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Lindsay Florian

Ms. Gardner

English 10 Period 2

27 October 2014

The Tyranny of the Loss of College Sports Scholarships Due to Injury

Today we gather here to discuss the tyranny of revoked college sports scholarships due to

a significant injury. A person who has earned this scholarship should be able to finish off the

school year while continuing to be on their scholarship. Someone who has received a scholarship

has obviously been training hard over the course of several years because few people receive

sports scholarships. To add to that, a person may have played for their college for half of the year

but due to injury, their scholarship is revoked. Don’t let an injury be the Achilles heel of the

athlete’s career. He or she would already be tremendously devastated about not being able to

participate in the sport that they love, this person should at the very least be able to finish off the

year in school without having to worry about how they are going to afford it. The athlete

commits everything, mind, body soul, to the sport for the better of the university, let the

university continue to give monetary support even in times of injury for the better of the athlete.

College Scholarships are harder to come by today because of how many more people are

trying to receive them. It was easier to earn a scholarship years ago when less people went to

college and less people played sports. When fewer people attended college, there were more

openings for college athletes therefore making the admission process easier. Today, athletes have

to strive harder than ever to achieve their goals of a scholarship. Also, when less students

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participated in sports, it was easier to make a selection for who received a scholarship. The

percentage of athletes that receive a scholarship today is much lower than in the past.

Perhaps those who do not participate in sports and do not understand the heavy demands

thrust upon the athlete feel that, cut and dried, plain and simple, if an athlete does not perform

they should not get the scholarship. There are many instances where this is true; an athlete fails

to maintain the minimum grade point average, an athlete fails to follow student conduct, an

athlete abuses drugs, an athlete quits the team. However those are cases where the athlete makes

a decision to behave in a way which violates the scholarship agreement; an injury happens, it is

nothing the athlete chooses, or wants to happen, it just does, and therefore there should be special

considerations.

This idea may not be embraced by the colleges themselves because they would lose a

team member as well as money. They would not gain anything extra from this person in the

future, so this idea could be seen as unreasonable or unfair even though the school would have

already gained this person’s participation before the terrible injury occurred. It would not be

rational for the student to have obtained nothing after contributing as well as being injured and

not being able to participate in what they love. Also, if he or she was counting on their

scholarship because they could really not afford the tuition of the school, they would have to

pack up and leave the campus to go home in the middle of the year. The loss of a college

scholarship could mean the difference between the path to glory and the gutters of the street.

This student would be out of luck in the future when he or she is looking or applying for jobs

because they do not have a college education.

Everybody who is an athlete should be able to understand how often people get injured,

even professional athletes get injured. According to Ryan Jaslow, a person is injured every 25

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seconds in result of a sport. Evidence is shown that 20% of trips to the emergency room are due

to severe sports injuries. It isn’t our fault if we obtain an injury. There is nothing to be done.

Michelle Kulas has reported that in football alone, 28% of the players from ages 5 to 14 are

injured each year. Athletes meet many apparatuses- the hurdles, the vault, the bat and any

challenges they face head on in their quest to better themselves and the school. Athletes are lions,

they are strong, but they can be taken down. Our college educations should not be in jeopardy if

we get injured. Sports Injury Statistics has proven that over 775,000 children 14 and younger are

treated in emergency rooms each year due to sports injuries. We should be able to keep our

scholarships because we earned them. Can all of us, as well as our families, come together to end

this tyranny? If we all unite, we can create a petition to end this once and for all.

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Works Cited

Jaslow, Ryan. "Study: Kids Hurt during Sports Once Every 25 Seconds." CBSNews. CBS

Interactive, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.

Kulas, Michelle. "Percentage of Kids Who Are Injured in Football." LIVESTRONG.COM.

LIVESTRONG.COM, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.

"Sports Injury Statistics." Sports Injury Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.