I tell our 15 year old student: If you are only focused on athletics, your life is half over!

The second semester of school has started. Boy this year is whizzing by. The kids are the same, but are they? It seems each year different challenges surface. My biggest concern today is kids and parents who focus too sharply on athletics, as if their children's talents are going to carry them through the rest of their lives. The kids then assume this attitude at the expense of academics.

I get it that athletic scholarships for some families are the only way a child is going to get into college. But so many of our good athletes who get scholarships end up not keeping them because their focus remains on athletics and not academics. Likewise they go to a college that offers them an athletic scholarship when the school's academic offerings are not what the student needs or wants.

One of our school alumni is OJ Howard, an Alabama graduate and now tight end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Even as a tenth grader, OJ was focused on the big picture of getting a college degree to support his lifelong pursuits. He changed his mind several times on what those pursuits were but his approach is an example of how to tackle this thing called life. He knew he had tremendous athletic talent but that one serious injury or life event could easily whisk that away. Consequently he focused on his education first and was fortunate enough also to succeed in football.

The odds of a student athlete in high school making the grade in college is very small. The odds of further success in the professional sports is infinitesimal. Parents who push their children in athletics at the expense of academics are doing no one any favors. It's a street of nails and someone is going to get a flat tire.

I tell our 15 year old student: If your are only focused on athletics, your life is half over!

You see, coaching requires a degree and a degree comes from academics. Our own very successful head football coach just finished his degree so he can progress beyond football. The head football coach for our local public high school just resigned as coach but is staying at the school, yes you guessed it, to teach. He'll likely be an assistant principal one day.

You may think that your kids don't listen to you, but they do. They watch every move you make and when you are not around they tend to mimic your attitudes and actions. Your priorities to a certain degree become their priorities, whether they show it or not. Parents' influence on their children is huge so keep this in for forefront of your mind when you are interacting with your kids.

Gene Canavan is a retired West Point Graduate and Paper Mill Utilities Manager and lives in Prattville, Alabama, USA.