A Career As A College Athlete

It is incredibly rare to become an athlete. The most popular high school sport is football. Not to mention that over one million high schoolers play football and only 6.5% of those will play college and only 1.6% college players will be drafted to play in the NFL("Probability of Competing beyond high school"). An athlete requires being in peak physical shape, a high school diploma, and a very weird and sometimes unpredictable work schedule(“Athletes and Sports Competitors: Occupational Outlook Handbook:: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”). Being in peak physical shape is a requirement for being an athlete. It can be different for all of the sports. For example, football players usually have to be more muscular and faster than regular people. Likewise, soccer and basketball players have to be extremely fast and able to run for a long time. Therefore, all sports may require a different skill set than others, but all take extreme hard work and determination(“Athletes and Sports Competitors: Occupational Outlook Handbook:: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”). …show more content…
After all, all an athlete needs is a high school diploma. Most athletes still go to college to start off their sports career. In fact, the NBA used to let high school stars skip college and go straight to the pros, however now you have to wait at least one year. Some players instead of going to college go play basketball in Europe to prepare for professional play. But the NFL requires going to college for at least three years. That is to say, all sports have different requirements, but they all need at least a high school diploma(“Athletes and Sports Competitors: Occupational Outlook Handbook:: U.S. Bureau of Labor