Picture this: You finish school at 3:00 pm after going through an entire school day without free periods. Since you are taking seven classes, you grab a quick meal during your afternoon break. However, the absence of afternoon breaks on Tuesdays sends you straight to your Spanish Double empty-stomached. Though there’s the snack bar for you to tuck in an hour before practice, you are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of homework, projects, and review for exams in the upcoming days. You grasp onto the remaining 45 minutes to complete as much homework as possible before grabbing your gear and heading to your 3:30 pm practice. After 2 hours of non-stop, strenuous exercise, the clock hits 5:00 pm and you head to dinner before returning to your dorm at 6:00 pm to work until lights off at approximately 12:00 pm. 

Now, this isn’t a rant on LFA’s workload or athletics requirement, but a means to offer a possible solution to help reduce student fatigue and balance the athletic requirement with one’s separate talents. 

In Lake Forest Academy’s Student Handbook (2023-2024), it is mandatory for Freshmen and sophomores to participate in the athletics program for three seasons (fall, winter, and spring) per year. Juniors and seniors are required to participate in at least two seasons and may participate in the third. Participation is defined as being a part of a team sport or the physical education program. The winter musical and fall play equates to one PE credit, which then all students – from freshmen to seniors – must fulfill their team sport credit during the spring. In summary, all students must participate in at least one team sport per year.

To address fatigue and create a balance, LFA must first designate a student’s participation in Science Olympiad, FBLA, Robotics Team, Math Team, VOX, and COAX – including the fall play and winter musical – as one PE credit. Such clubs are integral to LFA’s student life, and constitute a greater degree of competitivity and merit that not only contributes to one’s future passions but cultivates school pride. Students who participate in the “teams” above will still participate in one required season of interscholastic sports for one season, but invest the remaining two into developing their interest. By allocating one’s efforts into an area of study, passion, or physical development that a student is genuinely interested in, it maintains the quality and work ethnic on our teams since everyone who is part of them chooses to be there. While athletics continue to take place from 3:30 to 5:00 pm, this will be a time for club meetings, rehearsals, or work under the student’s own discretion. With this implementation, students will complete their work earlier, leave abundant room for studying as well as rest, and drive interest groups to rise to equal caliber and consideration as our sports teams.