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For the love of the game

By Daniyal Habib
<dhabib@hilite.org>

There is a fundamental difference between high school, college and professional sports. High schoolers play for fun, college players play to go pro, and professional players play to make a living.

Obviously, the motives mix and match between the three levels, but for the most part, that’s how it is.

High school sports are so great because of this fact. Everyone loves doing their job; there are no egos involved. Except in extremely rare cases, no one high school athlete is good enough to completely dominate the entire game. It takes each person doing their job. In a basketball game, the point guard must pass, the scorers must score, the defenders must defend and the rebounders must rebound. It may not be as flashy, but it sure is a beautiful thing to see perfect teamwork in a team sport, something not seen as frequently in the professional world of athletics today.

Professional players, even if they have a bad game or simply aren’t inspired enough to play, can take solace in the fact that they will make millions of dollars over the course of one year. College players play for the love of the game also, but the motives are split between that and stuffing stats going pro. But what do high school players have at the end of the day? According to the Georgia Career Information Center, only .03 percent of male and .02 percent of female high school basketball players eventually make it to the big leagues.

They don’t get paid, needless to say. It’s obviously the comraderie and love for the game. High school sports aren’t just games, they are many times where an entire town can gather and celebrate as one.

You can say that professional sports can unite an entire large city, or in some cases, a whole state. This is completely true; example A is the New Orleans Saints storybook season after Hurricane Katrina.

But high school sports provide a personal level of excitement that is unmatched anywhere else. What else can cities like Valdosta, GA, recently named “Titletown USA” by ESPN, indulge in? In what other venue can you watch an athlete play his heart out on the playing field, then go out and hang out with them at a bonfire?

When the Indianapolis Colts defeated the New England Patriots to win the AFC Championship a couple of years ago, the entire RCA Dome rejoiced as one. What are the chances that two random people at that game will ever see eachother again? Contrastly, fans at high school events are probably friends.

I’m a huge fan of professional sports, and America would be worse off without them. But we don’t have to pay high ticket prices or simply watch on TV to enjoy a sporting experience. Just head down the trail or to the gymnasium on Friday nights. Daniyal Habib is a sports reporter. Contact him at dhabib@hilite.org.

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