Dear Editor,

I am grateful to Mr. Mat­thee for his preemptive rebut­tal of my remarks on high school football in the Burg on Nov.11, and for taking the idea seriously. Writing some­thing that may be controver­sial seems like a waste if the presentation is not attacked, so much so that I have often thought of writing my own rebuttal.

If I did, I would men­tion two things. One, it (a decrease in attention paid to school sports) will never happen. At least not for a long, long time. We don't need to worry that anything will impact our high school team sports.

It's like the Senate filibus­ter. Or the income tax. Or slavery. Once such a custom becomes institutionalized, it is quite difficultto change it. Secondly, everyone know celebrates the amaz­ing record of WP's football and soccer teams. The love of soccer at Vista Hermosa is exciting, and a drive past Washington Park on a sum­mer evening to see the many teams of adults and children playing soccer is a thrill. And that is the question that begs to be asked. If the role of public schools is to help create lifelong skills, whether academic, artistic, musical, social, or recreation­al, should we not give every student the widest experi­ence possible? To preempt the possibilities by spending such a great amount of time, energy and money on one sport (football), which adults don't play that much, seems oddly opposed to our stated goals in education.

Football is a good sport. A bit dangerous maybe, but all of us are thrilled by the action. But it isn't so difficultthat grown men couldn't en­joy a pick-up game without the intensive training that high school gives them. Ten­nis is more difficult; it takes a degree of skill to play it at such a level that it becomes enjoyable. Golf is the same: so is flyfishing, and I sup­( pose archery and many other sports are the same. Mr. Bartlow and other athletes whom Mr. Matthee mentions are obviously gift­ed athletes; they can pick up a sport and quickly become masters of it. But all of us don't have the same hand-eye coordination, speed, and quickness. And it's these average students who would profit from the intensive (and expensive) training that only the varsity now receives. The great ath­lete, not trained in tennis or golf, is no match for the non-athlete who has mastered the fundamentals.

The analogy, I suppose, is religion. We don't get to choose; it is given to us by our parents and culture. We have opportunity for a choice in our life-long recreation, if we are open to it.