One of the first principles we are taught as kids is that we should strive to be the best (especially in athletics) in everything we compete in; operative word being everything of course. Growing up in DeLand, the battles on the basketball courts, soccer fields and baseball diamonds were all I lived for outside of my daily classroom routine. The vivid recollections of getting up well before the sun to catch the bus to school, then wait for Mom or Dad to pick me up with whatever gear I needed to change into and shuffle right off to practice are still front and center in my mind as I drive past those same fields or see some of those old teammates of mine around town. Academics (house rules 3.25 GPA or higher) were the only prerequisite for signing up and committing to play a sport. Not time. Not logistics. Not money.
Let me make this clear though, my family didn’t exactly print its own money for registration fees, nor did we have the mini-van with the magnetic stickers on the back with the DVD screens in the headrests for “entertainment”, nor did the world add another 2-3 hours to its 24-hour cycle to allow me the time to do all of these things to their fullest and most effective extent. I simply thought the only way to stay out of trouble was to wake up, go to school, play ball, come home, eat, study, and repeat the cycle approximately 300 days a year. The other 65 were designated for the summer camps for my respective sports and the weekend trips to see live games when the opportunities presented themselves. Yep, sports WAS and IS life in my house. There have been times where the pity party is in full effect and the guest of honor (yours truly) has had to stop and ask, “What the hell happened to my childhood?!” Answer? “Nothing.” Or should I say, “Everything.”
There have always been multiple sport athletes that have had to make tough choices due to financial resources or logistics, but the emphasis on “sport specialization” as we’ve evolved as a sporting culture has begun to erode in my opinion this country of some of its most diversified people and their gifts to be shared with the rest of us. We place such an exorbitant amount of pressure and money to succeed in ONE sport that we often forget the same player could very well be entertaining us or showcasing their skills in an entirely different arena. To me, this is highway robbery.
To me, this feels like someone saying that no matter how good you are at being a capitalist or an entrepreneur, it’s to no avail because we need to give someone else a shot and that’s just the way it is. Sorry kid. Maybe some other lifetime, but not this one. I don’t care about sports being a socialistic endeavor when it gets to the collegiate level. Leave the “social” in socialistic to the frat boys and sorority chicks. Trust me, they’ll be there. Always. Let the boys from ATO or Sig Ep relive their dreams on the intramural fields while you help to bring in millions of dollars to your schools programs that help fund THEIR ability to be on campus in the first place.
College sports (and now specific HS sports) are big business and if I’m the CEO (or in this case an AD or head coach) or a “friend of the program” then I want my money spent wisely. If I can get one guy to do two jobs better than two guys doing two jobs what am I supposed to do? Aren’t playing collegiate athletics essentially jobs too? What am I missing?
May show my age slightly here, but when I think of multiple sport athletes the first two that flash into my head are Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. Hard to argue those guys being anything but “prime” examples of multifaceted athletes that showed my generation what it meant to stick with not one, but ALL of your loves as a kid. There are also these dudes named Jackie Robinson (UCLA) and Jim Brown (Syracuse) that showed THEM or their parents/guardians/coaches what it was to shed the mantra of being superior at one thing and adequate at the rest in order to “allow” for others to have the opportunity to have a shot at their dreams. They were told, “You go play what you want, and you be the greatest to ever do it. Screw what the rest think of you.”
The very nature of sport specialization in my opinion teaches us how to be one-track minded. It gets us totally focused on ONE thing. It keeps us motivated for ONE thing. Guess what? How many of you past and present had to learn the hard way that success in sports is based off of MANY things? How many of you got to the point of no return in your ONE sport and thought, “Crap, I may not like doing this the rest of my life. I kinda liked the ability to switch gears physically and mentally. What the hell happened?!”
