After Lunch, They Shall Assemble

                At 12:45 P.M., immediately following third lunch’s end, Sheldon Clark High School’s athletic banquet will take place on the football field. Yes, I said 12:45 P.M. The event will take place during school, and will last until 3:00 P.M. Just enough time to catch the buses.

                I adore sports, particularly basketball. I’m as much a basketball geek as I am a comic book geek, probably even more. I can tell you as much about the Cleveland Cavaliers as I can Pokémon.  I could recite Mo Williams’ box score stats just as easily as I could the first and last names of every Power Ranger in the first five seasons. This is not an assault against athletics.

                I believe that sports at all levels provide an opportunity for unity to flourish and can provide ideal lessons in the realm of teamwork, determination and hard work. By utilizing their natural talents and perfecting the skills they need, athletes offer us entertainment and good times, and offer themselves the chance to be part of a group, to better their bodies, and to potentially make a wonderful career if their abilities are superb.

                In no way do I think my peers should not be honored for their achievements – they deserve as much for putting such a great amount of time into their respective sports to warrant merit. However, by holding the annual athletic banquet during school by taking the athletes out of the classroom and to the football field for a little over two hours to be honored is putting a blemish on the face of a school that I contest has enough bad marks to handle already without intentionally adding another.

                Traditionally, schools are houses to learning. Learning can take place within and outside the classroom, and for the experience to be at its zenith, a combination of both should be in action, or a student won’t be well-rounded. The effects of the classroom and the field are both beneficial. At Sheldon Clark High School, though, it appears the effects of the field are more admired.

                The classroom should be the greatest point of emphasis in every school across the country, at every level. Public universities have not set a good example of what educational institutions should be about by handing out multi-million dollar wages to coaches of their sports teams while paying their professors as little as possible. Though sporting events generate their own revenues within their own departments, money they can use how they see fit, the image presented is questionable, and is becoming too apparent here at home as much as it is at the big time basketball and football colleges.

                Sheldon Clark’s test scores are tragic. We can’t beat Belfry at football, and we can’t beat them in mathematics either. The problem at Sheldon Clark is that support is lacking for the latter within the community while the stands are stocked full come football season. And by going forth with the plan to have the athletic banquet during school hours, the school will be further reinforcing its assumed image as a sports school. A “sports school” that has produced as many NBA stars as it has presidents of the United States. A “sports school” that has graduated as many Ryan Howards as it has Brad Pitts.

                Yet, it’s a school that has seen many students come out of it that have become successful as lawyers, doctors, miners, carpenters, electricians, teachers and other countless professions. And perhaps, one day, a Chris Paul will graduate from Sheldon Clark High School – or at least a Kwame Brown.

                For now, though, this “sports school” should reconsider its emphasis on athletics as its academics continue to spiral downward and its sports teams finish out of contention for anything meaningful year in and year out. I will not be accepting my invitation to the athletic banquet if it remains to take place during school hours – I received my academic awards and honors during the evening, yet was not granted the option of being honored on the football field after lunchtime for those. Whoever decided that the academic banquet should take place after school hours yet the athletic banquet could be allowed during school hours was definitely in an absent-minded condition.

But it should be noted that there are many talents of the mind that were recognized on Tuesday afternoon in the evening hours. They weren’t released from the strain of the classroom to frolic on the holy turf – they had to wait until twilight came and had to sit in the cafeteria. Perhaps they assumed going outside would be too much for the “brains”, or that removing them from the classroom would have been terrible. Believe it or not, smart kids like the sun too, as evidenced by many of the athletes in possession of high GPAs.

I regret that I won’t be in attendance because I do not want to disrespect the coaches for whom I played and assisted, as I enjoyed the time spent with all of them immensely. However, I refuse to take my seat among the established gods of Sheldon Clark, for they are only warriors disguised as deities by certain authorities. I’m well aware I am no god, and I’m far less talented than many of the warriors that will be sitting on the turf that afternoon when it comes to the field of athletics. These warriors should be honored, but should be honored in a manner respectful to the institution they represent. It’s not their fault, though, that mortals with too much power have made mistakes. Fortunately, it is them who will have to continue paying for them.