With everything we must achieve in high school, it’s hard to juggle everything on our plates. Sports are a major factor in many students’ high school experiences.

If given the choice, students should play high school sports over club sports.

Students look forward to coming back to school on Friday nights under the lights to get the thrill of watching the football games.

What about the students who have practice or far away tournaments for club sports? They spend all their time at practices far away; they don’t get the chance to participate in these school events that make high school memorable.

Club sports are a way for students to play their sports outside of school and to get special opportunities for recruiting. It is completely different than playing a high school sport.

Although club sports can eventually lead to opportunities in the future, it is not worth missing out on the high school experience.

The stress of driving hours away to make it to practice can be draining on students. That includes taking into account the time they have left when students finally get home to do hours of homework.

Playing a school sport, the coaches are most of the time faculty members, so they understand that students have work for school. Also, because of the many school activities, such as being part of the SGA or the Speech and Debate Club, coaches may be lenient on practice times because they understand the high school experience and want athletes to have those experiences, too.

Students may get an insufficient amount of sleep at night playing club sports, making them drained throughout the day. The amount of pressure on the body with the lack of sleep and strain on muscles can make a student very weak and affects how well they do mentally.

A University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health study recently found that high school athletes who specialize in one sport sustain lower-extremity injuries at a significantly higher rate than athletes who don’t specialize in a single sport.

The only advantage of club sports is the offers from colleges for the sport a student plays. Nonetheless, this has a major downside if the college that gives an offer is not the school where the student would enjoy being. The opportunities students receive from focusing on just school work and high school sports can have a better outcome.

At the end of the day, the money, stress, and missed opportunities can make student-athletes ill. Not playing club sports will better their health and future by making a memorable high school experience.