Over the last few years, I have seen an increase in specialized sports athletes and less multi-sport athletes. First and foremost, any athletic participation is great. If we are talking sport vs no sport, sport in my opinion, will almost always win. Some of the best athletes have played more than one sport. Star examples such as Deion Sanders (Baseball & Football), Michael Jordan (Basketball & Baseball), Gene Conley (Baseball & Basketball), Bo Jackson (Baseball & Football), Russel Wilson (Baseball & Football), and Tim Tebow (Baseball & Football). Now, not everyone that is a multi-sport athlete turns out to have this kind of success, but then why do it? Overuse injuries, adaptability, burnout to name a few, are some reasons that specialized sports do more harm than good. A number of high school athletes I talk to want to play college softball, I was in this same situation about 7 years ago so I get to speak from personal experience. When I was in high school I recall wondering if I should put all my focus, time, and energy into softball. I also played basketball and volleyball (not great at either of them but, enjoyed playing regardless). I recall talking to my father about this, who is a softball coach, and attended large coaching conferencing with big time college and professional coaches regularly. I can remember him telling me that a Division I coach stated that she hardly ever would recruit single sport athletes for a number of different reasons, and if you look at the second and third article that are attached you’ll read some additional opinions on recruitment.

Attached are a few additional opinion articles I have found regarding the topic.

https://www.sportscasting.com/star-athletes-who-played-more-than-one-professional-sport/

https://usatodayhss.com/2018/specialization-or-multisport-participation-heres-what-the-data-says

https://www.hommenorthopedics.com/blog/the-multi-sport-versus-single-sport-athlete-12133.html