Real Athletes Make Their Own Workouts

Burnt Hills has for years been known both locally and even state-wide for their athletic programs. Just by looking at the number of state championship banners in the gym and the sectional and regional plaques that line the high school hallways, you can tell BH athletes are the real deal. It’s not uncommon for athletes to be asked by outsiders what they feed us here in Burnt Hills or if they breed us for sports.

It is necessary that BH athletes be in shape to uphold the school’s standard, and we definitely get enough exercise during practices, but despite this, people still ignore the hard work athletes do to make a team and live a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, all student athletes are required to not only participate in PE classes, but to make up missed classes outside of school.
It is understandable that varsity athletes must take gym, sports are extracurricular and should not affect the classes you take during the school day, but extending requirements to after school, time that may actually interfere with sports practice, is ridiculous. If you have to make up a class before you have a game, it could negatively affect your performance, when in reality, you should be credited with the exercise you get in your game.

The phys. ed. policy is that if you miss a class, you need to make up the work you missed, just like in other classes, and that everyone should be required to do the same work, despite their physical activity outside of school. However, if you miss a gym class, 7 points are taken from your average and you only have two weeks to make them up, cutting into time you may need to make up work for other classes. The only way to make up a class is by completing the established workouts- running on the track, swimming, or doing reps on certain machines- and you have to do one of these twice in order to get the full seven points available in one gym class.

 
This policy fails to recognize that athletes already exercise enough outside of school during practice. Even in the off-season, we come up with their own workouts to stay in shape: workouts that are often more strenuous than the ones set by the gym teachers. The individual and team workouts done by students should be recognized by the phys. ed. department and if you exercise outside of school, you should not have to follow the same structured, unrewarding workouts as students who don’t exercise on their own in order to get a decent gym grade.