Ralph Bailey: It'd be 'insane' to cut JV sports
| Saturday, Jul 04 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jul 04 2009 12:00 PM
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It was the summer of 1976, ninth grade. I had my palms flat up against the walls of an "Orange Julius" in Sherman Oaks as if the LAPD was searching me like a suspect.
I was throwing up my mother's pot roast and green Gatorade after the first day of "Hell Week," two-a-day football practices for one God-awful week.
I had no idea how I was going to make it through the day, let alone the entire JV football season.
But I did.
And I learned a valuable lesson: You really never know what you're capable of until you just shut up, stop thinking about it and try.
Simple, but a lesson that often escapes many young folks and can act as a barricade to their futures.
This is why, at a time when we try to get kids to learn life's ups and downs, its unjust nature and seemingly inherent unfairness, and when we want to get kids away from the computer screen, that the idea of canceling JV high school sports is clinically insane.
Clinically insane!
(On Thursday the Kern High School District board agreed not to cut JV sports for the coming school year but the issue could come back).
We all recognize the economic climate. But young people's future has to be paramount in any educational financial assessment.
Through our own horrific habits, we have created generations of kids who are fat, complacent and unfit, who will soon be adults harboring diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer.
In 30 states, child obesity hovers above 30 percent! In Mississippi, 44 percent of the children are fat. Oregon is one of the few states that did not experience an increase. It's also one of the few states that set nutritional standards for vending machines in public schools and INCREASED time for physical education.
Adult obesity let out its collective belts in 23 states last year. Obesity didn't drop in any of the remaining 27.
But California's stats startled even experts. While the Golden State nearly made the top 10 in adult obesity (we finished 11th), our kids finished 28th in the same childhood category.
We are in better shape than our children?
And this is the time we want to strangle one of their few sanctioned avenues to remain healthy?
We haven't even examined the sociological aspect of doing away with JV sports. But I do know most law enforcement officials agree the overwhelming majority of juvenile crimes occur between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., when junior is home from school and mommy and/or daddy aren't home yet.
Idle hands ARE the devil's workshop and it is downright unholy to restrict a child's ability to exert physical fitness and bask in the life lessons that may be the foundation of their lives.
Ralph Bailey hosts The Ralph Bailey Show on 1560 KNZR. These are his opinions, not necessarily The Californian's. He is one of four conservative community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday (though this week we had to move it to Sunday).
Next week: Heather Ijames.
