It’s a classic image, something entirely reminiscent of those golden days of youth. A field, behind a school, with a group of young athletes training long and hard in hopes of a hard-won victory. Sports are a quintessential part of the high school atmosphere, and can bring entire teams and schools together, yet it’s amazing how personal their time in high school sports can be for the athletes who dedicate their time to their school.

Today I will be sharing some of the benefits of high school sports. Three athletes were interviewed and shared their thoughts about their time, past or present, in sports and how it affected them both in school and beyond.

Any coach will tell you that teamwork is the most important thing when it comes to group sports, and this student would agree. Throughout high school, he has played hockey, football and baseball and been fully committed to each. He says “I truly stuck with it because the team aspect where a single person doesn't win a game really stuck, I liked leading and having a team behind me because those types of bonds don't leave.” This student articulates perfectly what so many people love about sports. As a director of mine once said, “We succeed together, and we fail together. That’s what makes this so special, and that’s why we do what we do. We’re a team.”

When you’re part of a team, you learn so much about cooperation and putting aside your personal differences to work towards a common goal. Every success is a testament to the strength of the team you have assembled, and every failure is a testament to your strength, perseverance and determination. You form such a strong relationship with everyone and you have to rely on each other to achieve the things you’ve worked so hard for. As the interviewed student put it, “ People who spend a year together on a team constantly practicing, winning and losing together form a sort of pact that you'll play your hardest and the people with you will play their hardest because you not only respect each other but the feel of a win is like no other.”

Teamwork in sports is so incredibly important, but often just as important is the personal aspect and the individual athlete. The second student I interviewed is involved mostly in individual sports such as martial arts and scuba diving. She trained in martial arts for 12 years and earned her black belt, and still scuba dives regularly (she has also become a certified Diving Emergency Medicine Provider, or DEMP, in order to be able to assist in medical emergencies).

About scuba diving, she says “I personally love scuba diving, it's considered an extreme sport that takes many hours of training to be able to do safely. I find that when I'm under water, I'm in control of myself, and there is so much to explore and discover underwater.”

Individual sports are just as difficult as team-based sports, because the athlete is fully accountable to themselves instead of a coach or mentor. Not to mention, the inner peace that comes from being so alone while doing something that one loves is something absolutely incredible. The interviewee shared with me her mental health struggles and how she uses what she loves to combat it.

“I have PTSD, and I've found that scuba diving gives me an opportunity to not worry about my demons on the surface, and I become entirely involved in a completely different world under the water.”

The interviewee uses sports, like plenty of people do, as a stress reliever and a way to cope with what may be going on in other aspects of life. But in this case, she participates in a very unique sport and seeks excellence in it, and therefore gains a completely different set of skills and benefits from what she does. Likewise, anyone participating in an individual sport will gain skills that might not necessarily be the same as those playing as part of a team, but are definitely just as important.

Students in high school athletics might consider professional leagues their ultimate goal, but it is important to consider that there are so many ways to make sports part of your future career without being an athlete. My last interviewee, Ana Kieu, is proof enough of that. She says, as many students do, that “[She] loved the team spirit and individual competitiveness of sports”, while playing high school women's basketball. She had to give up basketball in her mid-freshman year of high school, and that was the only sport she participated in. But she says “Those things carried over into my journalism career after my graduation at San Jose State in 2015.”

Ana now works as a journalist, covering the NFL, NBA, NCAA, MLB, MLS, NHL and AHL, to name just a few. She is active in online communities of sports fans and loves connecting with others over what they all love. She uses her past participation in sports to fuel her knowledge and passion today, and admits that she would not be where she is today had she not had the opportunity to play high school sports.

There are so many benefits to playing sports at any level, but high school sports in particular lay a foundation for the athlete’s future, both in high school and beyond. The athlete, whether part of a team or an individual, learns all the skills that are so important in everyday life and gains experiences that they will always remember. High school sports are a quintessential part of the high school experience, and for good reason; students will come away with a better, more well rounded education and build what skills they will need to be successful in whatever they choose to pursue.