Many students here play at least one sport; how many students do you know that play two or more? You may know some, but chances are your answer is you don’t know many.

There are many reasons for sport specialization in high school athletes. There are also a variety of other reasons. Some athletes are chasing the elusive college scholarship and don’t want to miss out on training and the possibility of not progressing in their main sport.

Being an athlete myself, I understand the monotonous routine that single season sports provide in their off seasons. There are many drawbacks to playing only one sport. For me, it was never getting away from my main sport, dealing with the personality of only one coach, fighting boredom, and becoming unmotivated. I also suffered injuries from playing the same sport year round. A recent study done by stack.com showed that if you are a multi-sport athlete, there is an 85% chance you will lower your risk of overuse injuries, meaning that if you do the same motion over and over it can cause injuries that sometime can be the result of no longer being able to play your desired sport.

Golden Valley’s star quarterback and golfer Christopther Melkonian is one of Golden Valleys’ well known dual athletes. He said that, “Golf has helped me with my football primarily from a mental standpoint. I’ve played football all my life and just starting golf last year has given me a break from football year round. I feel like it has made me love football more because I was away from the sport and my teammates which made returning to the sport that much more special.”

Another reason playing multiple sports is beneficial to student athletes is you’re not around the same coach year round. You learn how to deal with different coaching styles, and different people, and learn from those different styles. There are also many crossover skills that can be beneficial from one sport to the next. Getting faster on the track helps football players with their speed. By playing a sport like basketball or lacrosse a lot of the movements are the same, thus transferring from one to the other is easier than others. If you are an athlete who enjoys constant competition, playing more than one sport will prove to be more advantageous to you. If you play the same sport year round there’s no excitement when the next game comes along. Sometimes athletes play multiple games in a weekend at tournaments. Sometimes each game is just another game. Where’s the motivation? Where’s the excitement? It’s just another game.

Obviously, different coaches have many different styles of coaching. Most coaches do not like when athletes miss off season practices for another sport. Some coaches on the other hand disagree, Tony Moskal, the golf coach at GV is a huge fan of multi-sport athletes. Mr. Moskal, the golf coach, sports broadcaster, and overall sports analyst feels that when students play multiple sports, they are less likely to get burnt out and more excited to be on the field. He expressed that when coaches don’t like their athletes playing different sports, its for the coaches themselves being selfish. It is not in favor of the students.

Colleges are more likely to recruit dual athletes because of the fact that any sport will help their main sport, either mentally and/or physically. It shows that the student is motivated and good at learning new skills, and managing their time which will be beneficial in college because they will have new teammates and an entirely new coaching staff.

One may think that neither sport helps the other but Coach Moskal disagrees. “Chris is a quarterback and sometimes he’s going to throw an incomplete pass or an interception. He’s got to have a short memory and not let that affect him because he’s going to have to throw the ball again. It’s just like golf, if you hit a bad shot you have to put it behind you and think about the next one. Chris loves golf because it’s a nice escape from the grind of football, and the break causes him to love and appreciate the sport even more. He also pointed out that colleges may like dual sport athletes because it shows their ability to compete in different areas of life.

As we go forward with sports this year, I think it is safe to say that being a dual athlete will benefit you as an athlete overall. If you hear that a coach does not want you to play another sport during the off season, just know it has nothing to do with you as an athlete and everything to do with the coach.