To be a three sport athlete for all four years as a high school student is quite an impressive feat, especially considering the current level and rigor of courses that students are encouraged to take. I have noticed that over the past few years, the number of four-year three-sport athletes has remained very low. Last year’s senior class had only one person accomplish this achievement.

Four-year three-sport athletes should get more recognition than they do simply because it is such a difficult feat with the combined pressures of getting good grades and getting into college to play a sport.
People always talk about how students nowadays don’t put enough effort into their activities such as school work and sports. I have heard multiple parents and adults say things along the lines of “Well, when I was a kid, all of us played three sports and got through school completely fine.”
Here is one thing for these people to know: it is much more difficult to take multiple advanced classes at the same time as participating in multiple sports, let alone three different ones.
Another factor that makes it tougher on student athletes to complete the four-year three-sport achievement are the forever increasing levels of competition in high school sports.
Because most students who strive to be three sport athletes are naturally motivated, they tend to want to excel in all the sports that they play. However, to advance on to the collegiate level in a certain sport, it is almost necessary that athletes put all of their focus on that one sport.
Colleges only look for elite athletes to play for their sports teams. This, plus the pressure on students to take tough classes, really limits athletes in terms of playing multiple sports.
Female student-athletes at Roseville High School are even further limited when it comes to being three sport athletes because of sport selection in the winter. In this season, girls are given the choice of three sports; basketball, wrestling and skiing (which has been added to RHS’ winter sports list this year).
Basketball seems to be pretty popular among girls, but in the past three years there has only been one female wrestler at RHS. Also, since skiing is new this year, many people don’t know that it is an option this winter.
All of these factors make it really difficult for students to play multiple high school sports. This is why I have such a massive amount of respect for the people who manage to play three sports for all four years of high school.
I feel that these people deserve a greater amount of recognition than they receive. Yeah, they get a special blanket, some cool patches for their letterman jackets and a special mention in the final school rally of the year, but people don’t seem to appreciate exactly how big of an accomplishment being a four-year three-sport athlete is.