Sports are a large part of every student’s life, whether they play them or not. Everybody is affected by the news of whether a school team wins or lose. Everyone has friends on a team, friends who are directly affected by sports. And some people even plan to continue playing sports after high school.

“Sports have had a lot of influence [on my high school experience]. I’ve only really played baseball in high school, but it helps because you make a really good friends through it, and the way I organize my days [in the spring] has been involved with baseball.  Having to train and practice have helped me manage my time,” senior Nick Cohen said.

Cohen plans to continue to play baseball at Carleton College, and has been recruited for the team there.

Sports can help students make friends in high school, and also helps with this while in college. It helps with time management as well, since a lot of time is put into practicing and not much time left over for schoolwork.

A lot of people are scared of not being able to make friends when they start college. But sports provide a set of people that can be potential friends, all with at least one shared interest, that will spend hours every week together. “It’s a very different experience for athletes, because we travel on the weekend a lot and the baseball season wraps up right at the end of the school year, so a lot of the skills I learned here [such as managing time, talking to teachers] are gonna help a lot in college,” Cohen said.

College Counseling helps in guiding students towards a college or university that will help them achieve both their academic and athletic goals. Sports can help students in getting into colleges, as well, or serve as a fun hobby for those who aren’t entirely serious about them, such as those people who join club teams if they aren’t recruited. Divisions I and III are recruited teams for very talented players. “You have to be recruited for these in general instead of just trying out, since they look at more people than they bring in for this. It helps people be more committed to this communication with coaches, certainly in [their] junior year, to get more information and feedback and make a decision on whether sports would influence a college search,” Director of College Counseling and Academic Planning Mary Hill said.

“A lot of people would really like to play a sport in college, but it’s not a priority for them. They’ll try and see what’s possible but won’t let it drive their choice. At the same time, we work with a lot of students who have the talent, and athletics open doors for students for college choice, because it helps people get admitted [to] colleges where it may not be otherwise possible,” Hill said.

“If I have the opportunity, I wouldn’t say no to keep doing sports after college, but I purposefully picked a school that will help me get a good education, so if I can’t do sports after college I’ll have something else I can do,” Cohen said. “I think the biggest thing is that you should promote yourself, and it’s never too early to start.”