Losing calories and gaining skills

Playing basketball in high school not only helps basketball skills, but is also known to help with an athlete’s mental health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, only 17 percent of 9-12 grade students are physically active for at least 60 minutes a day. Playing basketball gives student athletes over 60 minutes a day of physical aerobic activity, according to the CDC.

“It kind of stimulates my brain and helps me think better,” sophomore Daniel Ballagh said.

If  players practice and condition enough they might not only become fairly decent players, but also better thinkers because it keeps their minds off things and lets them get a break, according to Better Health, a website dedicated to providing health and medical information to improve the health and well-being of people in the communities.

When players have practice every day, they not only improve their health, but they will develop skills toward the sport and strategies they can use at school. It will help the players academically, because in order to do well in the sport they must have tenacity and the same goes toward academics.

Basketball benefits quite a few students, one of those it has a positively affected is sophomore wing Paige Brown.

“It gives me more to think about, and playing sports, I feel like it actually calms me down and kind of takes my mind off things I shouldn’t be worrying about,” Brown said. “It makes me focus on school more because in order to play basketball I have to get good grades.”

Basketball is not just all about having good coordination, but it is also about pushing the athletes to be a talented player to benefit the team.

“In basketball, you have to push yourself hard, and in school to get good grades, you have to push yourself too,” sophomore forward and center Brody Canfield said.

Although basketball may not be renowned as an aerobic sport, it is still a great way to work out, according to the players who love the game.

Better Health Channel also indicates that basketball not only can help athletes think more productively and quickly, but also help with endurance, balance, coordination, self-discipline, concentration, muscle build and calorie burn.

“There’s a lot of running and conditioning in basketball, so it keeps you in shape,” sophomore center Michelle Zemke said.