Of course this editorial is predicated on you actually being more than adequate at whatever your secondary sport is, but when I look at players throughout my sporting career both on and off the fields combined with the players I see before me in the Tampa Bay Area nowadays I think to myself, “Wow, what could have been, or what could be.” I look at athletes as athletes, not (insert sport here) players. I see kids like Ryan Green (who will poster-ize you in nanosecond like something straight out of Lob City), Travis Johnson (one of the silkiest power forwards in-training at the prep level I’ve witnessed) Gary Simon and Nelson Agholor (outright gifted athletes) in football and basketball. I see kids like Leon McQuay III and (insert any Jefferson WR’s here) and start thinking about their track and field efforts. I see kids like Chase Litton and think, “Good Lord, if that kid was left-handed and could paint the corners with his fastball…oh my.”
The “motivation” or inspiration for this came about from a quote I read just the other day from an article written over 4 years ago online in which the coach simply asked, “What other sports does he play?” This coach has won national championships, is a current NFL Head Coach, and knows a few things about talent evaluation. He even went on to say, “I hate kids that don’t play three sports in high school.” The premise being how are you supposed to learn about TEAM concepts if your exposure to TEAM concepts is limited?
The transcending nature of being around like-minded people that will push you to be the very best you can be at many different things in life is something we’ve tried to impose on our youth, but we haven’t yet figured out how to show them the TRUE value of it while in the moment. Sadly, many of us don’t seem to appreciate it until we’ve already lost the teachable moment about becoming physically and mentally diversified in all aspects of life through sport. Again; my opinion, but who reading this hasn’t said? “If I had just stuck with….(insert other sport here)”
How many hypothetical situations about who can cover LeBron James in the open field if he were a TE have been bantered about since his time in the pros? How many times have we heard the names Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez mentioned with potential greatness had they stuck to BOTH sports not just one? Gates wasn’t even a football player his entire life. What about guys like Brad Johnson who actually backed up Charlie Ward while playing basketball at FSU? Funny how ONE was considered the mold that ushered in the new era of athletic QB’s while going on to be a model of consistency at the PG position in the NBA. Even funnier that we now see who ended up being labeled as a World Champion. (At least funny to me, but probably not Mr. Ward.)
My point is that within this increasingly complex sporting culture of ours, the idea behind “keep it simple stupid” has never been more important. If you are an athlete that has the ability to play more than one sport, then why aren’t you doing it? I’m pretty sure I don’t sound like the old man yelling at the kids to get off my lawn when I say boredom to kids UNEQUIVOCALLY means trouble. Especially to those that KNOW and WANT to be a part of whatever it is that can get them out of the house and into school. Sure, the sports themselves may be complex, but the concepts are not. Stay active. Colleges are shifting towards ATHLETES not specialists especially within the 1-AA and lower divisions.
Schools must make the best they can out of the available resources. If they can get you to provide what they need without hurting their bottom line THEY WILL take you up on your offer and we already know about the ability to find guys at any level, in any corner of the universe with social networking and media. Not every one is a machine nor capable at making it as a singular activity. Those guys are the exceptions, not the rules. Rings are meant to be earned, not taken. If you pigeon-hole yourselves into thinking, “Geez, this is the ONLY way I’m getting a ring at the next-level,” then you’ve lost your perspective.
Who cares if your greatest accomplishment came in the sport you least thought it would come? Who cares if you thought you were the next coming of Barry Sanders or Emmit Smith? Ask yourself this question and answer it SERIOUSLY. Who would you rather be? ‘Bo Knows’ or Primetime? Or would you rather be a specialist that essentially left their careers with questions needed to be asked? Look at all four in their athletic primes. Who do you still talk about? Who do WE still talk about? You got to the next level because you’re part of the new rules, no longer the few exceptions to said rules.
You got there because you weren’t running around dreaming up ways to recreate situations during the offseason to keep your mind sharp for your main sport, but because YOU WERE DOING what it is that you should have been taught from day one, and that is competing. No matter the scenario. Now get off your butts, get off the sticks on Madden, and go hit something with a stick or kick something or lift something or DO SOMETHING. The sporting world is not going to wait for you any longer to diversify your athletic portfolio or your brand.