School and Sports- Getting Students on Your Side

Schools and Sports

 Many of you may have seen the film, Blind Side, the story of Michael Oher who went from being a homeless boy in Memphis Tennessee, to a standout football player at Ole Miss and eventually on to the Baltimore Ravens where last February, Oher and his teammates earned Super bowl rings. I am in the process  of reading,  I Beat the Odds, Michael  Oher’s own story.( c.2011, Gotham Books). Oher focuses on the importance for getting an education and how his coaches and teachers worked with him to obtain the goals of both an education and an athletic career.

Oher is one of the lucky ones, finding a loving family in the Touhy’s of Memphis and the supportive teachers and coaches of Briarcrest School in Memphis. Sports are the hook that coaches use to help students stay focused on getting their education. School and football provided the path out of the drug and crime infested ghetto where Michael lived and into college, in Oher’s case the University of Mississippi where it wasn’t until 1962 that James Meredith became the first African American student to attend.

I recently came across this mission statement from the Princeton University Athletic Office. Princeton, a venerable institution known more for its academics than for its athletic success (with apologies to Sen. Bill Bradley), has the right idea for blending academics with sports.

“The Princeton University Department of Athletics is committed to its core philosophies of having intercollegiate athletics serve as an extension of the overall educational mission of the institution and that, for the student-athletes, participation in intercollegiate athletics at Princeton University is a co-curricular experience.  These philosophies are at the heart of the Department's official motto: "Education Through Athletics."Princeton University as an institution strives for excellence in fulfilling its central and primary purposes of teaching, scholarship, and research and places particular emphasis on the quality of undergraduate teaching.”  (From the Princeton University Athletic Office.)

As we get ready for the fall semester and we begin to think about those students who will be in our classes, it is important to know how the interplay of academics and athletics can help to produce a successful student.

C. 2013 J. Margolis