By J.D. Eddy, Editorial Editor
Community service is a way for sports teams to reach out and provide much-needed moral support, which in turn leads to the community donating money to sports programs.
If you play a sport in college or high school, you are required to do community service. While I do not know the exact amount of hours that are required each semester, this is an NCAA rule.
Not all community service work has to be a team event, however. There are individual opportunities for a few players to volunteer at local businesses. You don’t get paid for doing this, but it cuts down the hours of required community service you have to do for that semester.
According to the NCAA official website, 50% of student athletes reported they have required community service projects, and three fourths of those athletes agree that it is a valuable learning experience for the team. This seems to track with other teams I have been on. Everyone has a good time doing it, even though some of us may not want to be there. The team finds a way to make it fun.
The NCAA’s official website says there is a slight difference in the percentage of individuals that volunteer based on gender. Women in collegiate athletics are 4% more likely to volunteer their time than their male counterparts.
This is not a large statistical difference, but perhaps women are more empathetic and willing to use their time to improve the lives of members in the community.
Another thing from the official website is that student-athletes feel like their volunteer work away from sports helps to prepare them for life after college. Helping with canned food drives, lawn cleanup, volunteering at local schools and even helping with events connected to the school and the community is good.
I did a decent amount of community service when I was at Southern Nazarene University. My peers and I helped to build a house. We put up drywall, framework and some wiring. We also laid out flags for gas lines and things like that to be put in. I mean, who is going to trust college kids to put gas and plumbing lines in?
It is things like this that improve your mental and physical well-being. These opportunities can allow for larger spiritual growth, along with being able to maintain confidence and stature.
These all can, and will, lead to positive improvements on the field of play. With better mental health, your clarity or focus becomes more clear, and positive physical health leads to more athletic plays being made.
Maintaining confidence entails knowing that you can do it because of the first two aspects. It’s all connected.
These are just some of the reasons as to why team community service or activities done by a collegiate sports team are beneficial not only the team, but the college and the community as a whole.
These activities instill faith in the program and the college, leading to others viewing the teams as empathetic.
It really can be something as simple as picking trash up off the side of the road, volunteering at a school for a day or doing basic outreach, like reading to people.