scholarships. Generally those academic awards are larger than sports can provide;
without the practices, mandatory conditioning sessions, and other requirements levied on a
college student/athlete. Make no mistake, your athlete may not receive a “full scholarship”
but college athletics at every level demand a full commitment from them.
This is high school and it is important to remind ourselves of that sometimes. It is a time for
youngsters to explore and discover themselves as they hurtle toward adulthood. I hope our
graduates don’t look back at what they missed rather than enjoying all that they did!
It’s GREAT to be a Cardinal!
W. W. Simmons