I'm not talking about some D1 football player who wouldn't be in college if not for sports and who is totally focused on sports. It's unreasonable to expect that person to give two shits and if you can't see that then I've vastly overestimated you for years here. But I suspect you do get it.

I'm talking about people who are studious and also compete(d) in sports. With a similar level of enthusiasm/application between the athlete and the non-athlete, I found the former to be better equipped to deal with surprises, adapt, work with other people and generally go beyond the sheltered, unrealistic setting of the American school system.

I also don't agree that sports inhibit creativity. Creativity, improvisation, reaction and adaptation are all fundamental parts of athletics. Defining your own style is also part of it, but doing so in a way that conscious of other people and how it meshes with them. It's a mixture of individualism and collectivism, the same sort of anthropomorphic dynamic we've seen in society since the earliest written accounts of humanity.

In short I think you're being super dismissive here, though that was pretty evident with your "join the band" comments.