Benefits of Playing High School Soccer
February 6, 2018 and Updated 4/2020 Written by Ed Weil
The Benefits of High School Soccer in the US
Many of you read the blog on “Pay for Play” and asked about the benefits/reasons for opting to choose to participate in soccer at the high school level, instead of following more of the model that we see in the rest of the world where soccer participation is reserved at a club level, with playing opportunities not typically offered within the schools.
Here’s three rationales for playing soccer or any sport in High School. It breaks down to the development of the entire scholar athlete. Development of the:
- 1) Mind: (Positive /Supportive Educational Environment) 2) Body: (The opportunity to develop a healthy body by playing different sports or two in the 3-season offered in US Schools)
- 3) Spirit: (Being competitive and create solutions for now and in for your future roles and making a difference in life)
These are some of the many benefits for a student who plays soccer for their High School in the USA: A unique holistic approach that emphasizes accessibility and balance:
Playing soccer in high school is unique to the US as we are one of the few countries in the world that offers soccer as part of the high school sports program, as opposed to reserving play opportunities solely to outside club play. The high school promotes a student-centered coaching philosophy; scholar athletes, where learning and good grades are first and foremost.
- Mind –Positive/Supportive Educational Environment
Integrates soccer into a learning environment that promotes diversity and exploration who are you really are? How can a player Accomplish and Encourage to develop their mind in school and on the field, Student athletes learn that success comes from effort to learn how to improve? Be Positive with a can-do attitude—Do It! They learn more about themselves and feel/see improvement in themselves and among their teammates.
When playing for their high school, a student/athlete enters a structured learning environment that is supportive in the classroom and on the field. This environment nourishes the player’s mind and helps builds a player’s character and self-esteem to handle the daily challenges before them.
The student becomes active and develops a healthier body by participating in soccer, but optimally is also encouraged to explore alternate sports outside of soccer when not in season, as well as many extracurricular activities and clubs.
The student athlete is guided to develop tools for success, including time management, comradery and collaboration with other players, and teamwork. A dedicated teaching team at school is there to give guidance and support in both education and athletics to develop a healthy growth mindset.
Focus on development of the entire student athlete:
Social, personal and psychological development are learned through life skills, healthy lifestyle, sportsmanship, leadership, and citizenship as the student’s self-perception and cognitive awareness are developed. The whole person is being developed – mind, body and spirit.
Promotes the benefits of physical activity in other aspects of their lives:
Staying active through soccer can make you feel happier and has major health benefits. Studies also suggest that student athletes are less likely to participate in unhealthy or risky behavior when they are playing soccer and other sports in high school. And athletes can use sports to reduce pressure and stress. Those who were active in sports like soccer, track, cross country, basketball, swimming, baseball, softball, football and lacrosse performed 10 percent better in core subjects like math, science, social studies and language arts. Research shows higher GPAs result.
Most importantly, because high school athletics is designed to offer athletic experience opportunities for all – regardless of financial means, race, religion, ethnicity, gender – these academic benefits are accessible to the entire student population, including students that might be traditionally underserved especially important due to the cost and exclusion of the less fortunate in club soccer.
- Properly Develop the Whole Body
Encouraging Athletic Diversity Across Three Seasons:
It is important to return to the age of two out of three-sport athletes. It has been well-documented that student-athletes:
Earn higher grade-point averages.
Have fewer behavioral problems.
Have better attendance rates
Build healthier bodies with less injuries
And do not burn out and enjoy playing each sport
Early diversification provides the young athlete with valuable physical, cognitive, and psychosocial environments and promotes motivation and growth mindset development. Healthy body = health mind
High Schools offer the opportunity to play multiple sports during their 3 seasons. Every sport requires the development of different sets of muscles. It enables the athlete to develop a healthy well-rounded body for the future. It becomes challenging and fun for the student athlete to learn and experience new physical skills. They are also developing moral character, becoming more resilient, and a becoming a stronger person physically and emotionally. Leadership qualities and character are also developed as the student plays the different sports.
Additionally, if a student plays more than one sport, besides developing a new group of friends, they learn how to cooperate and compete fairly. When the student athlete attends practices and games, they learn to work together, share passion for their sport and overcome challenges. This builds bonds that can last through school years and even for a lifetime. Sports such as swimming, running, tennis, basketball, baseball, soccer and golf can provide regular physical activity training for a lifetime.
- The Spirit – the scholar athlete to compete in life
Developing Scholar Athletes for Life Soccer presents a multitude of opportunities for athletes to broaden their perspective and build a robust and powerful toolkit of useful life skills.
The soccer emphasis on
- Techniques and skills development
- Ability to process and build upon one’s experiences
- Teamwork and mutual respect
Mental goals are built to develop:
- Enabling ways to improve and learn “who you are” (see other posting)
- Strong focus, build one’s concentration and purpose to be productive, personal and purposeful to be useful and make a difference in life
- Internal skills for handling pressure and adversity
- Learning when to take risks as part of a team and student
- Develop one’s discipline, determination and desire to improve, (the 4 + Ds)
Plus enjoying the fun and rewards of playing with and for the very same classmates at school. A team approach to achieve success is found in the combination of school and soccer. The soccer 3Ps extend beyond the classroom: persistence, patience, and practice.
