Why Today's Top Athletic Programs Are Building Champions for Life

By Matt Amerlan

Director of Workforce Development

The Dual Threat Advantage

We’ve all experienced the thrill of sports to some degree, whether it is experiencing it first hand as an athlete that has put everything into being your best, or as a spectator admiring what it takes to compete as an athlete.

Sports are “reality T.V.” at its finest, suspense, drama, triumph, defeat, ultimately the extreme emotion of it all is what pulls us in! In 1961 sports commentator Jim McCay of ABC’s Wide World of Sports uttered the phrase in the show’s opening, “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat”. This phrase has become an iconic phrase that perfectly captures the wide emotional range of athletic competition, and by the way is exactly why we love it.

Our culture’s love of sports has resulted in an ever growing multibillion dollar industry that the masses aspire to be a part of. As a result the youth and high school sports market has exploded. Youth sports as of 2022 is a $37.5B industry and is on track to nearly double to $69.4B by 2030 (Markets N Research).

While this is exciting there are unintended consequences. The growth has fueled a “more is more” culture. For youth and high school athletes and their families —skyrocketing costs, earlier specialization, and relentless demands (on both the athlete and parents). What is the unspoken rule? Invest more time and money—or risk being left behind.

For the 95% of student-athletes who won’t compete beyond high school, the cost can be steep: pressure, burnout, and the false belief that not “making it” equals failure. For the other 5% the cost can be steep as well. Even if you make it to the highest of levels, sports will end at some point for everyone.

What if we rewrote this narrative? What if we could, “play both sides of the ball”? What if we were more intentional and explicit from the beginning that there is a dual purpose in trying to reach your optimal athletic ability? First for the athlete, so that they have piece of mind that they maximized their athletic potential and left everything on the field, pool, track, etc (there are valuable lessons in this alone); and also because what is learned in this pursuit are highly sought after transferrable skills that the work world needs and overall translates to life success. What is learned on an athlete’s journey —building resilience, discipline, teamwork, and other transferable skills that are highly coveted in the workforce. There is a disconnect in athletes understanding and being empowered by this. We need to guide our athletes during their journey to identify this, embrace this and be equipped to transfer these skills. We need to help them, “connect these dots”.

This perspective could transform outcomes for all athletes whenever their athletic career ends (both for the 95% that have put in so much that stop playing after high school, as well as the 5% that go on to play at higher levels whose career will end at some point). With this perspective and guidance — athletes, parents, organizations, and our communities might just experience healthier and more sustainable outcomes. This vision will empower the 10 million high school aged student athletes to become, “Dual Threats for Life”.

Dual Threat Playbook Tip

How to communicate skills learned through athletics to your resume.