Is playing three sports in high school still a thing?

One of the best things about living in a smaller town, or going to a small school, is that often it means more opportunities to do things, especially from an athletic standpoint. A big town/school may provide more opportunity in that it may offer more sports sometimes, but a smaller town/school most likely will have less competition for playing time in the sports that are offered.

In high school, that means a good athlete may be able to play three different varsity sports over the course of a school year, something the best athletes routinely did when I went to school.

But these days, playing three sports in high school is not always easy, and it's often not as glamorous as it sounds.

In our town, the high school football team begins practice the day after the championship games for the spring seasons, meaning practice for the fall season begins before the previous school year is over and runs throughout the summer. By the time the football season ends, the players have been going at it very hard for half the year, and their bodies and minds are tired. The idea of rolling directly from a fall sport right into a winter sport without a break in between can be daunting -- and even more daunting if the athlete knows he or she will later have to roll right from the winter sport into a spring sport.

When is there an opportunity to rest? When is there an opportunity to do something other than play a sport?

My son the freshman just wrapped up a very enjoyable football season and is currently in a one-week dead period before he starts wrestling practice next Monday. A month ago, he wasn't sure he wanted to wrestle; he was thinking he'd just work out over the winter, train and get ready for lacrosse season in the spring. He'd tried boxing a couple years ago and liked it (it was actually more training than real boxing) and he thought he'd like to do that again this winter.

But, of course, the wrestling coach was disappointed to hear that. And the football coaches gave him a hard time about it, too. They all acknowledged that giving maximum effort for three hours a day, six days a week at football practice takes a lot out of a person. None of them suggested wrestling would take up less time, or require less effort.

My wife and I told him we supported whatever decision he made, but both of us figured he'd probably end up wrestling. Last week he decided to take the plunge. He said he had changed his mind and now wanted to do it; he said he thought he'd give it a shot freshman year and see how it goes.

Personally, I kind of wish he would have taken the winter off. As much as I advocate kids playing multiple sports when they're younger, as they get older the commitment level for all of the sports keeps getting higher and higher. At some point, I think giving the necessary commitment to three different sports is too much for most people.

There's much more to life than playing sports. But when you're a three-sport athlete in high school, there isn't enough time for much else.

Sometimes, taking a step back from sports is a good thing

This fall, our youngest son decided not to play football. Considering he had practically grown up at the junior football field -- he'd been going there since he was 2 years old and in a stroller, when we were taking his older brothers to practice -- it was a pretty significant decision on his part.

He opted not to play because he wasn't sure how much playing time he'd get, and he knew he'd be miserable if he didn't play much. Now, he's a decent athlete, if not exceptional, and, for all we know, he might have gotten plenty of playing time. But there was also a chance he might not have, and since he's had issues with losing his temper when he's frustrated on the sports field, my wife and I were proud of him for making what we saw as a mature decision.

The thing for him was, he had to develop a new identity. From the time he was 6 years old, and playing flag football, he was always a football player. And he came from a family of football players, so that's how everyone saw him. This year, he had to figure out what he was going to be and how he would spend his time without football.

The good news is, he adjusted just fine. He did miss the game, we're sure, but observing him closely, it doesn't seem like he missed it all that much. Not playing football allowed him the chance to do some other stuff he wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, like playing on a fall lacrosse team, and playing basketball in the fall open gyms that were offered at the same time as football practice. Perhaps best of all, not spending so much time at the football field allowed him to spend more time with some of his friends who don't play football. And he even made a couple of new, non-football-playing friends at the middle school.

Unfortunately, he didn't make the travel basketball team. He had invested a lot of time in the summer and fall working on his skills and his game to get ready for the tryouts, and he really had hoped against hope he'd make it this year. But while he clearly was disappointed, he doesn't seem devastated. He was happy with the way he played at the tryouts, and knows he did the best he could. Disappointment is part of life, and he's handling it well. It's almost as if he's realizing that there's more to life than being on a sports team.

Now, I'm not suggesting he's better off without sports, or anything -- we're a sports-loving family, and he's a sports-loving kid -- and all indications are that he'll return to football someday, whether it's next fall, or perhaps in high school. If that happens, it'll be great, but for right now, this time off from football seems to be teaching him that his self worth doesn't have to be attached to his identity as "an athlete.'' He can just be a nice kid who is a good friend, a good student, and one who is pretty good at sports. He's learned a lot of life lessons from sports, and now maybe he's learning one more: How to put things in perspective.