As of mid-October, P.E. staff have begun our first sports units of the year at RCMS. The sports played are different for each class. The first round of sports has included badminton with Mr. Campagna, football with Mr. Mosher and weight training with Ms. Lohman. 

“P.E has standards, and we can teach those standards any way we feel is best,” said Mr. Demetrios Kappatos, eighth-grade P.E teacher. 

He said that he as well as the other P.E. staff tried to teach activities that are lifelong, students enjoy, and that will help students to be healthy even in their later years.

Teachers taught different sports which allowed students to try new activities, sometimes with their friends and sometimes with unknown peers.

“My first unit was flag football,” Alexandra Velicu, seventh-grader on the Champions team said, “and I really enjoyed it!”

Mr. Kappatos agreed that COVID made these sports units more difficult for students, which is why they are trying their best to hold more outdoor activities so that students have the freedom to take off their mask. Though COVID makes it so that students aren’t able to experience many things in P.E as they normally would, new sports have begun this year that weren’t there before. When students were able to go outside, they had the opportunity to take their masks off, enjoy the fresh air, and have fun.

“I think it’s cool that we are not learning like super popular sports,” declared Ava-Grace Satterfield, seventh-grader, on the Champions team.

She as well as many others agreed that learning different sports allows people to try new things. 

Some students thought that if there was a little tournament or final competitive game at the end, it would make the unit more fun and interesting.

“I would like it if, in badminton, we kept score,” replied Ava-Grace, “it would be nice if it was tournament-based like at the end.”

Students were able to learn skills from the games they were playing, learn how to defend themselves, and also learn to cooperate with their teammates successfully.

“Any time we get to teach something new, it’s refreshing,” said Mr. Kappatos.