East Side Union High School District Is On The Brink of Losing Its Sports Programs....Hey, I Went There!!

I went to school in San Jose, meaning my school was part of the East Side Union High School District. To be more exact, I went to Mt. Pleasant High School in the East part of San Jose. The school itself was somewhat in the middle ground of excellence. Certainly not the greatest school in the nation, but not exactly the worst either.

Our sports programs were just okay too. Aside from our track team, the rest of the teams weren’t that great. It wasn’t like Varsity Blues or anything. Our football players weren’t getting cortisone shots, or at least not that I was aware of. And no, there was no ridiculous statue of our coach in front of the field, though I have to admit, that would have been bad ass.

And sadly, there was no James Van Der Beek type guy who was thrust into the spotlight after our quarterback got injured. White people were kind of a rarity at our school, so there was no Paul Walker either. Nor was there a kid fat enough to fill the role of Billy Bob, pun intended.

And none of our teachers were strippers. Thank god they weren’t, or I would have gouged my eyes out years ago.

Anyway, enough about how much my school lacked in awesomeness compared to the one in Varsity Blues. What I’m trying to say is, yeah, our sports weren’t the best, but they were fun to participate in. I think that goes for anyone who plays a sport in high school. Sure, you may never be like Kobe Bryant or even Lamar Odom, but for a few months of the school year, you could at least pretend to be. I had to pretend to be Roger Federer because I played the wussy sport of tennis. And you know what, I wasn’t even that great. It’s more like I had to imitate Robert Kendrick. Who? Exactly.

I’m sure no one who played sports at my high school had pro aspirations, but that rush that a high school kid gets playing in front of a crowd creates some pretty fond memories. Even in college, when conversing with my friends, I could recall countless stories about which sport each of us played and any memorable moments that happened on the court or field. Stuff like that lasts with a person forever, far past their days as a youth.

These kids who play these sports, they eventually become adults who don’t play sports anymore. However, they also become adults who have kids, kids who will be there to listen to their old man talk about his glory days as a star swimmer in high school. And you know what that kid does? He thinks, “maybe I’ll try to be a swimmer to, just like my old man.” And then that kid will have his own child to tell stories too, and the chain will continue.

But if you cut off that first link, it’s all gone. Unfortunately, that’s what is happening right now at my alma mater. If you click the link and read the story, you’ll get the gist of what’s happening, sports in East Side Union High School will be no more. Well that is, unless they get the 2 million dollars they’re asking for. Two words: bake sale.

When first hearing this news, I thought, well I’m not that shocked. You have to understand, I’m a very jaded person, so the motions were running through my head. A lot of “yeah, the economy is bad” and “sacrifices are needed to be made” ran through my head. But then, I thought about it again, and I came up with another conclusion “Wait, no sports in high school? What the fuck?!”

As I thought about it more, it became harder and harder for me to fathom what high school would be like without a sports program. I always thought sports were just a given, a requirement that was needed for a high school to function. It never crossed my mind that the sports program was optional.

But with the sad news that was announced yesterday, it seems that it is. That’s a real travesty. It’s not about the competition. God knows that at my high school it wasn’t about the competition. It was just about giving kids the opportunity to have fun, learn team work, and most importantly, get all their fat asses into shape! I kid, I kid. That’s all you can really do at this point, because it seems this isn’t an idle threat. This is serious. Sports in East San Jose are going to go unless some major dough is ponied up. And as someone who writes sports and sees the value in the positives athletics has to offer, that’s just sad.

I mean seriously, couldn’t they have cut something else *cough* the art department *cough* instead?