The ever disputed later school start time once again poses a threat to UC High students. With a newly approved later school start time of 8:45 a.m., student-athletes will face many scheduling issues regarding team practices and matches. One proposed solution to these issues is the provision of a sixth period athletics class for students who play on certain teams. In theory, a class specifically created to provide our different sports teams with guaranteed practice time is a wonderful workaround to a later school end time. Realistically, however, sixth period athletics is a horrible idea that creates more problems than it solves.

     To begin with, a sixth period athletics class is a waste of time for those who are not triathletes. There are three different high school sports seasons: fall, winter, and spring. With the exception of Co-ed Competitive Cheer, no sport lasts longer than one season and as soon as one season is over, new sports are in season. We do not have a large enough gym, nor do we have enough fields, or enough money to spend on pool time, to have all sports practicing at all times during the school year. This poses the question, what are all the non-triathletes supposed to do in their off-seasons? It’s not possible for a student to only take the class for one-third/two-thirds of the year…. They would have to continue to take part in a PE class that is of no value to them if they have already fulfilled their two-year PE requirement.

     Moreover, because there is no way for students to drop the class once their season is over, the sixth period athletics class would need to be extremely large. The class would greatly surpass the standard class size of 36 — each sport has both a varsity and a JV team (some even have freshman teams) and each would need to practice during sixth period athletics. Not only does the sheer number of teams per sport exceed the number of current PE classes offered in one period, but the number of players on each roster also varies greatly. Some sports, such as volleyball and basketball, have rosters that typically range from 12-16 players, whereas there are other sports, such as football, swim, and track, that have closer to 30 athletes.

     Though class sizes are typically larger for PE classes, we would still need coaches. This, in itself, is problematic because high school coaches are relatively hard to come by. In fact, the majority of current UC High coaches are not teachers, but rather individuals who have separate jobs and coach on the side. 

    Another monumental problem regarding sixth period PE is the fact that the school simply does not have enough space available for all teams to practice at the same time. According to the official UC High Athletics website, there are a total of 28 sports offered at UC; as of now, only 10 sports are offered as part of sixth period PE. In each season, at least two different sports require the same field or the gym for practices and matches. As such, there is no physical way that there can be this many teams practicing at the same time in the same space. Furthermore, aquatic sports athletes are at a disadvantage because the school does not have a pool. Instead, they rent pool time at UCSD, which is hard to schedule because the pool is only available to them between 4 and 6 p.m..   

   Lastly, a sixth period athletics class leaves less room in students’ schedules for electives and A-G courses that are required for graduation. “A sixth period PE class takes away room for potential college courses. Some athletes might even be forced to quit their sports in order to pursue their electives and other required courses,” stated Sophomore Alexa Orozco. Senior Jacob Figueroa added, “My little brother has to drop his pathway in child development in order to take PE for a sport.” Students should never have to compromise academics for athletics, and that is exactly what they would be doing if they were required to take sixth period athletics in order to play their sport.

     While sixth period athletics solves the problem of practice times during daylight savings, the cons outweigh the pros. The bottom line is that a sixth period athletics class is just not plausible, and students would be forced to make unforgivable compromises.