The lights shine onto the field, the sun setting in the background. That Friday night feeling is settling its way into your mind and heart, fueling your body with adrenaline. The sweat and tears are left in the dirt after the game. Every emotion is flowing out of your veins, from excitement to anger. But in the back of everyone's mind, in that dark spot we all seem to forget about, is the fact that this is all going to come to an end.

High school athletics are an excellent way to build yourself as a person. They teach you how to become a leader, better your athletic skills and build your character as a whole. Unfortunately, a lot of high schools and colleges tend to forget that they are called student athletes. They neglect the student aspect of things. The studs through high school and college tend to have lower expectations in the classroom and get away with many things that non-athletes or lower level athletes wouldn't get away with. For instance, a football player can get away with having low grades and poor attendance. But, because he is an essential center and can block better than any other center on the team, he is allowed to have poor attendance and poor grades.

They are also allowed to get into trouble with anything and it be looked over like it is no big deal. I know first hand of a person who got into drug problems and was simply talked to by the principal and then allowed to play in the next game.

The educational system has got to quit doing this. They are teaching entitlement, a sense of power and that it is acceptable to get away with things that are either highly frowned upon or illegal. When these student athletes move from high school, where this is a highly occurring thing, to college, where it is a very rare thing, they cannot make the transition easily. They have to learn how to actually study and get good grades because now the coaches will not tolerate poor grades and foul behavior.

They have to stop allowing this behavior be labeled as acceptable. These kids cannot be taught that it is okay to do drugs and participate in underage drinking and see that there are no consequences for it, because there are. There is a world outside of high school, even outside of college. The real world will eat these types of young adults up. It is a slippery slope, so why would you add more water to it?

Stop allowing talented children to turn into entitled athletes. Yes, athletics teach many lessons, such as leadership, confidence and determination, but too much of these things can lead to a big ego and contradict all of these positive qualities and turn them into negative ones. Allow them to focus on school and become better academically than athletically. Encouraging academic success will build character, drive, confidence and push them closer to success.

There will come a day when you can no longer use your body to play a sport, but the day when you cannot use your brain and an education is much, much farther away from that. The education system needs to stop putting such an emphasis on athletics and more of a focus on bettering the students. Some students are talented, but if they were truly a talented student athlete, they could handle both aspects of things. Stop making unacceptable behaviors okay and allowing poor grades to go unnoticed due to talent.