In her article, The Case Against High-School Sports, Amanda Ripley discusses her ideas on the removable of sports from the high school curriculum. As a student in high school, who plays sports, having sports as a part of the high school experience is essential, and I don't feel that removing sports would be a good decision. Sports are a huge part of attending high school, Koebler's article shows that "more than 7.6 million students played sports during the 2010-2011 school year." While Ripley makes good points in her article in describing why sports should be removed, there are many rebuttals to her argument, and I disagree with her opinion.

               In today's era, obesity is a large problem for our country. In the United States in 2011, "31.3 percent of children ages 10-17" were obese. High school sports are a great way for students to stay active and stay fit, preventing child and teen obesity. Sports force adolescents to get out on the field and be active, run around, and get in shape. Sports allow people to get healthy while doing something they love. People can make the argument that teenagers don't need to play sports in order to get exercise, that they can throw on a pair of sneakers and just go run around outside. But with homework, and tests, and any other stress inducers that could be occurring in a teen's life, exercise isn't usually the first thing on their mind. Going to practices and having games put exercise into your life automatically. I know that if I didn't have practices and games after school, I wouldn't get the same amount of exercise I do now. High school sports are a great way to incorporate exercise into the busy everyday life of a teen, helping keep kids healthy, and preventing child obesity.

               One point Ripley makes in her article is that when sports were eliminating in Premont, Texas, "It was calm. There was a level of energy devoted to planning lessons." Ripley attempts to convey the idea that without sports, students were completely devoted to school and were so much more focused. I, for one, do not believe that ports are necessarily the main reason teens are not focused during class time. Now I'm sure that some of the time, we can blame sports for our distractions. You could be excited about your game later that night, or instead of memorizing flashcards, you're memorizing the playbook. But sports are not the only reason a student might not be focused. Other school work, relationships, family drama, work; all are things that can distract students in the classroom. The removal of sports won't make the focus level magically go to 100 percent. There is always going to be another distraction, something consuming your brain. While sports can sometimes be to blame for poor focus levels in the classroom, getting rid of sports won't fix the problem. So why do it?

               During the season of whatever sport you may play, how you perform academically correlates with what you do on the field. If you don't acquire good grades, and do well in classes, you don't play. The threat of sitting on the bench instead of being able to play in the game often can be motivation for athletes to keep their grades up. Athletes want to play, that's why they signed up, and not being able to play because you're failing isn't something someone would want. Many may argue that the standard in how must you perform are low, therefore not providing tons of motivation. But for some students, not failing is a huge achievement. While the standards may be low for some students, for others, it's a huge achievement if they make it. Arguing that the standard are too low may be a good argument for you, but for others, having D's an improvement, Ripley makes good points and has a strong argument as to why the removal of sports in high schools seems like a good idea. But there are many of counter-arguments that can be made, showing benefits to the athletic programs in school, which is why I believe that high school sports school remain in high schools. 
              
Koebler, Jason. U.S. News & World Report. N.p., 2 Sept. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2014

"Percent of Children (ages 10-17) Who Are Overweight Or Obese." The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

Ripley, Amanda. "The Case Against High-School Sports." Oct. 2013: 72-78. Print.