By Katie Schwab

Messenger Staff Writer

Many freshman can’t wait to be able to take a P.E. sport. However, not every sport is offered as a P.E. at Placer.
“It is actually a pretty simple formula” states the athletic director, Mark Lee, in an email.
In order to have have a sport P.E., the school has to have a credentialed teacher who has some knowledge of the sport. The teacher also has to be able to get out during fourth period; it is usually a teacher with a prep period fourth.
“Off campus coaches are not credentialed teachers therefore can’t teach a class at Placer.” explained Lee.
Some teachers have used their prep period to help out with the teams. For instance, Rick Foley used to be the track coach and he taught math for three periods. He was able to adjust his schedule allowing him to teach P.E. one period for track.
“In P.E. you grow as a team and mesh”, explains Madison Mohar, a sophomore in basketball P.E.
Before starting to play, if there is a P.E. for that sport, they have a big head start compared to most teams they play against.
“It affects your gameplay because you are already training with your teammates in the off season which is going to give you a lead in the season” says a freshman volleyball player, Emily Wright.
Wright explained in the interview that it is unfair how basketball, soccer and football get a p.e., but not volleyball.
Mohar agrees that it affects game play whether you have a P.E. or not and feels every sport should have a P.E.
“I feel that sports that get a P.E. have a longer winning consistency than sports that don’t get it,” added Wright.
Many volleyball players, like Wright and Mohar, have noticed how not all sports are included in the program and they all feel that it is unfair. Also students from other sports have mentioned how they would love for there to be more sport P.E.’s, especially since there is a certain amount of P.E. credits.
“I like having a sport for P.E., it is better than having a ‘pointless’ P.E. I also think that it is unfair that some sports get year round instead of having just a term.”, mentioned Mohar.
She feels that it is unfair that no girls sports are year round and the sports that are year round are favored. But does this come back to the dilemma of not having a credentialed coach?
It may be unfair that not all sports get a P.E., the district has rules to keep everyone safe. Having all sports have P.E. is a great idea to keep winning, but if there are no coaches then Placer can’t have all the sports in P.E.
Placer could possibly have more wins and championships if all the sports had a P.E., but there are rules that the district set up. This system makes sense though it would be great for every sport to get the opportunity to have a P.E.