Life is short, and there is no time to waste. Because of this, student athletes should only have to attend one pledge card meeting a school year and only sign one pledge card, because having to attend multiple meetings is too time consuming.
By signing a pledge card, a student is promising to follow the rules stated on the card and in the student handbook for 365 days, which accounts for the entire school year and the summer. If an athlete plays a fall sport and a spring sport, the pledge card they signed in the fall is still active in the spring, so there is no need for him or her to sign a second pledge card for the year.
“I think that it is a waste of time to have to go to two different pledge card signings when you already signed one and know the information,” Renae Wille, two sport junior, said.
However, Rolando Vazquez, athletic director, believes there is a need to sign multiple pledge cards because the card only covers one calendar year, so signing one card in the fall 2014 season would extend to the spring 2015 season, but not the start of the 2016 spring season.
“Let’s say as a freshman that I played two sports, so I did sign two [pledge cards], but then the next year I decide not to play a fall sport, then that pledge card would not be valid for the next year because we say 365 from the day you sign it,” Vazquez said. “Sometimes it doesn’t overlap and sometimes there can be a space in between seasons that the card doesn’t cover. We just want to make sure everyone is held accountable to live by the code of Lake Zurich High School.”
Although Vazquez brings up a very important argument, the gap that can occur could be prevented if the pledge card stated that it lasted 365 days from the beginning of the latest activity listed. That way, if the same freshman played a fall and spring sport one year, the pledge card would last until the beginning of their sophomore spring season even if the athlete chose to not play the fall sport sophomore year.
Also, student athletes are among the busiest students at LZHS because they practice everyday for roughly two hours, and that time is extended for competitions and games. Although pledge card night is not extraordinarily long, the athletes still have to take a good amount of their already limited time to attend the late meeting, which detracts from time that could be used for homework, studying, or resting.
“Pledge card nights definitely interfere will my busy schedule, and the last thing I have time for after practice is hearing a speech I have already heard multiple times throughout my high school career,” Wille said.
Additionally, the information that Vazquez presents, although important, does not change as the year progresses. Each athlete who attends one pledge card night already knows the rules that Vazquez reviews each of the three pledge nights. If the athlete needs to look up a rule, they are all in the handbook or the student can ask Vazquez at a separate time just regarding the athlete’s one question.
In addition to being inconvenient for students, pledge card nights are also inconvenient for parents. Parents work and have other children to take care of and other things to worry about, so there is no need for the parents to attend the pledge card meeting multiple times in a year when they also already heard the rules once and also signed the pledge card that will last for a whole calendar year.
Instead of mandating attendance at multiple pledge card meetings, each athlete should include all of the sports or activities they plan on participating in on the first pledge card at the beginning of the school year and then be done worrying about pledge nights or whether the card was signed.
Overall, having to attend separate pledge card meetings for every sport is unnecessary and a waste of time for athletes and parents, and time is something people will never get back.