Other tools athletes are called upon to develop – and things all coaches should have integrated into their curriculums:
Time Management
Practice and games take up plenty of a student’s time, leaving much less for schoolwork and other activities. Athletes must learn time management skills if they are to get everything finished. Finding the minutes to do homework, go to practice, enjoy friends and get enough sleep can be challenging. But the student athlete learns how to balance and be a more organized, efficient person because of participating in the combination of school and soccer.
Collaboration and Cooperation not found outside of schools
Coaches and teachers can show the way by encouraging the players to work together on projects and assignments and setting of goals all aimed at achieving what is important in life. Encouraging helping each other in class and on the field. Helping to develop self- confidence and social skills needed in life. Parent, coaches and teachers stressing learning together to solve challenges will impact both academic and athletic success. (soccer and other sports)
Together Everyone Achieves More- “the new team” Parents, teachers and coaches:
- T – Together
- E – Everyone
- A — Achieves
- M – More
The Engine Behind All This: The “Teaching Team”
- Role models/teachers/coaches: High school athletes are exposed to positive mentors, from the teachers in the classrooms to coaches on the sidelines to the leaders on the team.
- Students learn to work with a wide range of authority figures, who teach them important lessons about hard work, respect and good sportsmanship. Early experiences with mentors, teachers, coaches and parentshelp shape student athletes in positive ways for the rest of their lives. The teachers/coaches and parents (teaching team approach) all stress in the US good grades first and then enjoy your sports. This experience is lost in the international club only approach.
- The desire to play coupled with need for grades results in everyone helping the student athlete to succeed – many times teammates join in the process to help a player remain playing with them by helping them improve their grades.
- The winning combination is having both coaches and teachers caring and stressing values which support and build upon the family’s efforts. The teaching team stresses the importance of good grades.
- Grades matter!
- Developing the techniques and skills to improve oneself in school and on the field. Stressing good behavior, sportsmanship, Leadership, and supporting one’s school/teammates. The new team must work together and share info on the players development – a team effort for the growth of the player.
Create life-long Friendships.
Students who participate in soccer and other sports often forge close friendships with others on the team. These relationships are essential for mental, emotional and physical health throughout the high school years. Students bond together over a common passion, and the time they spend together at practice, team dinners, fund raising efforts, games, doing homework, enjoying friends, and involvement in other school activities builds tight bonds that often last long after high school is over. Players do need to bond and build life-long friendships in school and on the teams- being a part of a similar peer group. Playing to enjoy the sport and the friendship created by it. It begins in the school and reinforces the need to learn and how to learn.
Players grow by overcoming problems together- by being someone one can count on. Players get to know each other by doing homework or talking about and understand what is being taught in the classroom. Players grow as a team celebrating success and by sharing one’s feelings on soccer and spending time playing the game, practicing and team bonding at team dinners and events.
As student players they are creating lifelong friendships and support groups. They find the common ground to build the successful life skills base they need for the future
Builds Good Citizenship
Student athletes learn to support and play for their school, classmates and community. They learn to give rather than to take. And they learn the benefits of representing their school and community on the field or court. Teams that work together on charitable activities – fundraising or volunteer work – are excellent pathways to pursuing good citizenship.
Learn /Develop Leadership Skills
Leadership is learnable and there are many ways to learn how to become a leader–it begins with leading oneself and one’s classmates/teammates teaching each other how to be more effective leader. Student athletes are offered within the school from the curriculum, teaching team and outside community leaders as mentors to experience how one can see, witness, learn and practice leadership.
High schools offer many ways to develop your leadership capabilities by being captains of their teams, watching other people in leadership roles, as officers in community service organization, school clubs and helping the school function from the newspaper and yearbook management to the student government. Inspiration, transparency, trust, reputation, purpose, and commitment have become the operating currency of leadership. And high school prepares/teaches one to use leadership skill for shaping history in their lives.
Schools help develop overall a scholar athlete to compete in life
One complete learning experience emerges: our schools and teaching team on/ off the field is fostering positive relationships in order to create, motivate, mentor and influence athletes to develop on and off field habits that lead to individual and group success now and in the future. These fosters learning how to be a good team player, student and citizen.
There are few things more satisfying than working together toward a common goal. (Every person’s effort impacts the rest of the team, and every teammate is accountable to each other). Soccer within the school setting provides a lesson in teamwork for today and the future.
Being a scholar athlete helps everyone make a difference in life and it is a fun experience to share.
Coach Ed Weil. United Soccer Coaches
Discover the possibilities: “Be more than you think you are”
Hopefully, this is why today’s MSA, licensed and professional coaches can also benefit by being a part of the high school experience rather than being apart from it.
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