By Staff Writer: Eliza Bengala

Sports are a very big deal in the high school culture. A lot of high school students feel that they are just as much an athlete as they are a student, and devote countless hours to their sport to make the varsity team and be number one at what they do.

Sports are not only viewed as a competition to become number one by student athletes, but as an opportunity to learn important life skills such as teamwork, cooperation, work ethic, loyalty and character. This is why sports are put on such a high pedestal in our culture, and why people are willing to devote so much time to them.

Because of the time devoted to sports and how important sports are to athletes and their families, most student athletes don’t have time for jobs.

And while sports are fun, jobs are essential for a well-sustained life, and at some point, everyone is going to need to at least have a temporary job. So, while acquiring the skills learned from sports is important and can really help someone in life, working even a minimum wage job will not only teach you the same skills you can learn in sports, but it will also teach you the following on-the-job skills:

Team Work

When you work in fast-food like I do, you have to depend on every employee to do their job to get the food to the customer. Much like a sports team, one weak link will make the entire team weak. But in a fast-food restaurant, there are no benches to sit out on. As an employee, you quickly realize that you can’t march to the beat of your own drum. You have to get into the grind and work with your co-workers to get the job done.

Respect

Sport players must learn to have respect for their coaches, teammates, and equipment. When working a job, an employee must learn to have respect for their boss, since the boss knows what to do to keep the business running smoothly (Oh, and they can fire you if you don’t do what they say). Respect and cooperation ties in with teamwork and respect for the equipment since, well, who wants to pay thousands of dollars to fix an industrial dishwasher? Respect for customers is also a huge skill that needs to be learned in a job, and in my case, this skill has taught me how to respect all people, whether it be classmates, or other fellow customers at local stores and restaurants.

Work Ethic

Giving 110% at every practice and game is what makes a champion. Hard work is the center of every sport. Without it, sports would just turn into a bunch of unmotivated people attempting to play a game. Same goes with working a job. Without hard work, a company would just turn into a bankrupt group of people playing with a copy machine. And if the laziness fell on the individual, it would turn them into someone who’s not going to move out of mom and dad’s house very soon. Another way to acquire a strong work ethic through a job is with the enticement of bonuses, raises, and promotions. When I found out that I made 25 cents more than most of my co-workers, I felt that I had been rewarded for my hard work, and now I feel even more motivated to work even harder to see where I can get. This motivation will definitely be something that will follow me for the rest of my life.

Counting Change

Counting change is another essential skill that everyone needs to learn, whether it be for a future job or for your own personal self. I can’t tell you how many teenagers I’ve met who have to use 100% of their brain power to count the pennies, nickels, and dimes that they have to hand to a customer, and honestly, it’s an embarrassing sight. Now, imagine if it was a college graduate who couldn’t count change because they never got a job that taught them the basic skill. A future employer would not want to hire someone who lacked such a basic skill, and if they did, that employee risks some pretty big on-the-job humiliation.

Timeliness

While a lot of people have and understand this “skill,” others really need to learn it. Show up late to a game, get benched. Show up late for work, get fired. An advantage to working and learning this skill in high school is that (with the exception of angry parents) it won’t be the end of the world if you get fired. You don’t have mouths to feed and a family depending on you, and being fired from you minimum wage burger joint job won’t ruin your career streak. Learn the lesson and apply it to your new job and the rest of your life.

Basic Life Skills

I credit my job for a lot of the everyday skills that I have, such as cleaning, multi-tasking, people skills, being resourceful, problem solving, etc. While sports do in fact teach a lot of important skills that an athlete will take with them for the rest of their life, I doubt that it teaches them how to clean windows, deal with irate people, properly bank a check, or carry five packages of napkins and three sleeves of cups at once without dropping any to impress your manager who doesn’t really like you (Yes, I’m sure that skill will come in handy one day).

Now, I’m not saying that sports are bad and that students should quit every sport and apply for jobs. I understand the feeling of walking onto the turf, leaving all of your troubles on the pavement behind you, and leaving your passion on the field next to you when you walk off. I wouldn’t give up that feeling for the world. What I’m saying is that having job is just as important as playing a sport in high school. It teaches you the same skills that sports teach you, plus some, and high school jobs deserve to be put on the same pedestal as sports due to the amount of life lessons that someone can learn from having one. Oh, and not to mention the amount of money that you’ll have.