To move on from high school athletics to college or professional sports, true dominance, work ethic, and commitment is necessary. Whether you’re looking to move on in football, basketball, soccer, baseball, or any sport, you need to commit your life to the sport and perform at a much higher level than your opponents.

Professional athletes don’t just wake up one day and excel at a certain sport; they had to dedicate their entire lives to this passion. They also had inconceivable athletic abilities, but they still worked day in and day out. If you are looking to move on to college athletics and beyond, here are some numbers that you may have to look into “putting up”. Wilson Chandler, an “average” NBA player, averaged 24 points a game as a senior to go along with 12 rebounds, five assists, and four blocks a game. Anybody who has played basketball before realizes that this is quite a feat to accomplish. He went to DePaul University for basketball – a small, normally unsuccessful program.  Another “average” NBA player is Denver Nuggets Point Guard, Nate Robinson. Although he went to the University of Washington for basketball, which has a fairly successful basketball program, he averaged 18 points a game with seven assists and seven rebounds all at 5’9″. So, if you want to try to go to a very good college basketball program, then you better be able to destroy your competition and completely commit yourself.

If you’re looking to go to college for football, then you, most likely, have to dominate on both sides of the ball, no matter what position you plan on playing. Most NFL and Division One athlete’s average around 1,500 yards from scrimmage at the very least on offense, no matter what position. On defense, it’s at least around 80 tackles or six interceptions, depending on what position you play on the field.

So let it be known to all student athletes: whether you are playing for the school or on a club team, playing college sports is not nearly as easy as it seems. It requires an inconceivable amount of talent, hours of hard work, and luck in staying healthy throughout your career. This article is not saying it is downright impossible to play Division One athletics; it is more of a statement to Division One hopefuls to make sure they know that it is no cakewalk to reach this level. In addition, playing Division Two college sports is no small feat and is a lot more reachable for many student athletes across the country. One of these athletes from our school recently was Tory Belveal. Tory was able to get into Concordia University in Nebraska with the opportunity to play basketball for this school, which is a Division Two caliber basketball program.

No matter what sport you are trying to play in college, you have to dominate the competition, stay healthy as much as possible, and completely commit yourself to your chosen sport. The Jetstream Journal wishes good luck to all college athletics hopefuls to achieve their goals!