- April 18, 2024
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Nothing frustrates me more than when I hear about incredible student-athletes who struggle to get recruited on account of their grades.
I admire the coaches who demand their players to excel in the classroom as well as in their respective sport. While a 2.0 GPA may be acceptable to play high school sports, those kinds of grades won’t get those student-athletes to most colleges, based on PrepScholar’s Samantha Lindsey’s blog (http://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-a-good-gpa-whats-a-bad-gpa).
On the other hand, there are athletes like Mainland’s Miraj and Jash (pronounced like Josh) Patel, who needs no one to push them in the classroom, because they push themselves.
Their parents first pushed them and created an environment in which the two now have a drive to be successful on their own.
Miraj, who’s the current No. 1 Bucs tennis player, will graduate this year as the valedictorian. Jash — Mainland’s No. 3 player — currently sits atop the sophomore academic class.
The Patel brothers made it clear to me. Academic success — while striving to play tennis well — has not come easy for them.
Jash mentioned how they have sacrificed hangout time with friends and spend less time being social while focusing on schoolwork. He also discussed how they intentionally join academically-themed clubs, so they can hang out with other smart kids.
As a youth pastor, I often stress to my kids the importance of choosing their circles and friendships. I remember always hearing from the elders, “You are who you surround yourself with.”
A teacher once told me that if I wanted my nephew to grow to challenge himself in the classroom, I had to place him in the higher-level classes. The Patels seem to have picked up this principle.
When athletes seek to become the best, they try to compete against the best while hanging with the best. The same makes sense for academics.
Now, the question is what do the best athletes need to do in order to do better in the classroom? Maybe the athletic students can teach the student-athletes while the student-athletes can tutor the athletes. Seems like a perfect marriage.
