ABSTRACT
Student's interests vary from enjoying a sport and having fun, to making new friends, moving towards self-actualization, finding fulfillment, and staying in shape. For other students and their families, the purpose of sports in school is to provide a pathway to college sports and hopefully a partial or full scholarship. Students and families come to see counselors with a perception of what the role of counseling is, and what the role of the counselor is going to be. The school counselor needs to recognize that many young athletes today are treated differently from their non-athletic counterparts, and the better they are the more they are experiencing a reality that is going to last only as long as their success continues to propel them to the top. There are two views, one that athletics can be cathartic and the other that the modeling of violence can generalize to the athlete's family or community.
