Club Sports vs High School Sports

Club Sports vs High School Sports

By: Madi Meier

            Which one is better? Club sports or high school sports? I am asked this question often and it is one of the toughest questions to answer. I say that because high school sports and club sports are very different from each other. I am a member of the high school basketball and volleyball team. Also I am a member of a club basketball and a club volleyball team. Both high school sports and club sports have their advantages and their disadvantages.

            One advantage being a member of a club sport is that you are able to travel to a whole bunch of different places. I have traveled to Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, and Chicago this past summer for my club basketball team TEAM IOWA. Another advantage is that you have the opportunity to play with teens your age around the state of Iowa. I have met so many different people and have made tons of relationships being on club teams.

            A disadvantage playing club sports is that your team only is able to practice once a week. It is very hard to get everyone from the team to attend more than one practice when they have other activities going on back in their own town. This is a disadvantage because the team is not allowed to work together as often as a high school team.  Another disadvantage is that at each game, there are not as many fans. This can sometimes bring you down, because you want to have people to cheer you on to help you win the game.

            An advantage of playing high school sports is that you mostly only have one game at a time. You don’t have to play several games back to back like in club sports and be worn out. High school sports, you play one or two games a week. Also an advantage of high school sports is that you have a ton of fans from your school to help cheer. This always makes the players on the court more excited and pumped to do their best.

            There are some disadvantages to high school sports though. High school sports have a very long season. You compete in the sport more than two months. Also I dislike having to practice every night after school. It would be nice if you only had to practice three nights in a week. When you are coming home from a three and a half hour practice and then have homework on top of that it is very stressful.

            This is why I can never actually say what I like to do better, high school sports or club sports. They are different in many ways. The thing that I like best about both of them is that I meet all of these kids my age in my club sports and then when it comes to high school sports we get to play against each other and talk about the game together after. That is probably what I like best about the two. I know that I will never be able to actually answer the question and that is ok :)

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