Many students invest a lot of their valuable time and effort in CHS sports in order to meet the graduation requirement of two years of P.E. credits. The first year of those credits is covered by one year of P.E. during a student’s freshman year at CHS. The second year, however, has to be completed through an elective or by playing four seasons of any sport on campus. Each season of a sport is only worth half of a semester of P.E. credits despite the rigorous training and exercise that all of the student athletes at CHS must go through during their respective seasons, pre-seasons, and post-seasons. One season of a sport should count for at least one semester of P.E. credits at CHS.

CHS athletes work extremely hard each year when practicing and playing their sports, and they exercise much more rigorously than they did or are doing in the Freshman P.E. course. They also take at least two hours out of their day up to 6 days a week for practices. Conditioning and games also take up a large part of an athlete’s season, which both require commitment and physical training. Freshman P.E. is a year-long course, and a season for a high school sport is about 10 weeks, not including pre-season and post-season. P.E. teachers require students to run one mile a week for about 26 weeks along with other physical activities. However, cross country requires freshmen to run up to 30 miles each week for around 10 weeks, and this number increases by ten for each year that the athlete is on the team. An average freshman taking P.E. runs about 26 miles during the year, and an average freshman on cross country runs about 300 miles in a season. Sophomores run 400, juniors run 500, and seniors run 600. However, one season of cross country only counts for a quarter of the amount of credits that Freshman P.E. gives to students. There are many other sports on campus that also require student athletes to exercise much more intensely than the students that are taking or have taken Freshman P.E.

If a student plays one sport, that individual has to make that team for all four years of his or her high school career. However, there is a possibility for an athlete to not make a team one of those years, which would leave the student with an insufficient amount of credits to graduate. This would force those students to quickly learn another sport and hope to make a team or take an elective that would fulfill their P.E. graduation requirement. However, taking this kind of an elective may disrupt his or her schedule or the student’s plan for his or her high school career. Increasing the amount of credits that a season of a sport gives could help eliminate this risk for a wide range of students and help the athletes to feel more secure in terms of receiving their high school diplomas. Additionally, most sports at CHS have pre-seasons and post-seasons in which many athletes participate, which do not count for P.E. credits. The uncredited training and work athletes have to put in during these stages only add to the many reasons that support this increase of credit.

To address the unbalanced distribution of P.E. credits that student athletes at CHS receive, one season of any sport should give more than one half of a semester’s worth of credits. Considering the time and physical activity that athletes put in every year for their respective sport, CHS needs to give more recognition to them by putting additional weight for one season of a sport. This can provide student athletes with a better sense of security when aiming to meet their graduation requirements and receiving their high school diplomas.