I had the privilege of subbing for junior high PE today. Even though the though of my own junior high PE experience just about makes me break out in hives (seriously? Climb that rope? Shuttle run? And don’t even get me started on what a JOY it was to traipse over to the Cottonwood spa–excuse me–Rec center–every day for swimming), it was a 1/2 day assignment at my kids’ school, and as a bonus, my daughter would be in that class, so I took it.

My observations:

-Almost everyone loves basketball. Go figure. I never liked basketball, but then again, I have no coordination and trip over my own feet. But even the kids who aren’t that coordinated and aren’t jocks still seemed to have fun.

-Nobody likes that stupid middle court with only one basket. You have to double back to “change sides” and people sometimes forget and shoot when it’s not their basket.

-When subbing for PE, it would be prudent to bring more band-aids. I have band-aids in my substitute bag, but since I wasn’t teaching in a ‘real class’ I didn’t bring that bag, so I only had the band-aids in my purse. I used them all. We also had a girl get clobbered in the chin, and another girl got a wicked bloody nose. With that many girls playing in such close proximity, arms flail and people get hit.

-My girl may not be the most jock like kid there, but she’s not the only one. There are a lot of awkward kids (and if my kids read this, I’m not saying you’re awkward, honey, but you are my daughter, and I didn’t pass on any sporty genes to you because I really don’t have any).

-There are some really young looking 7th graders, and some really old looking 8th graders. Seriously! Some of them were SO short, playing against these giants of girls (taller than me, even). But the short ones are sometimes the best at dribbling and stealing, so it’s not always a disadvantage.

-The best basketball players are not always the tall and thin girls. I observed one girl, who wasn’t fat, but solid. She wasn’t one that I would imagine would be good at basketball. Oh, was I wrong. Swoosh! She carried the whole team! Smooth, and powerful, and a great shot. While some of the skinny tall girls who I thought would be really good, were merely skinny and tall, not necessarily good at basketball.

-And that whistle I bought for myself? Totally came in handy.

So, while I don’t aspire to be a PE teacher, playing one for a day (well, half day, if you want to get technical), wasn’t that bad.