The Death of the 3 Sport Athlete

Jim Thorpe, Charlie Ward, Deion Sanders, and Jackie Robinson all excelled at their chosen sport… but built their athletic ability by playing multiple sports.

However, athletes at younger and younger ages are choosing to specialize instead of diversify.

Doctor Jason Robertson of Chattanooga’s Center for Sports Medicine and Orthopedics says there has been a rise in childhood injuries that had previously only been associated with adults.

"What we see a lot of today is athletes specialize very early and choose one sport and focus on that sport and do that same repetitive motion on a regular basis ….and what we are seeing is there are a lot more overuse injuries in adolescent and pediatric athletes that used to just be seen in adults and we are seeing a lot more of those in kids and that’s attributed to these kids specializing early in these sports"

Coaches want their best athletes ready for the season, but would also want them to be hungry and ready to play. Howard head football coach Mark Teague supports kids who diversify.

"So, kids will tell you they went through the grind of football so long that they look forward to basketball season to give them a different change of pace. For me, I encourage it.  It keeps them involved."

Playing multiple sports increases risk of injury or even burnout. GPS Head Softball coach Suzan Crownover understands why students still test the limits. 

"Middle school 8th grad 9th grade they are playing in what they call showcase tournaments, and those tournaments what they do is they allow college coaches to come and see great numbers of kids at one time." 

UTC head Football coach Russ Huesman said he wouldn’t hesitate to recruit athletes who play as many sports as they can.

 "You are in high school one time. If you can help your basketball team… if you can help your baseball team… if you can run track… I think you should do it.  If you are good enough and you are athletic enough to play college football, you will play whether you play one two three or four sports."

Athletic directors we talked to claim the number of multi-sports athletes is decreasing across the nation.  But, Baylor’s Ryan Parker still chooses to tackle football… wrestling AND participate as part of the track and field team.  Ryan maintains the variety actually helps to fuel him.

 "I’m really competitive but I have a passion for each different sport. It is nice because I give everything to one sport then I never get tired of it, because I know I only have this amount of time to do it so I give everything I can to that one sport."

 Ryan says that time crunch helps him prioritize academics.

 "It really helps actually in school work honestly because teacher will throw stuff at you have to learn very fast and doing all these different sports stuff is being thrown at you all at one time and just learning how to deal with it."

To find success from 3 sport athletes, you don’t have to reach all the way back to Bo Jackson. March Madness featured 3 sweet 16 teams led by multi sport athletes. Kentucky’s Willy Cauley-Stein played  tennis, baseball, track, soccer, football and basketball in high school.