Former Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer thinks young athletes playing multiple sports is a good thing.
As many of you know, there are a lot of elite athletes who only play a single sport once they’re in high school in order to prepare for college. Joe Burrow, who is the projected top pick in the draft coming out of LSU, was a great high school basketball player, and the three-time national champion coach would like to see more athletes follow in the footsteps of his former passer. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Meyer said the following during a Sports Illustrated profile about athletes who play more than one sport and how basketball helped Burrow:
A lot of these quarterbacks, I call it the spandex quarterback. They’re 8 years old and for the next 10 years all they do is 7-on-7 camps. And they become very good throwers, but a lot of times they miss some of the other parts which, to me, are much more important than being able to throw a football. And that’s leadership, competitiveness, toughness. Those are things you learn by playing basketball, by being a multi-sport athlete, by doing other things and competing. Competing is the No. 1 quality of every great athlete or coach.
I actually agree to a large degree with Meyer. I really do. If you’re a great competitor and you have a fire in your soul, then you want to compete.
If you can play football and basketball, then that’s what you’re likely going to do. It’s what you should do. Parents who want to force their kids to play only one sport are foolish.
The reality is that most kids aren’t going to turn into scholarship athletes. It’s just not going to happen. Welcome to the real world, folks.
Now, having said that, if you’re a top 100 basketball player or an athlete capable of playing Power 5 football, then you should only be focusing on that by the time you’re a senior in high school.
Notice how I said senior in high school. Not as a little kid, but a year removed from competition. I’m happy to debate any moron parent on the planet who thinks their seven-year-old kid can only play basketball because he’s bound for the NBA.
Joe Burrow won the Heisman and played multiple sports. Clearly, it can be done.