Students at Jefferson-Morgan should be more active in athletics in order to have more athletic opportunities and lifelong health benefits.

Many students at Jefferson-Morgan are not active in sports and it could prove to be a problem for those students in later years. In a study taken by the Aspen Play Project adolescents who play sports are eight times as likely to be active at the age of 24 as opposed to adolescents who do not. Though this does not mean that students who do not play sports will not be active at the age of 24 they are very likely not to be as opposed to students who do.

Julian Sisler was interviewed and seemed to have a positive outlook on the topic. Sisler said, “I think more students should be active in sports because they build character and teach discipline”.

Although there are many with the same outlook as Sisler the students and adolescents participating in sports continue to dwindle. According to the Aspen Play Project In 2008 30.2% of youth ages 6 to 12 were active in sports to a healthy level. By 2015 that number dropped to 26.6%. It does not get any better with students ages 13 to17 those numbers fell from 42.7% to 39.3%. Although that is not a big change in number as you can tell the numbers are only going to continue to get smaller if we do not make a change. That change can start and needs to start within our school so that not only students athletic success improves, but also so that these students will receive life long health benefits from participating in athletics.

Jordan Magee was interviewed and seemed to have a different perspective on the topic.  “Students should not be more active in sports and instead should have a period of rest because many students are sleep deprived” she said. Magee opened up a whole new discussion over the perspective of the topic. Although there are many different views on the topic, such as Magee’s and Sisler’s, there are also a lot of facts and data that support the topic as a positive subject.

Freshman Madison Kovach stated, “Being involved in high school athletics could benefit a student’s future because it could qualify them for scholarships,” Kovach also said, “It also helps them stay fit and healthy.”

A pole was recently taken at Jefferson-Morgan high school of 10 students asking “Do you believe students at Jefferson-Morgan should be more active in athletics?” 4 of the students polled answered yes and 6 of the students polled answered no.

Jefferson-Morgan should strive to make a change in the number of students actively healthy in athletics in order for students to have lifelong health benefits and more athletic opportunities.