Sporting memories: Discovering hidden talents in PE class as a kid

For those who don't know what "PE" is it simply means Physical Education and unless they did something weird and eliminate it so they can do gender studies classes it is a part of all education in the United States. For most, it is a playtime part of the school day and unless you simply don't turn up - which would get you in trouble in general youth education anyway - you are going to get an A in the class. Your abilities are not supposed to get taken into account when you are being graded, just whether or not you participate.

For almost everyone I knew in school, PE was the highlight of our school day because you didn't need to study for it and honestly, it was pretty instrumental in discovering hidden talents in certain kids whose parents maybe didn't work as hard as mine did at making me aware of the fact that I could excel at certain sports.

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While this is not my photo, it may as well be because most of them in the USA were the same. The school would have a storage area where all manner of crap was stored and it was up to the PE teacher to come up with some sort of game that would get our hearts pumping on days when we were not focusing on a specific sport that is actually a sport in some sort of professional capacity.

The games were almost always fun to some degree and the only days that we loathed were the ones that were designated at "health class" days where we didn't suit up for anything physical and were just in a classroom learning stuff about the food triangle and other such nonsense that has long since been debunked. When I as in 5th grade we also had sex-ed and that was the most uncomfortable 3 weeks of my childhood.

One of the best days - or worst depending on who you are and how well you can move - was the dodgeball days. This has probably been outlawed in schools in USA by now but back in my day this was a day that we all really looked forward to.

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Oh, yes I can hear it, yes I can. That is a sound that you will never forget and yes, there was chance for injury as well as bullying but back then we kind of had a bit of backbone and weren't protected from every little bad thing that could possibly happen to you. I did see a lot of situations help themselves out such as certain kids that didn't get along in regular life but once put on the same team in dodgeball (which i think was intentional and orchestrated between guidance counselors and the PE teacher) those same kids that once were always at one another's throats were now friends and teammates of a pretty high order. I still remember the name of two kids that were notorious for always getting into arguments and fights with one another in the hallways but once they were put on a dodgeball team together, the beef magically went away.

That's a discussion about psychology that I will save for another day though.

What made this class so amazing was that kids that maybe had no idea that they had some sort of sporting talent would discover it during these games and I can think of one kid in particular who came from a poor family and was regarded by everyone, including himself, as a "redneck." Well in PE class, Tony, who had never joined a sports team in his life, would be rather dominant at games he had never played before. He was a real asset on a dodgeball team and people were all of a sudden giving this guy praise and really felt better if he was on their team. The guy didn't even wear shorts at the beginning of the school year because he didn't have any. Some were provided for him by the school and even though it was cruel, we would all snicker at him when he was getting dressed. What can I say? Kids are mean.

Well that laughter all changed when it was discovered that somehow, Tony was actually really good at almost anything we played. I can still remember the team free-throw speed competition that was done between appointed teams throughout the school and I and many other people were on the basketball team just standing back in awe as Tony, who none of us had ever even seen play basketball, just knocked down shot after shot after shot.

Look, I'm not proud of excluding Tony or anyone else as a kid, but there are politics in school and cliques whether you realize it or not. Tony was excluded from many social affairs because he seemed awkward and kind of weird. This all changed after Tony became a bit of a hero that all of us wanted to help get into sports that he clearly had a talent for. Tony was encouraged by us and the coaches to get into basketball because of his performance in PE class but we discovered that while Tony was an amazing natural talent as far as shooting was concerned, he couldn't dribble at all and didn't really understand how the game worked. Keep in mind this was the 80's and we had no internet and unless you specifically looked for it and had cable, which he almost certainly did not, there is no good reason that you WOULD know how basketball or anything else functions.

Tony, probably because of his home situation and bad luck in life, got a lot of extra attention from teachers and coaches and the rest of us. We were actually taken aside by Coach DeWitt (I can't believe I just immediately remembered my 9th grade coaches name) and asked to help Tony as much as we could because they felt he had real genuine talent hiding inside that lanky and awkward body of his.

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_{none of these kids are Tony, cameras were not something we just had on us at all times in the 80's}

I'd like to say that Tony went on to get a college scholarship and then went into the NBA but this story doesn't have that good of an ending unfortunately. Tony was never a real force to be reckoned with because he started learning how to dribble too late in his life to truly excel. He did, however, manage to make JV and also the Varsity team in his high school years and was an above average, mostly substitute player who genuinely enjoyed the sport to the point where it became the focal point of his life. Prior to getting involved in basketball nobody really knew much about Tony. One he was part of the team it opened up social circles for him, it grew his confidence, and I still remember seeing how proud he was of his letter jacket that the school bought for him. He wore that thing every single day. He also found new life in the camaraderie that comes along with being part of a team, made a ton of friends, started doing better at getting good grades, and got a girlfriend. I remember seeing him at prom and while the rest of us were just there, he seemed to be having the time of his life.

I don't know what happened to Tony but I do know that he had plans to go to college. It was a different time when I graduated in the early 90's so it's not like he could just give me his Facebook to stay in touch so I don't really have any idea what happened to him. I'm sure that if he did have a family that he was better at it than his own parents were.

I hope he went on to have a wonderful life.

The point of all of this is that PE should remain in schools because had it not been for that one day in PE class, Tony and many others like him might have just remained content to stay in the background and never really even try to get involved in sports. Being involved in basketball turned Tony into a completely different person. While previously he was just hanging out in the background and almost never participating in group events, he was now eager to get involved. I dare say it changed his life and definitely for the better and even though there is a chance for injury, it is just one of those things that the world (well, the United States) needs to accept as an acceptable possibility. PE can change a person's life in a way that math and science classes can't.