In elementary school, gym was the best non-classroom class of the week. I loved it when we went from two days a week to three. We got to jump on trampolines, play dodgeball, flag football, run really fast, etc. In junior high it started to suck, we had to wear school-issued speedo-type suits for swimming. YIKES.
Then in high school it got worse. The whole sweaty thing during the school day, NOT COOL. In fact, I'm going to retroactively blame that for my lack of high school dating. Not my bad hair, fashion no-sense, sneakers with every outfit (until senior year), and lack of actually liking anyone enough to ask them out.
Well, despite my not being into Phys Ed in high school, I was never the fake being sick guy. I figured this was the easiest class to earn a 97 or better in, so I had to at least show effort. Freshman year the guys had to wrestle. DOUBLE BUBBLE YIKES. Yes, wearing limited clothing and grabbing other guys in tustles. Not my idea of fun. And no, I'm not homophobic, but parts get injured. And that's not cool.
During the wrestling unit of gym class we did one thing that was enjoyable. A takedown faceoff type drill where two people stood in a circle and you had to throw the other person out of the ciricle or to the ground. A sophomore named Jeff (gym included fresh/soph) and I got paired up. Jeff had at least 30 pounds and 6 inches on me (as did most guys). He had that "this is going to be really easy look" on his face, and I'm sure I had the "when is class over" look on mine.
The whistle blows and he charges at me, and somehow I turned into Tito Santana or Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, who WWF legend Bruno Samartino once claimed gave 120 percent, and when Jeff ran at me, I somehow hooked his arm into mine and threw literally six feet out of the circle. The gym teacher was shocked, almost half as much as me (btw) and about 10 percent as shocked as Jeff.
After class, he approaches me asking whether I'd come to the "informational meeting" about wrestling. I'm honestly flattered, since I'm sooooo not the athlete type, but am 150 percent sure that I'm not gonna go. Like I said, the halfnaked sweaty grabbing, not my thing. When he asked why I didn't make it, I said simply that I wasn't interested. I didn't have the heart to defame wrestling to the coach's face (esp. when he was also my phys ed teacher who'd be giving me a grade).
Well, this story would be my defense now.
The Minnesota high school wrestling season has been suspended for a week because of an outbreak of herpes. In the story, one coach talks about how this is the first time he's seen something so widespread (24 cases throughout 10 teams). The same coach noted that in the past there's been ringworm on his team, but never the herp. END OF LINE, EH?
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