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Three-sport athlete gradually vanishes

The desire to earn a scholarship has many focusing on one sport.

[Times art: Rossie Newson]

By JOHN SCHWARB

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 17, 2001

Kristi Langworthy is nearly halfway through her high school career as a student and an athlete. In the halls of Hernando High, she is just another sophomore. But on the playing fields, she is a rarity.

In the fall, Langworthy played volleyball. In the winter, basketball. And once the playoffs ended, she jumped right into softball.

One school year, three sports. But maybe not for long.

"It's not easy. It takes a lot of time out of your life," Langworthy said.

For two years, the versatile playmaker has managed to balance the rigorous schedule. Next year, though, she said she might decide to pass up the three-sport lifestyle.

She will find plenty of company.

No more Jim Thorpes

In earlier generations, athletes did it all. Autumn's star quarterback became the wintertime point guard and the springtime pitcher. The fleet-of-foot wide receiver jumped from the gridiron to the court to the long jump pit.

"I did the three, and your friends did the three," Seminole girls basketball coach Dave Swanson said. "The guys you saw on the football field were the guys you saw on the basketball court and so on."

Today, seasons and their sports still change. The athletes no longer change with them.

The three-sport athlete is disappearing.

Coaches and athletic directors are sure of it.

"I can think of maybe two or three offhand. That's it," said Dunedin athletic director Tom Brittain when asked to name his school's three-sporters. "We just don't see that Jim Thorpe-type mentality, where you do a little of everything."

Administrators vary in their opinions on why the numbers of versatile players are declining, and not all are convinced high school sports suffer as a result. Some wonder if three-sport participation is important or even possible. But all agree the three-sport athlete population is not likely to increase soon, if ever.

The specialists

Today's students have far more after-school options than just interscholastic sports, and many who would like to play on several school teams cannot due to jobs or logistical problems stemming from households with two working parents.

But what about a school's elite athletes, who are almost never without a game or practice after school and on weekends? These athletes, while active year-round, are no longer spending fall, winter and spring competing in their school colors.

Now many specialize, working for eight, nine, even 12 months a year on one sport. And "working" no longer entails getting together with friends for a summer pickup game.

With AAU and other off-season leagues, basketball players can hone their skills long after the prep schedules end. Florida's baseball and softball players can also play year-round with the proliferation of travel leagues, fall ball and other organizations.

The extra months of games and practices often aren't geared toward the next high school season. Instead, there often is one overriding, all-consuming goal that dominates the athlete's mind -- a college scholarship.

"For these kids to be competitive, they feel the need to stay active in it year-round," Tarpon Springs football coach Don Davis said. "I think the perception is, "If I do it year-round for four years, I'm going to be good enough (to get a scholarship).' "

The reality is that scholarships are not at the end of the line for every one-sport specialist or three-sport superstar. But to colleges, are three sports better than one?

"(A three-sports resume is) a nice thing to have, but I don't think they're enamored with it," said Bobby Burton, a national recruiting expert. "The issue is on that marginal athlete -- if he spent more time in the weight room, could he get that (football) scholarship? Should he spend a quarter of the year in football, a quarter in basketball, a quarter in baseball and a quarter in track? What gives him a better chance of succeeding?"

Football does not have the same specialization options as baseball, basketball and softball, though many coaches require athletes not in other sports to participate in off-season weightlifting. But some football coaches say that if given a choice, they would prefer their players branch out to other sports.

"Without a doubt, I'd rather have kids that are involved in other things," Lecanto football coach and athletic director Dick Slack said. "It's going to help you be more well-rounded. You're going to be a better football player if you wrestle or if you run track."

Few coaches would doubt that in theory, but some wonder if such pursuits are worth the commitment.

"I think it's difficult for a kid to even participate in two sports. It's so difficult to excel just in one," Hillsborough High football coach Earl Garcia said. "Especially in a sport such as football, it's very crucial to be in weight-training condition.

"I've had a bunch of kids get into the weight room after basketball in late February, March, and they're two months behind. Baseball players can be four, five months behind."

Garcia said he was not sure if he has had a three-sport athlete in nine years at Hillsborough.

Losers and winners

If the better athletes of a generation ago made their schools' teams better by playing in as many sports as possible, the decline of the three-sport athlete begs the question of if athletic programs are suffering without them.

"It's tough," St. Petersburg High athletic director Eric Allen said. "There's a difference between an athlete and a good team player. Athletes can help teams. Basketball players used to be asked to come out for football. They were good leapers and runners.

"Now those kids aren't playing football. It's the skill positions you're losing out on."

Some athletic directors prefer to look at the bottom line of overall participation numbers. Dunedin's Brittain said his teams are thriving and that other students fill the gaps left by the one-sport specialists.

Other coaches make a case that a three-sport mind-set in today's athletic culture can do more harm than good.

"It's really difficult to play three sports and compete with all of the other kids who just play one sport," Palm Harbor University baseball coach Greg Nichols said. "Their athleticism benefits, but their skill level in the specific sports are hurt."

Nichols said he supports his players' desires to branch out but added that not all coaches do. Other coaches say they know peers who strongly discourage players from taking on multiple sports for reasons that vary from fear of injury to fear of losing a player's interest.

"There are a lot of coaches who are doing a disservice to their athletes," Slack said.

In the end, the decision still comes down to the athlete. Those who have lived the three-sport lifestyle swear by it.

"People have to do it for themselves," said Land O'Lakes senior Godfrey Pestana, a football-basketball-track athlete until this year, when he dropped basketball -- a decision he said he regrets.

"It's very hard. But it just kept me focused on what I needed to do, in school and in sports. Playing three sports a year, you learn so much."

And missing all of that, administrators say, can leave a void in a student's high school career.

"I try to tell my girls one of the neat things about high school ball, though it's hard to find scholarships or get college exposure, is that 10 years from now, if you said you went to a travel ball tournament and won, no one's going to care," Clearwater softball coach Brian Mont said.

"If you can say you were a (high school) district champion, a regional champion, a state champion, people can understand that and they can relate."

Hernando's Langworthy thinks decision time is coming.

How long can she be a starter on the volleyball, basketball and softball teams? She loves them all, but softball has been a staple in her life since age 5. That sport is her favorite, and she also believes it is her ticket to college.

"The scouts start coming around junior and senior year," she said. "You can't do it all because you're not out there the whole time."

Something will have to give.

"I think down the road, I'm not going to be able to play basketball," Langworthy said.

"I'd love to do it, but it overlaps so bad. We went far (in the playoffs) and had a good time, but I just can't do it."

And another three-sport athlete will be history, perhaps never to be replaced.

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