Everybody has something that is important to them whether it is food, reading, religion, video games, or just family. However, one thing that is important to all high schoolers is playing sports. These can range from football to track to soccer, all of them are sports important to high schoolers everywhere. Sports are important for high schoolers because they help your brain grow and work better, are a powerful tool to bring people and communities together as one, and to get away from the stressful school life they have throughout the day.

Studies have shown that exercise increases blood flow to the brain and helps the body build more connections between nerves, leading to increased concentration, enhanced memory, stimulated creativity, and better-developed problem solving skills. In short, playing sports helps your brain grow and makes it work better.

From a social standpoint, sports are a very powerful way to unify people and communities together. They develop connections that bond together people from all walks of life. As I am in track and wrestling, I can personally say that through those sports I have met and made many more friends than I ever would have if I had never participated in those activities. In fact, I have faced many opponents in wrestling from opposoing schools that have become my friends almost immediately after as we shared the same goals and interests.

As someone that was in my school’s talented and gifted class I am expected to be some smart kid that understands everything, so whenever I do bad or fail math tests my ego takes a major plummet. I believe that playing sports taught me how to deal with  the failure and disappointment in life. I learned that I am not always going to get the results that I want, but no matter what, I have to persevere and not give up. Sports gave me a positive attitude where I see falling as a way to learn how to pick myself up.

In addition to that, exercising is a great way to get out of the stressful high school life that is all about homework, presentations, and group projects. In fact, playing sports helps students relax and reduce their anxiety. I personally think that I would go crazy without going to the gym or doing some form of physical activity at least three times a week. Health care professionals recommend physical activity as a key ingredient to any stress-management activity.

The reason most students do not play sports is because they feel lazy about it and don’t have the energy for it. I in fact have a ton of friends at my school who refuse to participate in sports due to the thinking that it will be too hard or, “ too much work.” However, the belief that the intense exercise of playing sports will leave you exhausted has been proven wrong by research. Because exercise pumps more oxygen through your blood and makes your entire system more active, the benefits of playing sports actually include giving you more energy to accomplish everything else you need to do to manage your busy school schedule.

To sum up, playing high school sports has some serious benefits. Besides just being fun, sports can help you perform better in school, relax more and worry less, deal with setbacks, work better with others and increase your energy — all of which helps you balance school and everything else going on in your life.