issue 2 columns
Photo by Talia Moyal
KicKoff
BY BRANDON DUKOVIC
F
18
wrap-ups
profiles
features
last word
Getting Prepped
reshmen and sophomores dread it. Juniors and seniors are forms. You have to set an appointment at the doctor’s office relieved to be done with it. Physical education is one of the and then walk the painstakingly long trek across the Paly cammost exasperating classes that Paly requires its students pus, Embarcadero, Town and Country and finally to the Palo to take. We all know that it is not a difficult class to complete. Alto Medical Foundation. Then, you have to get a physical All you have to do is show up, maybe run (or even walk) a few exam, which is always awkward. Why do athletes even need laps around the track and then play some nonchalant games of a physical? Athletes supposedly are the most robust students badminton. For the real athletes, it’s an insult to their athletic at the school, and we obviously displayed our athletic comabilities. To the not-so-athletic students, it is just the place petence in the three weeks of rigorous tryouts. Yet, they still that they all have to go and put on those disgusting uniforms. need to walk into the reception room, wait 20 minutes, and Even in ancient times, physical fitness was a characteristic then finally go into the room where the nurse asks you a couof survival. Ancient societies such as Greece, Rome and China ple questions. Then they leave, you wait another ten minutes all had a physical fitness program for military training. From and then the doctor comes in. He tells you to breath in and 700 to 600 B.C., the Greeks in Athens strived for physical per- out, weighs you, and tells you that you are in tip-top shape. fection by competing in Who would have thought. the Olympics. Over 2500 After that’s finally done, you years later, the United need to beg your parents to Nothing feels worse than hearing from write a check for 150 dollars States started initiating physical fitness programs. your coach that you are excused, wait- to the Paly Sports Boosters. However, it was not unAfter all of this, the athing eagerly overnight for your first day lete is considered on the rostil 1975 that the United States House of RepresenP.E.-free, then finally going to P.E. and ter. But, in no way does this tatives voted to require mean that they are allowed finding out that your teacher does not out of P.E. No, they haven’t schools to have a mandatory physical education have the roster so he cannot excuse you. suffered enough at all. After class for both genders. that, the coach must turn in But some students the roster to the P.E. teachdo not need Some stuers. Now this is the part of dents are able to avoid the class completely. They are for- the process that usually infuriates most students. It seems tunate enough to earn prep periods. You’ve all heard of the like there is always a computer failure, a lack of commulucky few who do not need to go to that irritating class. Those nication, a lack of paper, or just a down right lack of effort. students who do a Paly sport after school, or are enrolled in Nothing feels worse than hearing from your coach that dance, are excused from P.E. The process of getting this privi- you are excused, waiting eagerly overnight for your first day lege is easier said than done, and it is not that easy to explain. P.E.-free, then finally going to P.E. and finding out that your Now it may sound like these athletes are getting a cushy teacher does not have the roster so he cannot excuse you. The deal, but there is a long and tedious process that the athlete P.E. teachers always seem to have forgotten the roster in their must go through before they are excused. First, the athlete office or just don’t feel like checking. That means either a lot must go through tryouts for the team, which may last as long of pestering to get the coach to get the roster or another day as three weeks. For this entire time, the athlete must attend of waiting. But finally, after some persistence, the coach lets both P.E.... and tryouts. After the athlete makes the team (he or the athlete go. It is a relieving feeling, yet then they realize she may not. In that case, they are laughed all the way back to that three weeks out of their eight-week season has gone by. the locker rooms for at least a trimester of P.E..), they are not Overall, the process of getting a prep is tiring and barely added onto the roster until they have turned in their physical worth it. But, good luck to all of you freshmen and sophomores and sports boosters form. It is a hassle to get those physical who are striving for that prep period, I know the feeling. <<<