In high school nothing is more revered than athletics. Football is king, volleyball is queen and the other sports earn you a gold star.

There’s more to life than sports. Consider the following:

1. Do you really want to share a bed? Think of this: You’re on a bus for a set amount of time and when you finally wish to seek solace within the hopefully clean sheets of your hotel bed, you jump in and find your coach assigned you a cuddle buddy.
2. Books are forever, and sports injuries also can be. Would you rather be curled up with a nice book or in pain?
3. To put it as delicately as possible, diets are of the devil. Food is the only good element in this life; nothing should take priority over that perfect bag of cheddar cheese Ruffles.
4. As high-schoolers we have spent decades building up the stereotype that we absolutely adore sleep. Please don’t sacrifice our age-old romance with sleep for a troubled relationship with morning practices. You will never be as happy as you were with sleep. She was great; don’t lie.
6. The non-athletes have been hiding in the shadows, and they are discontent. Eventually the so-called band geeks, theatre nerds and their assorted allies may push back. They are quiet, but they are many. Which side would you rather be on?
7. High-schoolers tend to be clumsy and awkward; that’s a fact of life. We get injured easily. One Snowy Range girl found herself in a real life Looney Toons skit when she bounced right out of a golf cart and went spread eagle onto the greens.
8. You have to go through the terrible sorrow of losing your sports body once your season ends. Never has there been a worse tragedy. Flabs to abs only to go back to flabs.
9. Time is a cruel mistress. Skin wrinkles and muscle shrinks. Wouldn’t it be easier to take if you didn’t have anything to lose? Sometimes the lazy way is the best way.
10. “Cardio is hardio,” said junior McKennah Buck. And have any words ever been more true?