Freshman athletes not allowed to take sixth period Athletic PE

Naomi Kruh
Staff Writer

As fall semester sports seasons come to an end, many Mira Costa athletes find themselves in James Beaumont’s sixth period athletic physical education class.
The sixth period athletic P.E. class is for athletes whose sport is no longer in season. This class is designed to allow students to not have to change their schedule once season is over. However, freshman are not allowed in this class resulting in mandatory schedule changes.
“I found out that I couldn’t go into athletic P.E. a week before soccer ended,” freshman Georgia Wedbush said. “I was sad because I didn’t want to mess up my schedule.”
According to Vice Principal Jon Shaw, freshman are not allowed in athletic P.E. is because the ninth grade fitness standards are not covered in the class. The standards include a timed mile, push-ups, curl ups, shoulder stretch, body mass, trunk lift, and sit and reach.
“I don’t think it wouldn’t be hard to add the ninth grade standards to athletic P.E.,” freshman Sophie Nelson said. “They could easily accommodate us.”
In addition, freshman are not allowed in the class is because the class size would reach over 100 students, which is over the state limit for a single teacher. This year, freshman on the girls soccer team were told that the lack of space was the only reason they couldn’t join the class.
“I think administration should try to hire another teacher to teach sixth period athletic P.E. because it will benefit the incoming freshman, who will also have to deal with this problem,” Nelson said.
As of now, administration does not plan on changing the class to include the ninth grade standards because the class size will become too large.
“I they should figure out a way where freshman can be included in athletic P.E. because it is unfair that every other grade can be included except for freshman,” freshman Breegan
Knudson said.
According to Shaw, freshman should look into switching to a zero period P.E. class in order to avoid any major changes in their schedule once their season is over.
“The simplest and most efficient thing to do as a freshman athlete would be to go into a zero period P.E. because once their sport finishes in the middle of the year, they can just go into zero period and not have to worry about rearranging first through fifth period,” Shaw said.