By Mark Singer
Special Contributor to CSNChicago.com
In the final practice before the end of his team's season, Terrell Walsh pleaded with the players to leave everything on the court the following day. On March 1, the Senn Bulldogs boys basketball team was set to play in the school's first regional semifinals in nine years.
Senn isn't known for its athletic prowess. Nearly every banner hanging inside the school's gym marks an accomplishment earned in the 20th century. But that could be changing soon. Second-year principal Mary Beck is determined to improve the school's sports program.
"It's something I'm dedicated to and I've been trying to build since I got there last year," said Beck, a former high school basketball coach.
Senn is among the latest schools to recognize the benefits of investing in athletics. A 2012 study of more than 100,000 Kansas high school students showed that "athletes earned higher grades, graduated at a higher rate, dropped out of school less frequently, and scored higher on state assessments than did non-athletes."
Dr. Kevin Kniffin, a behavioral scientist at Cornell University, published a study in 2014 that examines the benefits of high school sports. The study, "Sports at Work: Anticipated and Persistent Correlates of Participation in High School Athletics," argues that participation in high school sports results in more self-confidence and greater leadership ability, among other benefits.
"As long as there's a commitment that the benefits of sports-participation should be democratically or equally accessible, then it's clear that school districts shouldn't be cutting sports programs," Kniffin wrote in an email to Medill Reports.
Read the full story at Medill Reports Chicago.
CSN Chicago, in partnership with Northwestern University, features journalism by students in the graduate program at Medill School of Journalism. The students are reporters for Medill News Service. Medill faculty members edit the student work. Click here for more information about Medill.