# Sports in school is cool...and? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 14, 2026, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687 "2026-01-14T16:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/61 "2026-01-15T21:10:13Z")
I think that baseball has two viable paths into the big leagues. Start in the minor leagues or college and then minor leagues or possibly straight to the bigs. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/62 "2026-01-15T23:06:30Z")
Those are the paths to the majors from about age 17 and older, but what about from Little League to the minors/college? Does high school baseball play well with travel leagues (of which I understand there are many)? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/63 "2026-01-16T03:46:51Z")
> [@ricepad](#): > > Does high school baseball play well with travel leagues (of which I understand there are many)? It really depends on the region. In many areas, at top High Schools, there is a feeder club team that many of the players will come from. Others it’s a bit more nuanced, and some players might make their HS team from “lower-ranked” club teams. But I do believe that the very best HS baseball players do in fact play for a high school team (either at a prep school or a public HS). As well as for various club teams, prospect teams, scout teams, etc. There is an entire racket built up around convincing parents to pay thousands of dollars for their kid to play for a “scout team” that will play tournaments where college scouts will be. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/64 "2026-01-16T17:46:55Z")
I know three families whose kids (two baseball sons, one soccer daughter) skipped playing for their high schools, so they could play on “elite” teams. I guess it worked out wel, because all three of them got athletic scholarships for college. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/65 "2026-01-18T15:27:15Z")
I think whether it is positive or negative depends on the individual. I didn’t play sports beyond Little League baseball, but I observed guys in my high school that did. Dan was the quarterback on the football team, star pitcher on the baseball team, and also played basketball but wasn’t that good possibly because he wasn’t that tall (I’m only 6’-1” and he was easily a couple inches shorter). He was a regular guy, often played poker with my buddies and I, none of whom were athletes. He worked on his studies, not sure where or if he went to college, and judging by his current zip code did pretty well for himself. Jeff was the best swimmer our school ever produced. At the time, his name covered about 3/4 of the school records posted at the school pool. He was a lazy student and avoided most of the college prep courses. He died a few years ago, having been in his sister’s care after what his sister termed “a lifetime of bad choices”. There was no obituary for him that I could find. The difference was that Jeff peaked in high school, Dan did not. My opinion is that if you’re good enough to get on the team but not be the star, sports is probably good for you in learning to work with others for common goals. But if you’re a star high school athlete but not good enough for college or pro athletes, it can be a curse if you let it get to your head and think that life is a bowl of cherries and things will be handed to you. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/66 "2026-01-18T15:40:41Z")
I think a lot of these anecdotes back up what the only study I found (linked above) found. High school sports can be a positive impact on students that have strong personal drive, good executive function, etc. They can amplify positive traits that students already have, and are often structured in such a way that kids that are already on the “right track” will be successful and have those positive traits reinforced. But there isn’t much evidence that high school sports are any more effective at building positive traits in kids that don’t already have them than other activities like drama or band or robotics. Most of the data that shows that youth that participate in sports have better outcomes than those that don’t is just selection bias: kids that have positive work ethics, good physical genetics, etc are more likely to be successful in sports (and life). They are also more likely to have a stable family life (rides to games and practices, parents to register them) and more money (youth sports can be very expensive). @Cheesesteak did post an article that claims to show a specific benefit to sports at ages 16-17. I’d like to see the actual study and see if they included other extracurriculars beyond just sports. But I could see why the physical component is particularly useful during that age range. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/67 "2026-01-18T15:43:07Z")
_Sport, sport, masculine sport equips a young man for Society Yes, sport turns out a jolly good sort It’s an odd boy who doesn’t like sport_ - Bonzo Dog Band ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/68 "2026-01-18T17:07:07Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > But there isn’t much evidence that high school sports are any more effective at building positive traits in kids that don’t already have them than other activities like drama or band or robotics. One thing to keep in mind is that the benefits of an activity are dependent on the participant enjoying the activity. For instance, with those activities you mentioned, there isn’t a huge overlap in personality types in those activities. The drama kids want to be in drama, the robotics kids want to be in robotics, and the sports kids want to play sports. If the kids in those activities were shuffled to other activities, they wouldn’t necessarily have the same level of enjoyment and personal fulfillment. Whatever benefits they got from their desired activity might not be realized if they were put into other activities. