Student-athletes balance their academics with a demanding practice and competition schedule. And, depending on skill level, their sport can be a big factor in the opportunities they receive for higher education. Students often benefit more in the recruiting process from being on a club team than a school team. Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) reports that 90% of student-athletes competing at the college level previously competed for a club team during their recruiting process.
The downsides of being a club athlete in AUSD
At Encinal, on top of the hours club-athletes dedicate to their sport each week, they come to school each day to complete their required two years of physical education (PE) courses.
The purpose of PE is to encourage students to stay active to create and foster a healthy lifestyle for the rest of their lives. This is cited as important for setting students up for good physical and mental health. But, student-athletes often get more hours of physical activity per week than the PE curriculum requires students to do. Training which is individualized to their talents, rather than exactly the curriculum the state mandates.
If athletes were given the opportunity to count the hours they put into their sport towards a PE independent study, they could free up space in their schedule and life for other helpful classes or activities.
Good academic standing and skill at a sport go hand in hand in recruitment. Student athletes wishing to compete at the collegiate level have to also meet the academic requirements the college sets.
Academics, in some cases, have to take a backseat to the PE requirement as there are only a limited number of periods available per year.
For example, in sophomore year students have the option of having a zero period PE or AP world history prep. This poses a difficult choice, either get the PE graduation requirement done, or take a class that will assist your future in pursuing higher education.
Another example is students being limited to one elective per year if they have yet to fulfill the 2-year PE graduation requirement. This makes it significantly harder to achieve all the elective, VAPA, and language requirements for graduation and college admissions if students are unwilling or unable to get to school at an earlier time for zero period.
Current policies
The California Department of Education sets a minimum requirement for all its schools, allowing districts to adjust from this standard. 400 minutes every 10 school days is the minimum and is the requirement the Alameda Unified School District sets. The California Department of Education also allows districts to offer independent study for PE but does not require districts to grant independent studies.
Currently, in AUSD, exemptions from PE are only offered to students who participate in sports certified by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) that the school participates in. Many club athletes are unable to participate in school sports because it clashes with the practices they already participate in.
Benefits of club sport participation
PE is generally not a requirement for college admissions, but is a requirement to graduate Encinal. Additionally, taking PE doesn’t offer benefits to students aiming to pursue a higher education. Meanwhile, commitment to a club sport can demonstrate a student’s grit, determination and dedication. Their talent in their given sport can also make them desirable for college teams, which can lead to recruitment and scholarships.
Hannah Reid, a senior recently accepted into Diablo Valley College to pursue her studies and play collegiate water polo said, “I think it depends on like, the sport or the aspect of the sport. I think club [waterpolo] really helped with the actual sport itself.”
According to NCSA college recruiting, “playing club sports is known to give athletes an advantage in the recruiting process. Club sports are offered year round, making it great for athletes to consistently focus on skill development, while also giving college coaches more opportunities to evaluate athletes during competitions.”
Benefits of Independent study and how to implement it in AUSD
Exemptions for PE could allow students to focus more on their sport and could possibly allow them to leave early from school since they won’t have an extra class. This could be beneficial for students whose practices overlap with school time or are scheduled right after school gets out.
There are multiple existing opportunities the California Board of Education offers to exempt club-athletes from PE, specifically if the amount of time these students train exceeds the minimum set by the district.
Independent study for physical education (ISPE) is an opportunity to be exempt from in-school physical education. To be eligible, students must meet the state requirements in some other way and pass the FITNESSGRAM® as a part of the state-mandated Physical Fitness Test in 5th, 7th and 9th grades.
The biggest argument against ISPE is the difficulty in supervising sports off school grounds and not under the watch of school officials. It would be difficult for schools to confirm whether or not the practices club athletes participate in are up to district standards.
Berkeley High deals with this issue by implementing very specific rules and restrictions regarding their ISPE policy. The school must have some form of communication with the coach and has students and their coach track the hours they put into the sport.
Other schools such as Dublin High school allow athletes competing at the state or national level to take ISPE so long as they present a log of the hours they practiced to their admins every week, they have above a 2.0 GPA and pass the physical education test. San Ramon Valley Unified School District and Mountain View Los Altos High School District offer a similar program.
“We’d have to create some board policy, but I think we would also need to talk to Berkeley High and see what they’re doing. And it’s working for them. So if it’s working for them, it could clearly work for us,” said Encinal Athletic Director Kevin Gorham, “If I mimicked what [Berkeley High] is doing and brought it here, I think it would be an added benefit to the kids here at Encinal High School.”
ISPE is not a program detailed on the official AUSD website. However, exempting high level club athletes from PE is mentioned briefly on the Alameda Science and Technology Institute’s (ASTI) website.
ISPE could lessen the amount of sacrifices student-athletes have to make for their sport, whether it be in school or their personal life. This is a policy that AUSD may consider in the coming years as school districts throughout California are opting to provide this option for student-athletes.
