To start this off I'd like to say this is just my opinion from what I've read and felt. I also don't know a ton about running. I know some, but I don't know how a lot of it affects your body.
Sprinting us much harder, for this reason you can't go on as long it as far. You can just travel much faster. Sprinting is usually more important in sports, but if your cardio and/or endurance can't last through a game, then you're sprinting ability will soon become useless. If you can't sprint fast at all, but can run forever, then you'll be out ran a lot, but if you're playing with people with weak cardio, then you'll seem really fast in the end.
But why not mix those? Being able to run distance and pretty sprint fast is pretty awesome. It's fun, is great for sports, and is the best way to burn fat, in my opinion.
If all you play is football or volley ball, then yeah, stick with sprints for now. You don't need endurance. If play any other active sport (golf doesn't count as active), you'll probably need some endurance and need to run distance.
Now, let's get on to how sprinting and distance running affects your body.
Running distance will improve your cardio, increase endurance (your legs will be able to endure more stress), burn fat and can be relaxing. A down side of distance running is you barely build muscle. It's more cardio and endurance. You build some, but not much. You might think you're building muscle after awhile, but it's more likely that you burned off a little fat and now you can see your muscles. Your leg muscles will tone up. Partly from the fat burning, but they will get a bit more dense and hard. Another down side is that if you run a ton, you might lose muscle mass if you're not eating right, but that's more eating habits than running.
Sprinting. Sprinting builds much more muscle than distance running. You use fast-twitch muscle fibers which can grow more than slow-twitch muscle fibers. Also, if you do sprinting right, you'll lose fat faster than your would if you ran distance. Granted. This may not be true if your body has mainly slow-twitch muscle fibers. Sprinting will strengthen your cardio, but not quite the same as distance running. You can only sprint so long, so your heart rate will be increased rabidly for a while, but to get the most out of sprinting, you should take breaks to let your fast-twitch fibers recover and let your lunges catch up.
You see, to sprint fast, you need to use fast-twitch fibers... but fast-twitch fibers also get tired quickly, hence why you use slow-twitch fibers to run for a long time. I've also read that fast-twitch fibers your a different chemical in your body than slow-twitch... but I can't remember how it all works, I just know fast-twitch fibers need more recovery time.
Probably the biggest downside of sprinting is the risk of pulling a muscle. This can be avoided with a good warmup and stretching... but still, a cold day and slip of a foot and you can pull something.
Then again, with distance running you could easily roll an ankle because of lack of muscle support. All thar takes is a hole or an awkward step. So they both have potential injures.
You might say: "What about shin splints? Or an inflamed IT band? Runners knee? Etc..."
My answer to that is: if you train too hard too quickly or run with bad form then you have a good chance of getting any of those. I'd say distance running has a higher chance of an inflamed IT band, but sprinting has a higher chance of knee pain (runners knee)... but still, those could just accrue from the surface you're running on.
Moral of the story? Run. Sprint and run distance, but listen to your body. If you get better results from more distance running, then do that. If you feel an injury coming, rest, then see if your form is bad when you start up again. Most importantly? Make fitness fun, because if it isn't fun, you'll likely stop. That doesn't mean go easy, but don't make running a chore.
Run on!
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