In society, it has basically always been assumed that athletes have excessive amounts of physical talent, but are dumb as a rock. On the other hand, students who are fully involved in their academics are viewed as being quick as a whip, but socially awkward and can’t play sports.

There is another difference  between the two groups, however. The term “nerd” can be more or less translated as someone who is dedicated to their academics and someone who shows promise in being intelligent and making a contribution to society. The nerds are the ones who are typically viewed as becoming extraordinarily successful later on in life. Take former chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, for example, he is famous for his quote, “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

So where does this leave the athletes? It seems society and hollywood writes them off doing one of three things. Option one is that the athletes only make it through high school because of their physical talent in their sport, then goes to college to play and then goes pro to be a super star. The second option is that they make it to college like in the first option, but then they suffer an injury and spend the rest of their lives thinking about “what could’ve been.” The final option is that the athlete was good in high school, but not good enough to go to college, so they become an aggressive little league coach who copes with his failure by screaming at children.

In reality, high school athletes are doing better than the hollywood makes them out to be, according to Fitzalan Gorman of globalpost.com. Gorman reported that according to researchers at Michigan State University, students who participated in vigorous sports, on average, do 10 percent better in science, math, English and social studies than students who do not participate in a sport.

I’m afraid the title of student athlete has more of a negative connotation than it should. Student athletes should have pride in themselves for being able to maintain, in most cases, higher grades than their peers and still be able to withstand the physical strains of a high school sport. If being called a “jock” means that I can contribute to a football team or set a new record on the track field while still maintaining a higher GPA than the majority of my classmates, then I could only hope to ever have the privilege to be called a “jock.”