My Take of Athletes and Alcohol

It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog, and I wanted to make it something special. As a former athlete observing the many intricacies of high school and now college sports, sometimes I wonder why people feel the need to consume alcohol at large gatherings before big games or meets. People are part of a team and when they throw big parties, they feel as if they need to chug down like, 4 or 5 beers just because everyone else is doing it. You’re an athlete. ATHLETE. Your nutritional needs are higher than non-athletes and alcohol isn’t helping you. Have fun explaining to your teammates that you couldn’t play to your fullest because you got smashed a day or two before the big game that you just lost.

Seriously, alcohol isn’t the best thing for any athlete. According to mystudentbody.com, alcohol “dehydrat[es] the body, delays reaction time, decreas[es] endurance, harm[s] your overall physical health, and impair[s] the healing process”. DO you seriously want yourself to be on a team having all those risks at a game or a meet? You need to be constantly hydrated to perform at your fullest and be attentive at all times. When you’ve finished a hard practice or game, you need your body to be one-hundred percent to heal you, or you’re going to be injured before the halfway point the season.

Sometimes I just don’t get why students want to compete in a varsity sport if they drink. I understand in college that it’s college and partying is what everyone thinks about. If you’d rather be partying instead of going to practice everyday and hurt yourself, don’t be on a team at all. Even if you’re a person who drinks one or two beers at a party, don’t do a sport. It’s no good if you’re still moderately damaging your body in some shape or form. I’m under the strict allusion at even drinking one beer could affect your athletic performance, which is why I don’t drink, and I don’t drink because people think the only way to have a good time is to get smashed and not remember anything that happened. Yeah, good memories you don’t have.

This is a largely heated argument I’m posting here and you can feel free to express your inner anger or impressiveness upon reading this. Hey, maybe I’m wrong about these points. I mean, I could definitely be wrong about these points, but it’s not stopping me from becoming the type of athlete I want to be, even if I’m not competing this year. I don’t know, it’s just something to think about for any athlete in high school or college, maybe even for anyone competing after college.