“I managed to get admitted to the best school in the country. SO NO EXCUSE. I managed to get aggregate 8 at my O’level. SO NO EXCUSE. I managed to get 17 points in my A’level. SO NO EXCUSE. I managed to get admitted to the best university in the country. SO NO EXCUSE. I managed to get a scholarship to college in the states. SO NO EXCUSE!”
The year was 2018 when Claire Lamunu, under the Score Beyond Organization as a mentor, addressed a group of young sports girls in the Nyakasura Main hall during the annual National Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association games. She had completed her Biochemistry Degree at the Vanguard University of Southern Carolina after transferring from Makerere University.
While reading an article about the advantages of sports to a girl child, I was shocked when one piece said that girls in sports are most likely to be better performers at sciences and generally their academics are good. I first doubted this and had to give it a second thought. Using a sample space of the different teams I played with, I evaluated how actual this correlation was. Claire Lamunu came first to my mind. She was an excellent performer in class, and she has continued to perform well. She is currently offering a Masters in Biochemistry. I used other players for my sample space that cut across the different classes from senior one to senior six during my stay at the school. At the start of the term, the best 5 students per class were read out and received a golden handshake from the headmistress. The best students were in one way or another engaged in a sport either playing competitively or for leisure. At times it would even average 2 players per class, with each involved in sports.
The more significant challenge came in when sports teams were to represent the school. The athlete’s class average was key before their skill. The Deputy headmistress herself would singularly point you out of the students to represent the school based on the poor performance. You would miss out on representing the school at the Regional or National level after the tiresome term’s training. Only a few cases were singled out with time over this issue, but the ratio of those above the average was always at 4:1. The captain herself had the task to consistently remind the players that life wasn’t all about sports. Books mattered. I am puzzled by students who say that they can’t balance sports and education—similarly, parents who prevent their children from engaging in sports for fear of poor performance. Just a reminder, there are an additional 4 points to your daughter’s weights if she is a sports girl as she joins campus. In addition to government academic scholarships, sports scholarships are offered across different institutions.
Correlation doesn’t mean causation. Participation in sports doesn’t guarantee good performance. Good performance is like an added advantage when the other principles and disciplines from sports are applied to your daily life. Timekeeping, self-confidence, self-discipline, teamwork, and reduced depression and stress levels and health benefits reduce obesity risks.
Withholding names, there are still many schools that collectively select the best athletes and provide all necessary support for them to thrive in sports while drowning their academic life. This is the reason the stereotype that sportspeople are not bright or are poor performers originates. Apart from herding these players and using them to profit the school’s image, once the pressing tournaments or games have gotten done, the students stand a great chance of being expelled from the school as the mission that brought them is now done. This is one reason why an athlete will be very useless to society once they are off-season or have retired as they will become redundant members of the community.
One of the people I look up to, Claire Lamunu, can’t stop emphasizing education every time I speak to her. You won’t play past the age of 35, or at most 38; what next after this stage? Have you saved enough during your playing time that you don’t require an off-court job?
I won’t pretend that there isn’t another category of sports personalities who have reached rock bottom when it comes to education and opted to do sports full time. This will seem great because all attention will be geared towards sports development, but this shouldn’t end. Explore the different opportunities that lie in the sports world. Explore yourself beyond your talent. Learn a skill, and soon, it will be your profession. Whether in the sports field or out of the sports arena.
In a nutshell, your involvement in talent or skill-driven activity shouldn’t take away your attention from your academics journey. Stay focused, and determined. My father knew how crazy I was about football, but he consistently asked me, “What will you do with your life if you place all focus on sports, ignore education, and you get a life-sustaining injury?” I won’t dispute that some people have hit gold in chasing the sports dream, but how did they achieve it. Let the means justify the end. Trust the process. But don’t let one override the other. Education is essential. Sports is essential. Man is unlimited.
Education and Sports can’t be separated! Support Women in Sports
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