Playing sports is often correlated with a lot of positive attributes outside of the playing field. Sports improve your overall physical health and many people view sports as an outlet from the business of everyday life. Although sports improve these categories mentioned above, many athletes on both sides say sports negatively affect their academic performance. The Voice of the Saints dug deeper to see if that argument is correct.

  Many students have felt that sports have declined their academic performance. The argument against any extracurricular sports says that sports take up too much time. When a student gets home from practice or a game, they don’t have enough time to study which causes mediocre or poor performance in the classroom. Also, others argue that students who pursue athletic goals are less likely to pursue academic goals, such as a higher education degree. Studies have shown that athletes do three-tenths of a grade point worse than regular students in three out of ten classes.(sd. state.org

On the other side, there are also lots of arguments that link playing sports to increased academic performance. Research shows that participation in light to moderate physical activity especially in the morning can significantly and positively impact a student’s ability to access knowledge and experience, and apply organizational, inhibitory, and memory skills ( According to childfundrugby.com). 

At Seton, Coach Chris Sinicki believes that sports positively affect your permanence in school as he constantly tells his athletes the link between the two activities. Freshman lacrosse player Rory Callahan believes he does his best in school when he is in the season because he is more engaged than he usually is. However, sophomore basketball player Max Bergman believes he does worse in school during the season. He states that ¨it doesn’t give him enough time for his studies¨

Although it might vary from person to person who believes the sport’s positively or negatively affect your academics. Overall, there are more arguments and studies in which sports positively affect your learning experience and academic performance. There are good arguments on both sides but through research, however, it the link between sports positively affecting your academic performance has more data than it negatively affecting it.