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2026, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/69 "2026-01-27T23:56:52Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > My opinion is that if you’re good enough to get on the team but not be the star, sports is probably good for you in learning to work with others for common goals. But if you’re a star high school athlete but not good enough for college or pro athletes, it can be a curse if you let it get to your head and think that life is a bowl of cherries and things will be handed to you. Yeah, my wife’s cousin is like that. Apparently he was a really good basketball player in high school (whatever that means for a 5’9" white kid at Podunk, PA High) but as long as I’ve known him he never seems to have his shit together. Always in and out of various jobs. He’s been divorced twice. Basically an absent dad to his one son. But knowing my wife’s family, they are a bunch of conflict-avoidant enablers so I don’t think anyone’s ever told him “get your fucking shit together dummy”. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/70 "2026-01-28T06:15:56Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I can say the same thing of people I knew in the gifted program at school, or honor society. I think anything that gives kids a reason to think they’re superior to other kids, it’s going to produce assholes and bullies. Other school programs don’t _encourage_ aggression, violence, praise for “strength”, rulebreaking to win, and attacking the “weak”. They were effectively bully training programs in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/71 "2026-01-28T07:27:45Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Other school programs don’t _encourage_ aggression, violence, praise for “strength”, rulebreaking to win, and attacking the “weak”. They were effectively bully training programs in my experience. I’m sorry your school was so awful. They taught us to do the opposite of all that when I did sports. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/72 "2026-01-28T08:37:51Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > But could “studies” establish causation as opposed to just correlation? I think this is a crucial point. It’s probably impossible to untangle an existing interest in competitive team sports from any alleged character-building that results. Also, anyone attending high school is going to be involved in some sports, even if it’s at a minimal level and not formally organized. I was never interested in joining a formal team, but I did play hockey and was pretty good at basketball.\* I think those were just part of regular phys ed. The reality is that some people just aren’t very interested in sports, but that doesn’t make them social misfits. \* To those who doubt that a dog can play basketball, I refer you to the 1997 documentary _Air Bud_. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/73 "2026-01-28T08:50:44Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I googled a bit and couldn’t find any actual data at all. There were plenty of what are basically opinion pieces and nearly all of those are from sports related magazines and journals or just one person’s experiences. I don’t know how you were googling but 2 minutes on Google Scholar revealed the following to me: [The behavioral, psychological, and social impacts of team sports: a systematic review and meta-analysis](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913847.2020.1850152) > Team sport participation was associated with decreased odds of smoking/tobacco use, alcohol/drug use, and depression/anxiety. Though few studies mentioned potential negative effects of team sport participation, the majority reported improved behavioral, psychological, and social health outcomes in youth athletes worldwide. [Association of Team Sports Participation With Long-term Mental Health Outcomes Among Individuals Exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2734743) > among those with adverse childhood experiences, team sports participation during adolescence was significantly associated with better adult mental health outcomes, especially for males, including lower likelihood of having ever received a diagnosis of depression or anxiety and having current depressive symptoms. [The social and psychological health outcomes of team sport participation in adults: An integrative review of research](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1403494818791405) > There is consistent evidence that participation in a team sport is associated with improved social and psychological health independent of the type of team sport, age, somatic, or mental health problems. The findings indicate that team sport could be more efficient in promoting health and ensuring exercise participation and continuation than individual sport. However, when utilising team sports for health purposes, precautions must be taken with regard to their inherent competitive nature. All of them seem to pointing to established, large volumes of research already existing. Presumably anyone interested could dig into the literature review of each of these papers and find many more studies to cite. Standard disclaimer though that most of the studies cited appear to be correlational studies and it’s possible at least some of the causation runs the other way (people less likely to smoke/be depressed etc. are more likely to sign up for team sports) but at least the causation seems to be almost consistently in the direction of more team sports = better health/life outcomes. