So if private academies are springing up where athletes can hone their games and private coaching is becoming as common as a warmup, and the trend of specializing in one sport continues, do we really need physical education classes?
How many of us dreaded seeing that on our schedule, a time when we had to suffer through countless situps or pushups, or games that we had little interest in playing?
Would we be better off doing away with those classes and replacing them with more reading, writing and arithmetic?
It's a debate that is getting
louder and louder in our school systems.
Doctors and physical education experts who follow trends among youths are seeing a disturbing statistic. Even as the popularity of youth sports is growing, obesity is rising among children.
The rates of overweight and obese are slightly higher in adolescents, and all categories are at all-time highs.
The cost on our medical system is getting bloated as a result. According to the Center for Disease Control, from 1997 to 1999, annual hospital costs related to child and adolescent obesity rose to $127 million. The direct cost of obesity, including adults, was $75 billion in 2003.
In addition, the CDC estimates that a third of high school-age students don't participate in some form of regular exercise.
What is happening? As youth sports become more and more competitive, the kid who just wants to play, rather than be a star, is being discouraged from participating.
"We're devoting so much time to the professionalism of athletics, health and fitness classes are getting phased out," said Bruce Svare, who founded the National Institute of Sports Reform and is a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany.
"It's why we have such a terrible problem with obesity."
Jeff Arbogast, Bingham High's track coach who also serves as the chair of the National Federation of High School Sports, said the problem is particularly difficult for girls.
"When they get cut, the next time you see them, they have two-pound weights in their hands and they are 33 years old walking down the street," he said. "When they get cut, they decide then they aren't an athlete and don't come back.
"It's a sad commentary on our society that everything is only for the elite athlete. There isn't much left for the kid who just wants to come out and compete just to see what he can do."
Frank Wojtech, a former basketball and track coach at Olympus High who is now a health and physical education specialist for the Utah Board of Education, said he believes physical education and health classes are more important now than ever because of the obesity problems.
"The challenge is to find activities that interest kids," he said.
To revitalize their physical education curriculum, the Utah Board of Education recently approved a new format that will include lifestyle classes along with outdoors fitness activities.
"We're trying to tell our teachers if there is an interest in judo or karate, then they can schedule a two-week unit and have an expert come in and teach it," Wojtech said.
"We're losing people, a whole culture, to the TV set or computer screen. It's getting harder to motivate kids. It's easier to win a Super Bowl by playing a video game for four hours, so why do it the hard way?"
Across the country, PE classes are becoming the victims of budget cuts or seen as unnecessary because of the proliferation of club and team sports. Often, hours reserved for PE are used for practice time, so logic says those who want to exercise are getting to do so, and with the purpose of preparing for a season.
However, some states are going against the trend, such as Idaho, which in 1997, removed PE credits as a state graduation requirement.
Concerned about the rising rate of obesity, Barb Eisenbarth, the health education coordinator for Idaho's state department of education, is pushing to make PE a requirement once again.
"It's a simple idea. Kids are getting fat and it's caused by poor nutrition and a lack of active time," she said. "You have to have healthy kids. You can't stick them in desks all day and expect them to pass the tests."
Other states are starting to take notice as well. At one point, President Bush said he wanted to phase out by 2007 the Physical Education for Progress, a federal program which has granted schools and community groups more than $200 million for fitness programs.
But the program was saved, and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a 2006 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education that contains $74 million for the grant program.
Furthermore, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation to amend the No Child Left Behind education law to require content and performance standards for physical education beginning in the 2006-07 school year as part of the state plan for compliance. By the 2008-09 school year, states must also assess student progress in PE classes.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said he was opposed to the federal government being involved in such efforts, period.
"If you really want to do best by the kids, you make that a local decision," he said.
"Obviously, if kids are physically fit and alert, they do better in the classroom. There are a whole bunch of ways they can do that. One is to stop starting school so incredibly early."
However, the federal push is being applauded by PE advocates such as Thomas J. Templin, a professor at Purdue University who also serves as president of the National Association for Sports and Physical Education.
Templin worries not only about a perceived drop in PE classes, but evidence that PE teachers are often uncertified and the curriculum isn't taken as seriously as other classes with uncertified or paraprofessionals teaching classes. He believes the controls for PE classes should be just as tightly monitored, from the quality of teachers to the curriculum, as for math and biology classes.
"If we're turning kids off youth sports, that is a bad thing," Templin said. "It's our philosophy we have to keep them active and involved."
Tribune reporters Robert Gehrke and Tommy Burr contributed to this report.
Coming Saturday: How important are high school sports?
