It’s hard to argue with a national championship.

Not long after Ohio State won the NCAA football championship, an image made the Internet rounds showing the recruiting breakdown of Coach Urban Meyer’s team. Out of 47 scholarship players, 42 were multi-sport high school athletes while just five specialized in football.

Certainly, at the upper levels of the country’s favorite sports, the versatility, athleticism and flexible thinking that is gained from playing multiple sports pays dividends. For example, a 2013 American Medical Society for Sports Medicine study found that 88 percent of college athletes surveyed played more than one sport as a child.

Many parents and coaches try to allow their children as many different sporting opportunities as time and money will permit. But there are still those parents who drive their kids to play one sport and coaches of demanding programs who want the full attention and participation of their young athletes. Little Rock youth coach and father of two Chris Givens, whose son Jackson is 8 and daughter Anna is 5, doesn’t mind juggling multiple sports as long as his kids are up for it. Givens believes sports diversity makes for a more well-rounded athlete—and person.

“When you go to college you major in a subject and you take a lot of classes in that subject, but in order to get a degree you have to take a lot of other subjects,” says Givens, who has coached his son in baseball. “I see sports the same way.”

Research-based reasons for multiple sports participation include better overall skills and ability, smarter and more creative players, and improved motor skills, emotional ability and creativity.

“When you’re 9 or 10 years old you don’t know what you like. You don’t know what you’re going to be,” says Dave Kenley, who has 10- and 8-year-old sons and coaches his son Tanner’s 10-year-old baseball team based in Maumelle. “You don’t know what your long-term skill set is going to be. And you won’t know that unless you test it out,” says Kenley, who once played baseball and was an assistant coach at Arkansas State University.

Drawbacks to sports specialization include burnout and greater risk for injuries. That includes knee pain and an increased possibility for anterior cruciate tears in female adolescents, such as Osgood-Schlatter disease and Sinding-Larsen & Johannson syndrome.

A study of youth athletes conducted by Dr. Neeru Jayanthi at Loyola University showed that 70-90 percent of youth athletes who specialized were likely to suffer an injury rather than athletes who diversified. An Ohio State study reveals a greater level in adult inactivity than in adults who played multiple sports when young, and that kids who commit to one sport an early age are most likely to quit.

Givens’ daughter has been involved in soccer, dance and gymnastics so far. His son has played baseball, soccer, basketball and football. Givens knows eventually the field of sports will narrow, but wants the decisions to be made largely by his children.

But, he said, there are competitive programs, traveling teams in baseball for example, that already require a certain level of commitment, even in younger age groups. “If you want him to be top of the pack, they do start specializing even at 8 or 9 years old,” Givens says. “But I don’t want to take soccer away from him so he can play baseball five days a week, unless he asks me to do that.”

Rick Butler, Searcy-based father of two girls ages 19 and 13 and author of the “Will Stover Sports Series” (sports-themed youth fiction), has lived on both sides of the discussion. As a young athlete, Butler says he never participated in an offseason workout because he was always playing whatever sport was in season.

On the other hand, Butler’s oldest daughter, Arielle (now 19 and a collegiate tennis player) played soccer, basketball and softball but found herself, by age 12, drawn into the singular demands of her traveling softball team. Butler describes a program run “like a boot camp” and says close to 10 of the 12 girls on the team had given up other sports to play softball because of parental pressure, self-pressure or pressure from coaches. “Of the 12 girls on this team, a grand total of zero ever played an inning of college softball,” Butler says.

Kenley notes that colleges recruit on potential, often signing high school athletes before they have reached full physical maturity. Even if recruited to play one sport in college, Kenley says, an athlete may grow into another position; so again, diversity in athletic experience can be valuable. “I know too many college coaches who say ‘I need athletes, not machines,’” Kenley says.

Specialization does eventually seep into the picture, especially in high school as kids begin to decide for themselves how they want to spend their time. Butler notes the possibility of “implied” pressure on high school athletes to devote time to one sport. Offseason training programs, 7-on-7 summer tournaments and spring practice have made football almost a year-round game, and softball or baseball coaches don’t like to see their pitchers’ arms put at risk in other sports. “I blame the pressure to win that high school coaches now feel,” Butler says. “A kid expressing a desire to play multiple sports seems to be automatically taken as a sign the kid isn’t committed to a specific sport. Instead it would be nice if coaches encouraged kids to play other sports.”

There is plenty of time to specialize and think about scholarships when kids get older, Givens says. For now, whether shooting baskets or playing catch with his son, he tries to keep sports’ original goal in mind. “I still think sports are fun for kids to play and they’re good activities,” Givens says. “I want him to have fun.”