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/74 "2026-01-28T10:26:48Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Standard disclaimer though that most of the studies cited appear to be correlational studies and it’s possible at least some of the causation runs the other way (people less likely to smoke/be depressed etc. are more likely to sign up for team sports) Exactly my earlier point. It’s virtually impossible here to disentangle correlation from causation. Not to mention that most social studies are intrinsically infested with a high percentage of statistically-derived bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/75 "2026-01-28T10:33:32Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Standard disclaimer though that most of the studies cited appear to be correlational studies and it’s possible at least some of the causation runs the other way (people less likely to smoke/be depressed etc. are more likely to sign up for team sports) but at least the causation seems to be almost consistently in the direction of more team sports = better health/life outcomes. With health issues like smoking I’d expect it to be lower just because it makes them worse at sports. Although I wonder just how closely they looked for the use of “performance enhancing” drugs like steroids. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/76 "2026-01-30T01:55:50Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Also, anyone attending high school is going to be involved in some sports, even if it’s at a minimal level and not formally organized. I was never interested in joining a formal team, but I did play hockey and was pretty good at basketball.\* I think those were just part of regular phys ed. > The reality is that some people just aren’t very interested in sports, but that doesn’t make them social misfits. I think you contradict yourself, here. Some people just aren’t very interested in sports, and so those people are not going to be involved in sports in high school. Like me. I mean, I did what the gym teacher told us to in gym class, but I don’t count “struggling to survive through a class I hated” as “getting involved in sports”, even at a minimal level. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/77 "2026-01-30T02:03:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think you contradict yourself, here What’s the contradiction? I was never interested in joining organized sports, but I kinda enjoyed the hockey and basketball stuff that was part of phys ed. I saw the fun of it, but wasn’t fanatical about it, and never joined a formal team. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/78 "2026-01-30T03:06:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I mean, I did what the gym teacher told us to in gym class, but I don’t count “struggling to survive through a class I hated” as “getting involved in sports”, even at a minimal level. I still remember how amazed I was the one time I ran a whole mile in gym class. It seemed impossible, and was almost immediately followed by severe knee pain that resulted in two surgeries. It was like the universe was sending me a message. Who am I to resist fate? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/79 "2026-01-30T03:26:18Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I still remember how amazed I was the one time I ran a whole mile in gym class. … They made me run a mile too. And swim a half-mile. All I could think of after was, “Thank God I’ll never have to do that again.” > [@](#): > > It seemed impossible, and was almost immediately followed by severe knee pain that resulted in two surgeries. Eep! I didn’t encounter that, thankfully. I liked sports when I was in high school, but not team sports, which my high school emphasized. Football, rugby, hockey, basketball, volleyball, swim team, they were all there. But no tennis, archery, golf, or indeed anything that didn’t involve a team. There were some practical difficulties there (really, no school has its own golf course and few have a tennis court nearby), but those of us who liked participating in individual sports but not team sports that could be done at school, were regarded as just not participating in sports at all. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687/80 "2026-01-30T13:50:16Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I liked sports when I was in high school, but not team sports, which my high school emphasized. Football, rugby, hockey, basketball, volleyball, swim team, they were all there. But no tennis, archery, golf, or indeed anything that didn’t involve a team. It’s interesting that you didn’t think of swimming and track in the same way as tennis, archery, and golf. They are all structurally the same, in that an individual is competing on their own and the scores of all the individual competitors are combined to determine which team wins. My guess as to why you thought of them differently is that track and swimming are competitions based on maximum physical exertion. These sports are about how quickly you can get from point A to point B. If you can’t move your limbs quickly enough, you won’t excel in them. The other sports like tennis, archery, and golf are much less physical. You don’t win golf by finishing the round the quickest or hitting the ball the farthest. Winning in those other sports requires a variety attributes like dexterity, strategy, and mental concentration. There’s many ways to excel in those sports other than being the fastest or strongest. Also, there’s less of a feeling of letting your team down if you don’t have a good performance. In track and swimming, if you do poorly, it doesn’t affect the performance of your teammates. The team score won’t have as many points, but your teammates can still swim or run to the best of their ability. It’s too bad that schools don’t have more of these kinds of sports where people competed as individuals and the activity wasn’t based so much on peak physical performance. That would allow them to enjoy the competition aspect without so much focus on physical ability. It could even be non-traditional sports like darts, cornhole, and frisbee golf. There would still be competition and physical activity, but it would be a lot more inclusive for all abilities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-school-is-cool-and/1026687.md?page=5)