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I graduated from high school just about 15 years ago. I went to a pretty big school with a student body of nearly 3,000, and my school was considered one of the most progressive in the state of Illinois as far as the curriculum was concerned. For example, instead of offering just the standard French and Spanish foreign language classes, my school also offered Japanese, Latin, Russian, Italian, and German. Instead of offering just one academic track in core classes (such as English, science, and math), my school offered three: one for gifted students, one for average students, and one for students who needed extra help.

Nevertheless, as progressive as my high school was, the athletic curriculum was really lacking in variety. This applied not only to physical education (PE) classes, but also to the school-sponsored sports teams. Thus, even though many other area high schools at that time had lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey, bowling, marching band, and golf teams, my school stuck to more "traditional" sports such as football, baseball, softball, soccer, and basketball. PE was pretty much the same story. The students had to choose a single class to take for each semester, and the choices were limited to what would be considered traditional sports.

So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that there are many more sports options available to high school students today compared to just 15 years ago, both in terms of PE classes and school-sponsored athletic teams. And of course, if you're a sports fan like I am, this is definitely a good trend.

One of the stories making the rounds on the AP wire these days is the fact that some public schools are branching out into sports and activities that are not considered mainstream. For example, the AP story focused on a school that offers skateboarding as a PE class. I've also read about high schools offering PE classes in yoga, pilates, and even hip-hop dancing. As far as school-sponsored sports go, I've read about some schools in California where students can earn a letter in motocross, and other schools where students can do the same in snowboarding.

As I said above, I think this is a positive trend that I hope will have a big impact on many generations of future students. When it comes to sports and activities, everyone has different tastes and preferences, and it's only fair that students have an opportunity to explore their abilities even if that means breaking away from the mainstream in order to do so.

You can never tell how well a kid will do in a certain sport based solely on their performance in a different sport. For example, when I was growing up, I excelled at softball, basketball, and badminton. But I couldn't play soccer, golf, tennis, or volleyball to save my life. So when I was in high school, I made a niche for myself as an athlete by playing on the softball, basketball, and badminton teams. I earned letters in those sports, developed long-lasting friendships, and was able to enjoy positive competition in a supervised setting.

But what if my school didn't offer the sports that I was good at? What if my school only had tennis instead of badminton, field hockey instead of softball, and volleyball instead of basketball? What would I have done in that case? Well, my high school existence would have altered greatly, that's for sure. Instead of being part of the athletic crowd, I would have had to establish myself with a different group. Maybe I never would have found my niche at all, and that would have made my high school years much harder to bear.

And that's precisely why it's important for schools to offer as much of a variety in their athletic curriculum as possible. The kid who is labeled an outcast because he can't play baseball or football might very well be the next Tony Hawk on a skateboard or Ricky Carmichael on a motocross bike. But if he doesn't have the same free access to coaching and practice facilities as the kid who plays baseball and football, then he'll likely never develop his talent beyond a very basic level. So I for one am glad to see schools embracing non-traditional sports and activities. Hopefully, the trend will become even more widespread in the near future.