A few of my favorite childhood memories consiste of playing a game of catch with my dad in the backyard. No winners or losers, just enjoying our time together while getting better at throwing a baseball. 

When people think of sports, they usually think of a team that wins together and loses together. Never in those thoughts do people think about playing a game with their dad. However there are many growing sports activities that can cultivate positive relationships with your family while still getting better at chosen sports. The core sports that you play in high school are far too demanding to have that opportunity. I didn’t write this article to bash football, I wrote it to promote out of school sports, sports that set you apart.

3% of all Americans go skiing/snowboarding, while about 36% of high schoolers play a high school sport. This makes snowsports exotic and sets some apart from others. 

I go snowboarding in the mountains twice a year with my family and many more times in St. Louis with anybody that’ll come with me. It’s not something I need a team of nine, or eleven, or sixteen people for, it’s something that can come as a last second plan. It’s something I will be able to do with my kids and my kids’ kids someday. You and I will most likely never be on a team with our parents or kids, so why not start something that you will.

These activities are ageless, something that will be able to be  

Of course there’s another part of sports, that competitive sense of strength and power after getting a hit or drilling a soccer ball into the back of the net; the strength aspect. 

A lot of people play sports to stay in shape and build muscle in a way different from sweating in a gym weightlifting.

However, these sports work and build the same muscles as high school sports. Mountain biking uses your quadriceps and your glutes, the same thing as soccer. Football uses some of everything, but to get a push into the other team you need quads and hamstrings that are strong, snowboarding works both of those as well as greatly improves balance. These sports are super beneficial and might be the best alternative to the highly competitive and stressful sports that are so highly praised in high school.

I can’t argue against the Friday night lights football setting. When your team plays well and the student section is bursting with cheers and jaunts. Or the Wednesday night hockey games in a chilled rink watching players, but if you aren’t the top athlete and won’t have the opportunity to make a varsity team, there are other options that keep you in shape.