Heath Hood

English 1

4/24/2015

 

 

Effects of Extra-Curricular Activities

 

In the television series, “Friday Night Lights”, the defending State Champions, the Dillon Panthers, are continuing to work hard on their quest for another ring, Along the way, the football team faces adversity that has impacts on the players. Just like the Panthers, when it comes to extra-curricular activities the students that are involved are affected. Extra-curricular activities help students improve themselves by building character, but it could also harm them academically.

Being involved in extra-curricular activities will strengthen students and build character. For example, the final seconds of a basketball game are winding down as the White Oak Roughnecks are up by two points. The Spring Hill Panthers dribble down the court, 3..2..1, and the ball is launched in the air from half court into the basket resulting in a heartbreaking loss to the rival team. Learning to deal with a loss of any kind isn’t easy, but mastering it makes the individual stronger as a person, and will come into play as the players grow up and have jobs, being parents, and being a friend. In addition, when playing a sport, it involves teamwork to be successful. If a single person doesn’t do their job on a certain play, it will more than likely not be successful. Being able to work well in a group can build character by making people more cooperative and allows them to have a better understanding of others actions. Therefor, extra-curricular activities do help students grow by building character, and it will help them as they grow into adults.

Unfortunately, extra-curricular activities could have a harmful effect on students when it comes to school. To illustrate, long track meets, away football and away basketball games result in coming home late on school nights. Trying to squeeze a supper, homework, and a good night sleep can get nearly impossible. Being unable to get a quality amount of sleep in a night could cause an athlete to doze off in class causing a miss of a lesson, turning in late work, or getting in trouble. Also, last year, an hour and a half away track meet kept getting delayed due to rain. After the meet and finally driving all the way home, disregarding my homework, I was finally able to get the little sleep I could get before the next morning. Often times an athlete will worry about their rest instead of their work causing grades to drop, so they will end up having to stay up late studying to maintain stable grades. This will eventually cause a cycle of late nights playing catch up with teachers as well as assignments.

Therefore, as the Dillon Panthers face their problems during their season, they are able to learn from them. Extra-curricular activities do both help and harm students in ways that will affect themselves for the rest of their lives.