Eligibility rules extra-curricular activities

Athletic Director Walton explains eligibility policy for athletics and clubs.

Autumn Brophy, Staff Writer

Motivating sports members into getting good grades is easy; if they don’t pass, they don’t play.

While students can try-out for extra-curricular activities; academic eligibility decides whether or not a student can participate.

The eligibility policy in the handbook, set by both the Maine Principals Association and the school, states that students may practice while ineligible, but may not travel with the team or club, dress in uniform for games, play in regular games, or stand on the sidelines with the team during games.

Athletic Director Walton, a one-man athletic department, knows the eligibility policy inside and out.

“We will determine if you are academically ineligible at every report card and every progress report,” said Walton. “If a student is academically ineligible, we pull them in, [and] explain to them the situation.”

The situation is that students must carry a minimum of six classes per ranking period, and must pass at at least five of those classes.

If a student is classified in the ineligible status, they are put on probation and must sit out for two full weeks. At the conclusion of the two weeks, a student can apply for academic probation by obtaining the grades and signatures from their teachers using a form provided by the athletic department.

“Once you can get your grades to a point where you are no longer ineligible, then you can return to play,” Walton said.

The probationary status is like a sub-category of the ineligible status. To get out of this status, students must be getting higher than an F.

Senior Rebecca Johnson has always avoided ineligibility, but as an athlete and actress, worries about it all the time.

“Sometimes [I worry] depending on the class,” said Johnson. “I feel like the teachers giving out homework is unreasonable sometimes, and I don’t have time to do it.”

Johnson said that she tries to prioritize her homework before anything else, so that she can stay eligible, which is typical according to Walton.

“The vast majority of students will get themselves into an eligible status,” said Walton. “They do some scrambling, do some make-up, talk to teachers.”

Walton said that using the old policy, checking a student’s academic status was only done at the end of the quarter, and if you were ineligible then you were unable to participate until the next report card.

“It was like a death sentence,” said Walton. “That’s pretty much the season.”

Students like sophomore Kasey Hall, who is active in both wrestling and the musical, know all about how the policy works.

“I have friends in the same class that help me out with homework,” said Hall. “Some of them do the same sports, some in musical so it all works in together.”

Hall knows that progress reports are now part of the check-in, and that she only has two weeks to fix her grades.

“I did [worry] a little bit when progress reports came out, but I’ve brought two grades up so I’m not [concerned about it] anymore,” Hall said.

According to Walton, almost every quarter there are some students ineligible at check-in time, but most of the student athletes know what their expectations are. They want to play, so they don’t want to be ineligible.

“I couldn’t give a scientific [answer], but I’d say the amount of kids who are ineligible at check times is less than five percent,” Walton said.

It’s up to the coaches to review these policies at the beginning of each season with their teams, but it’s up to the students to follow them.

Student athletes need to keep their grades up and off the chopping block, or their athletic careers are going six feet under.