ATHLETES IN HIGH SCHOOLS WORTH CHEERING ABOUT

Since students first gathered in public high schools, athletics has played an important role in the education process.

Many outstanding athletes have graced the record books at Cape Girardeau's Central High School over the years. And although times are changing, the ingredients for a successful athlete remain largely unchanged.

Those ingredients also continue to beget successful adults, who continually draw from the high school education they received outside the classroom.

Larry Kitchen, an outstanding football and baseball player for Central in the late 1960s and a successful coach during the 1980s, has seen athletics change significantly over the years.

Students now have a much wider variety of sports to choose from, and many athletes now are choosing to "specialize" in one sport as opposed to playing multiple sports, as was more of the practice years ago.

"I honestly believe that athletes today are bigger, they're faster, and they're stronger than they were 10 or 20 years ago," Kitchen said. "The big thing I see today is the kids don't study the game like they did years ago.

"Physically, they're better athletes than they were a few years ago, but they're not students of the game today. We offer students so many alternatives that maybe we've taken away from that."

Kitchen went on from a successful sports career at Central to Southeast Missouri State University, where he was a catcher on the baseball team. He also played 10 or 11 years for the semi-professional Kohlfeld Capahas in Cape Girardeau.

Kitchen said that because so many athletes today specialize in a particular sport, students who want to play multiple sports are at a disadvantage.

"You see more kids maybe specializing in football, then lifting weights all year round, or playing basketball all year round," he said.

"It makes it tough to compete," he said. "When a guy who plays football comes out for basketball, he's at a disadvantage because he has to compete against guys who've been playing basketball all year."

An athlete from the "old school," Leon Brinkopf, remembers that athletes rarely specialized in one sport.

Brinkopf played center and linebacker on Central's football team from 1942-44, and was a member of the basketball team.

Although the high school didn't have a baseball team then, he also participated in summer league baseball.

Brinkopf, 66, is unique in Cape Girardeau in that he played professionally, signing with the Chicago Cubs in 1948 as an outfielder. He said high school sports have changed considerably since he competed.

"When I played, the only sports were football and basketball," he said. "Now, I've been told, you can letter in 17 sports at Central High School, including the girls sports.

"When I played there was a certain group of athletes who played all the sports. Today there are a lot more extracurricular activities other than sports that kids can participate in."

Brinkopf said that although the sports themselves have changed little over the years, the way they're played has. He coached baseball and football at Central for about 20 years.

"Kids nowadays are a lot better than we ever were," he said. "It's improved a lot. I think it's good to have more sports for kids to try out."

Charles Blattner, a local businessman, also was a standout at Central, graduating in 1950. He earned nine varsity letters in his three years at Central, competing in football, basketball and baseball.

Blattner went on to play quarterback and defensive back for the Southeast Missouri State Indians and baseball for the Capahas. He agreed with Brinkopf's assessment of athletes today.

"We couldn't get on the bench today," Blattner said. "We had some good ball players, but they're a lot more aggressive today.

"The whole complexion of the game has changed. It's a much more exciting game today. It's more intense than it ever was when I played."

Blattner said fewer students participate in each sport today, but a higher percentage of students take part in some sport.

"I think one of the reasons for that is there's a lot more to do today than back then," he said. "Very few kids worked other than on weekends, simply because there weren't jobs available for high school kids.

"I think the student body supported athletics more then; again, because it gave them something to do. Today there are so many other things to do that athletics kind of take a back seat for a lot of these kids."

Blattner and Brinkopf both played for Central legendary coach Lou Muegge. They agreed that athletics play an important role in shaping young men and women for "the real world," particularly under a dominant personality like Muegge.

"I think in sports, certainly you have to have team work, cooperation and aggressiveness," Blattner said. "The competition is good and healthy, and I think all of those things prepare an individual for life.

"The background you pick up being the member of an athletic team is something you draw from the rest of your life." said Blattner.

Brinkopf said playing for Muegge instilled the kind of values everyone needs in life.

"He was such a dominant factor for me," he said. "High school athletics affected me tremendously."

"Muegge was one of these guys who was very aggressive and didn't like to lose," said Blattner. "He was a strict disciplinarian."

"He also was a perfect `motivater,' and as a result, the kids always did everything they could do to try to win that ball game, if, for nothing else, for Lou Muegge."

Kitchen said one thing that hasn't changed among high school athletes is a thirst for discipline and standards that come from athletics.

"Athletes want to be disciplined," he said. "They love to have a coach or instructor say this is what's expected of you academically, on the field, off the field and away from school."

Kitchen said athletes want the discipline so that they can be identified with the program that stands for principles. "That's something that I don't think has ever changed."

The impact of athletics is felt long after school days. Even today Blattner and Brinkopf retain vivid memories of their athletic careers.

"I remember playing on the 1942 football team that went undefeated and didn't give up a score the entire year," Brinkopf said.

Arch-rival Jackson came close that year when they had a first-and-goal on Central's 1-yard line. "We held them four downs, and when we got the ball back we were on the 6 yard line," Brinkopf fondly recalls.

He also coached Central High School's baseball team to a state championship in 1962, the year the team went 22-0.

Those are the types of memories that only athletics can supply, said Kitchen. And despite pressures fueled by ever-dwindling school budgets to cut sports programs, Kitchen said such a move would be disastrous.

"Statistics show that athletes' grades are better than those who don't compete in sports, and the characteristics taught in sports carry over into your profession," he said. "There are so many advantages that an athlete has because of the things he's been taught."

Even in losing, student-athletes gain valuable, character-building experience, Kitchen said.

"You're going to lose once in a while, but I used to tell my kids that there comes a time when you can't go home to mom; you have to face your problems alone, and athletics teaches that," he said.

"We're not preparing these guys to be Magic Johnson or Michael Jordon; we're preparing them to be good employees able to hold down a job."