If you have played one sport at SHS, even just for one season, you know how time consuming it is. All teams have practices every day, every week for months for at least two hours, and on top of that, there are games at least once a week.

Additionally, the athletes come home and have hours of homework as high school students, especially those taking accelerated and AP classes, chores in the house, and possibly a job.

Just writing this makes me tired. Yet these are many students lives’ at SHS. Students who play sports live these lives everyday. Athletes in high school are constantly on the move with everything they need to do to excel.

My question is: why do these athletes have to take a gym class? They are already exercising for more than two hours a day, so why do they need to do lazy gym work?

If someone participates in at least two seasons of a sport or sports, they should not have to take two semesters of gym.

In Foundations of Fitness, they do go over eating a healthy diet and keeping a healthy lifestyle, but that can be transferred to be taught in health class instead.

The two semesters of currently required gym can be used by those athletes to take a study hall or an additional class that works toward their future. It gives them more flexibility in their schedule to actually have control over their time.

No matter how these athletes will take advantage of a newly freed year of class in their life, it will be their own time to be more productive rather than doing something they already do.