1
Hodge
Tyler Hodge
Mr. Cuttic
Communications 8 Title (properly capitalized)
9 May 2007
Skipping College for the Pros
Have you ever noticed that most players who skip over college for the pros don’t end up with a good education? If players would sustain an injury or wouldn’t be able to play ever again, they would not have a college degree for a job. Similarly, a lot of players in the past have skipped over college for the pros and sat on the benches. Finally, pro scouts look for strong physical and mental demands, and most players out of high school aren’t ready for these yet. (These few examples prove that graduating high school athletes should not be drafted directly to the pros.) (thesis statement)
Early entrance into the pro sports is usually used because they could earn a lot of money because they would be in the career longer than those who start later. “Considering the relatively brief careers of professional athletes, teenagers who are good enough to play at the highest level should be able to exploit that market (“Teenage Athletes in Professional Sports” 9). Another reason that student athletes have an earlier entry into the pros is because there’s always a demand for young talent. Lastly they can be exposed to scoutsand big time coaches looking for good talent.
Although there are advantages toskipping over college, there are many downsides to the experience. One of the downsides to the issue is not receiving a good education. Student athletes usually need extra time to develop their skills before arriving to the pros. Critics suggest that skipping over college is lowering the quality of overall pro sports competition.“They’re missing their whole college career, so they’re lacking fundamentals. Fundamentals are something we take for granted at this level (7). Focusing on academics and also college-level sports competition will allow athletes to develop both a personal and athletic opponent while preparing themselves better for pro sports. Since he didn’t use a new source yet, he used only the page number for
his parenthetical.
The second problem with this issue is not receiving a college degree. If signing with an agent and being drafted into a professional sport before graduating college, students would not receive a college degree. Ifan athlete is ever hurt in the act of the professional sport and receives a life-ending injury,he or she would not have a back up job. Furthermore the rules say that athletes could always fall back into going to receive their college degree, but most adults wouldn’t at that age. Most of the well known players received a college degree first before they entered the pro career such as Allen Iverson, Koby Bryant, Scottie Pippin, and Jason Kidd. In addition, most opponents express the existing age limits in major sports in the United States might make them want to turn pro at an early age. If age limits did not exist, athlete students would rather worry about their energy and their athletic pursuits instead of their studies. Critics predict that many colleges and high school academics would be affected as young athletes search for a sports contract and would lower the quality of education and put that last when it should be a top priority. “Literally thousands of wannabees will give up concentrating on their studies, both in high school and college, for that one-in-a-million chance to get in the NFL. And they will be the losers.” (7).
Yet another conflict in this issue is players skipping over college and sitting on the benches in the pro level. While players could be receiving a great college experience and could be having quality playing time in college, players are to sit on the benches in their first two years of the pro career.“Jermaine O'Neal, star center for the Indiana Pacers, skipped over college for the pros and was drafted in the first round to the Portland Trail Blazers. But he sat on the bench his first four years before getting traded to the Indiana Pacers and starting in his fifth season as an NBA star”(“Get a Life” 2-3).There is no point of skipping over college because college offers them a lot more playing time than they would receive in the pros.
An additional problem to this issue is that the players can be both physically and mentally unprepared. An NFL athlete would tower over a high school athlete. If a high school athlete would want the physical features like a pro athlete,he or she would have to be in the weight room almost every day and possibly take questionable supplements.One example of someone getting hurt is Tyson Chandler, a high school basketball star who’s skipping college for the NBA draft this season. Though he did well in high school, he didn’t get to play his state championship game due to an ankle injury(“Show Him the Money” 1).
The last problem with skipping over college for the pros would be the mental demands at the pro level. Even if an athlete has an unbelievableamount of motivation and determination to thrive with success, it’s very hard to picture an 18-year-old athlete withstanding the hard-hitting 230 pound linebackers day to day. It would be hard to concentrate while running hard, training for almost twice the length of the high school drills, and dealing with all that the players,who are lucky enough to start,and still have to deal with such as the stress from fans and the media. An example is Kevin Garnet, 2004 MVP (Most valuable Player), who skipped over his college career and had a difficult time in his early career of the NBA. Perhaps if he had went to college and had more time to practice his skills he might have an even better jump shot than he does today (Bae 1
Imagine you’re a high school senior who’s just been accepted to skip over college for the pros and would start for the Denver Nuggets. Most people would be ecstatic for this opportunity, (but it’s not always the right choice.) Schools should trulyconsider talking to students in this situation about the consequences of following through with this opportunity. Many conflicts could arise from this such as a poor education level, an unfair physical disadvantage, no college degree, sitting on the bench while they could have quality playing time in college, and unpreparedness for the physical and mental demands in the pro level. Perhaps if students would consider these issues, they could avoid a possibly regrettable choice.
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Other General Information to Notice about This Essay:
Focus
The second paragraph, “Early entrance…” addresses the opposing side’s argument; the remaining paragraphs then show his views (supported by facts and examples)
Content
He has six body paragraphs in addition to his introductory and conclusion paragraph; essay is at least two and one-half pages long
Each paragraph has an example to go along with the description
Organization
Notice the use of transitions at the start of each paragraph
Style
Varied word choice and sentence structure (length and beginnings & endings)
Conventions
Few grammar/proofreading errors
Format
Font is size 12 ; font style is Times New Roman (no bolding)
Spacing is double
Paragraphing is used (each new paragraph is indented five spaces; student hit “tab”)
Margins are set to 1” on both sides, the top, and the bottom
Works Cited
Bae, Isamu. “High School Athletes Should Go to College, Not the Pro Level.” Silver
Chips Online. 1 June 2004.
(Retrieved 30 March 2007).
“Show Him the Money.” Prep Star chandler to College. March 2001: 1 and 2.
Pro basketball. AOL Time Warner Company. Mount Carmel Area Jr/Sr High School. Mount CarmelPA. 3 March 2007. <
“Teenage Athletes in Professional Sports.” Issues and Controversies on File 28 May
2004. Facts for Learning. Facts on file News Services. 3 April 2007
< facts.com>.