Athletics help students achieve, stay out of trouble
By Keith Amemiya
After enduring five consecutive years of budget cuts amounting to 9 percent annually, Hawai'i's public high school athletic programs are facing further budget cuts of 18 percent or more for the coming school year — cuts that will have a devastating impact on our more than 30,000 student-athletes statewide, via elimination of sports and significantly reduced support and services.
Advertiser library photo
Therefore, there is no better time than today to underscore the importance of high school athletics. Indeed, the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association and its 84 member schools strongly believe high school athletics to be an integral part of our students' educational experience, as athletics teach many lessons that aren't as easily replicated in the classroom.
Multiple studies have found that students who participate in sports do better in school than students who do not take part in athletics.
Countless studies affirm the benefits of participation in athletics in conjunction with our schools' academic mission. For example:
• A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study found that students who didn't participate in athletics were 57 percent more likely to have dropped out of high school by their senior year, 49 percent more likely to have used drugs, 37 percent more likely to have become teen parents, 35 percent more likely to have smoked cigarettes, and 27 percent more likely to have been arrested.
• According to the National Education Commission on Time and Learning, more than half of the teachers participating in a survey singled out "children who are left on their own after school" as the primary explanation for students' difficulties in class.
• A Hardiness Research study concluded that: by a 2-to-1 ratio, boys who participate in sports do better in school, do not drop out and have a better chance of getting through college; the ratio for girls who participate in sports and do well in school is 3-to-1; about 92 percent of high school athletes do not use drugs; high school athletes are more self-assured; athletes tend to take more demanding classes; athletes receive above-average grades and score above average on skills tests; athletes have knowledge of and use financial aid and have a better chance to finish college; parents of athletes appear to be more involved in their children's activities; and athletes appear to change their focus from money, cars and clothes to life accomplishments.
Athletic programs provide pracitical lessons — teamwork, sportsmanship, winning and losing, and hard work. Through participation in athletic programs, students learn self-discipline, build self-confidence, and develop competitive skills.
These are qualities that the public expects schools to produce in students so they will become responsible adults and productive citizens.
Participation in high school sports is often a predictor of later success — in college, in a career, and in becoming a contributing member of society.
• Admissions officers at Harvard, Yale and 70 percent of the nation's other major universities have stated that participation in high school athletics is a significant consideration in deciding which applicants are accepted for enrollment.
• A survey of individuals at the executive vice president level or above in 75 Fortune 500 companies indicated that 95 percent of those corporate executives had participated in high school athletics.
Aside from this compelling evidence to fully support high school athletics, there's our severe crystal methamphetamine problem. Almost everyone agrees that our state is facing an epidemic of grave proportions with respect to the crystal meth crisis, which negatively affects all of us in one way or another on a daily basis.
Ask anyone involved with our high school students — whether it be our teachers, administrators, coaches, the police department, and even our students' parents — and they will tell you that one of the best ways to keep students active, productive and out of trouble is to provide them with meaningful co-curricular activities such as athletics.
On the other hand, these same people will tell you that one of the quickest ways to get our students involved in harmful activities such as crystal meth experimentation (and eventual addiction) is to eliminate athletics as an after-class activity.
All of the recent community forums and sign waving, the task forces and the summits are a great start toward eliminating this devastating crystal meth epidemic. However, all of these efforts will mean little if we don't directly address the ice problem by, among other things, fully financing drug prevention programs such as high school athletics.
Indeed, allowing the budget cuts and inevitable elimination of sports would eventually cost us many millions of dollars more as we face the costs of increased incarceration and treatment programs — not to mention the toll exacted by ice, in terms of domestic violence, child abuse, property crime and violent crime.
High school athletics should always continue to be an integral part of our youth's educational experience. Coupled with our state's alarming ice statistics, high school athletics should be more important than ever.
By fully financing our public high school athletic programs, we will be making a wise investment that will allow us to make great strides in our battle against ice. Let's not let a severe problem get even worse, because it will.
The time for talk is pau. The time to act is now.
Keith Amemiya is executive director, Hawai'i High School Athletic Association.
