As a Melissa Lady Cardinal Varsity volleyball player, I get a lot of experience with other athletes and coaches around the school, including guys and girls. Because Melissa has so many athletes with few places to work out, I regularly get to experience a normal practice for the male athletes in our school. I remember the first time I saw the boys workout and they had to repeat “Teamwork’s key! Pay attention to detail!” throughout their practice while the coaches, intimidating, muscled men, yelled at them and corrected them because they expected perfection. Yes, high school sports should be taken seriously, but practice starts to become unpleasant to the athletes who want to have fun without having to worry about the consequences for being imperfect.

Even in middle school, I remember the boys having to line up in perfectly straight lines. The whole scene just reminded me of something that would occur in the army. Girls are forced to do harsh punishments as well, but it all ties into my question of whether it is really necessary. I understand using hard workouts to make athletes better, but what I do not grasp is when coaches take advantage of exhausting workouts to remind athletes of how many shots they missed, serves that did not go over, or for not protecting the quarterback. This just seems unfair because it teaches athletes that they have to be perfect in order to receive good feedback and rewards.

Since middle school, many male athletes have made the decision to stop participating in school sports. Seeing how the guy’s practices go, I immediately assumed that the large amount of guys who quit between middle school and freshman year was due to how hard and serious their workouts were. Instead, I received responses from fellow cardinal athletes that had nothing to do with how difficult the coaches made practices. For example, Max Reyes, a former baseball player and cross-country runner for Melissa, decided to stop playing sports because he would feel exhausted after practices. His grades began to suffer because he would be too tired to do homework. After asking several former athletes why they quit, I was given a variety of responses, yet none of them sufficed to support my main point for writing this article. Dalton Elliott, a cross-country runner and football player before high school, stated, “I quit because of complications with my transportation situation in Plano.” Not one former male athlete complained about the coaches or how they were treated.

I found that those who still play sports currently within the high school were just as accepting when it comes to how the coaches run practices. I asked a couple of guys how they felt toward having to do pushups for punishment while having to repeat “Teamwork’s key!” and “Pay attention to detail!” Cole McCraw, a varsity basketball player, responded, “I think that it is a fair punishment and teaches our team discipline.  It also teaches accountability between each other to work hard and not let our teammates down.” Drew Cummings, a varsity football player, responded cleverly by saying, “I know I personally tend to work harder in the pursuit of the carrot, rather than fear of the stick.” When asked how this treatment affects male athletes, McCraw stated, “I think that this act of punishment enhances our physical strength and creates mental discipline of our overall team.”

During the process of writing this article, I discovered that I am just a sensitive girl who does not enjoy being yelled at by coaches, and is very lazy when it comes to having to serve punishments. I commend the male athletes in our school who learn to have no fear and even look forward to having to work hard every day in practice. Maybe all athletes should share the same mindset that these boys do.