ON Saturday January 9, 2021, Vanguard published the exceptional story of Mrs. Chinedu Uche Azubuike, a former handball player who later became an academic. Dr. Azubuike, now a lecturer at Nigeria’s premier sports institute, the National Institute for Sports, Lagos is one of the many success stories of sports men and women who combined their sporting skills with education.

In the beginning, formal education was a cocktail of diverse but programmed and well-coordinated process aimed at giving the child total mental, psychological development and growth.

More importantly, it was to enhance the child’s ability to adequately comprehend the world around him.

Little wonder, therefore, that the syllabuses of those early schools were all-encompassing as, apart from the core academic subjects pertaining to the arts and sciences, the children also engaged in extra-curricular activities such as handcraft, home economics and sports.

In addition to the theoretical aspects of arts and sciences, there were well-equipped laboratories where teachers conducted experimentation of what they taught in class.

Students of agriculture were made to clear the bush, till the ground and plant crops.

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Those who chose sports had good playgrounds where they were drilled and taught the rudiments of each sport they chose as their major. In summary, all those early engagements laided the foundation for future engineers, doctors, lawyers, great athletes, farmers and so on.

Indeed, sports could be the most profitable if the athlete passed through the precincts of a classroom which in turn passed through the athlete. Athletes make a lot of money. They are among the richest professionals in the world.

Billionaire athletes like Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers who is worth $400 million, Christiano Ronaldo of Juventus who is worth $400 million, Lionel Messi of Barcelona who is worth $400 million; Tennis legend, Roger Federer with a net worth of $450 million and others, tell the story of how sports can elevate an athlete from grass to grace.

However, without proper education, much of the wealth is frittered away and mismanaged. That explains why some previously successful athletes who made fortunes through their talents later became bankrupt and despondent.

Stories abound of athletes who faded into oblivion just because they ignored every other aspect of learning in their active days and concentrated on sports which was supposed to be an extra-curricular activity.

Educated footballers, for instance, ensure they enter into contracts that would secure their future. They also have the sense to avoid slave-contracts.

That is not always the case with highly skilled but uneducated athletes, who do not even see the need to hire good managers.

Vanguard News Nigeria