OSU football coach Mike Gundy values multi-sport athletes

OSU football coach Mike Gundy discussed the value of playing multiple sports during signing day. Specialization has become a hot topic in recent years, as more young players try to build their skills in a single sport. However, a majority of coaches — youth, high school, college and pro — would prefer they branched out.

“I think high school kids ought a play as many sports as they want to play,” Gundy said. “I think that we’re getting overwhelmed with travel baseball in the summer through young kids, travel softball, travel volleyball, AAU basketball, 7-on-7 for football. It’s discouraging some high school athletes from playing multi-sports. For us, we think it’s best for them to play multi sports and compete year around.

“Whenever we evaluate a young man, one of the first things I ask is does he play any other sports?”

Gundy briefly talked about burnout at last month’s American Football Coaches Association conference in Nashville, saying kids who play a single sport year-round can eventually lose interest in it. 

At signing day, Gundy said he’s especially fond of wrestlers because of the “discipline, accountability and structure” the sport requires. Gundy himself wrestled in junior high and won several tournaments.

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