elopment issues for athletes while they are still in school and have not yet entered the labor force (either as professional athletes or as amateur athletes who are employed somewhere besides the playing field) is relevant for a variety of reasons. For one thing, only two out of a hundred high school and college athletes actually make it to the professional level (La Franchi, 1984). This argues that the education portion of college is far more crucial to career success than the sports portion. Educational failure has been especially hard on African American athletes, whose employability outside the competitive arenas has historically been problematic--whether because of racism or lack of qualifications is irrelevant to the fact that a cogent career development strategy could only help alleviate the situation.
Another reason for career-development activity among high school and college athletes is the diverse and well-publicized record of highly paid professional athletes after they retired from their sport. High-salaried athletes as a group would be expe
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