The Los Angeles Times said 87 percent of the picks in the 2015 National Football League draft played multiple sports in high school, but athletes at Mason High School still feel pressure to play just one sport.
Intense year-round off-season workouts and increasing competition for varsity roster spots are just some of the factors that go into a high school athlete’s decision to fixate on one sport. The unspoken pressure piles on to teenagers until there seems no other option but quitting.
Senior DJ Fluker said he felt this pressure after spending hours at workouts for multiple sports.
“I would come from football practice not really wanting to go to baseball and go hit,” Fluker said. “I would go to both practices sometimes and that would just be too tiring like it would just take time away from when I could be hitting or working on my defense.”
Fluker faced a difficult decision that many athletes at Ohio’s largest high school often face: the decision to become a one-sport athlete.
“It was definitely hard because I have played football since sixth grade, and I just love being around all my teammates,” Fluker said. “But I know baseball is for the better because it was the first sport that I actually loved and excelled at.”
While coaches may not overtly tell their players to focus on one sport, the implication grows with off-season requirements and the amount of athletes participating for a limited amount of playing time.
Fluker said he was never urged to give up football by head baseball coach Curt Bly, but he was told to look at the complete picture.
“Coach Bly would talk about all the time I spend playing football, like it would just take time away from when I could be hitting or working on my defense or something like that,” Fluker said. “I want to play baseball in college, so I just wanted to focus in on baseball and better my skills at it rather than risk getting injured playing football.”
Sophomore Niraj Komantineni played both soccer and tennis and said head tennis coach Mike Reid felt soccer improved his endurance but hampered his development as a tennis player. Komantineni quit soccer this year to focus solely on tennis.
“My coach always said that soccer improved my endurance but he said I would get better at tennis because I would have more time to focus on it,” Komantinei said.
Aaron Wright, director of Ohio University’s Master’s Degree program in Athletic Administration, said it is logistically difficult to play multiple sports in Ohio.
“Today if you were a three-sport athlete in the state of Ohio, and you’re on the football team and the football team advances to semifinals, if you’re still doing well in November, by that point basketball has been going on for possibly two months already,” Wright said. “If you make it to December, games have started. Same thing would happen if basketball doesn’t finish until April.”
Wright said that if he were to be put in the same position that student athletes are today, he would also choose to focus on his strengths.
“If I wanted to excel in one or two of the sports, I would probably pick the one where I was least likely to be successful at and drop that sport,” Wright said.
Bly said he believes coaches should not discourage athletes from playing multiple sports but should instead be supportive.
“If you are capable of competing at a high level in multiple sports at MHS, then you have that drive and that desire to do it,” Bly said. “As coaches, we should be helping you and not creating obstacles. Athletes tend to see that and choose to go after excelling in maybe their most passionate sport because they’re afraid they’ll fall behind.”
Senior Nick Bosticco plays football and lacrosse. Bosticco said playing multiple sports helps to keep him in shape year round.
“Whether it’s in the weight room with football or conditioning with lacrosse or even basketball, you’re conditioning in the offseason,” Bosticco said. “(It works) as long as you’re doing something to better your body.”
Bosticco said he was glad none of his coaches discouraged his multisport participation.
“Any coach I’ve had encouraged multiple sports because it keeps you busy in the offseason, and it keeps you disciplined,” Bosticco said. “My grades were better; I was better conditioned. I was more focused in school, more focused overall.”
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