DATE: Saturday, September 27, 1997 TAG: 9709270413 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY LEWIS KRAUSKOPF, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 73 lines
Indian River High School senior David Blount, a wide receiver on the school's football team, was struggling with his Spanish class.
Then, he hit the ``spa.''
The SPA - or Study Program for Athletes - is Indian River's version of a mandatory study hall, which will be put in all high schools if the School Board approves a 2.0 minimum grade point average for participation in sports and other activities.
Blount, whose grades in Spanish have improved since going to SPA, is a believer - in both mandatory study halls and the GPA minimum.
``I think a whole bunch of GPAs will rise because (athletes) have to focus,'' Blount said. ``Now, they don't care about school work.''
The board is scheduled to vote Monday night on the policy, which would take effect in the fall semester of the 1998-99 school year.
Indian River is one of two high schools - along with Oscar F. Smith - that already have mandatory study halls for athletes.
Indian River athletes are required to attend SPA sessions for at least 20 minutes during lunch, three times a week. Football players such as Antwan Stukes and Jamaine Winborne are required to go four times a week.
Stukes and Winborne, quarterback and wide receiver, respectively, for Indian River, were studying algebra during Friday's SPA session. They said the lunchtime studying helped them catch up on their homework when they otherwise would have been goofing off at lunch.
``It's our coaches looking out for us,'' Winborne said, noting that, for every study hall the players miss, the coaches make them run a mile.
The two juniors did worry that the requirements might keep some players off the team. But both thought the stipulations would help struggling students in the long run.
``It's a good idea to push athletes,'' said Stukes, a junior.
In public hearings held on the GPA proposal, those against the requirements said it would unfairly harm teens who struggled academically but learned a great deal from participation in sports. Some also feared that the 2.0 minimum would raise dropout rates.
Mandatory study halls would go a long way toward preventing such an increase, said James D. Rayfield, director of secondary curriculum and instruction.
``Students will be successful as long as there's a support system for those who fall below,'' said Rayfield, who headed the committee that drew up the minimum GPA proposal. Rayfield cited Suffolk and Portsmouth as examples, saying after an initial decline in participation the first year, the athletic teams rebounded the next year.
Chesapeake is the only school district in South Hampton Roads that does not have a policy requiring a minimum GPA for Virginia High School League activities.
The policy would have disqualified 21 percent of Chesapeake's athletes had it been implemented last year. The football teams would have been hit hardest; 45 percent of its players earned less than a 2.0 average.
Friday's SPA session at Indian River was packed with football players, all of whom wore white jerseys in preparation for that night's game against Nansemond River. But in the back of the room, Rekesha Spellman, captain of the field hockey team, sat with her history book in front of her.
Spellman is not required to attend SPA, because her average is above the 3.0 minimum. But she goes anyway, because it helps her get a jump on her homework assignments.
If the board approves the GPA policy, the study halls will be phased in on a voluntary basis this fall semester, Rayfield said. The study halls would become mandatory in the spring for students who had less than a 2.0 average, he said. ILLUSTRATION: STEVE EARLEY\The Virginian-Pilot
David Ware, a lineman on the football team at Indian River High
School in Chesapeake, does school work during a mandatory study hall
for athletes. The school board will vote Monday on a minimum grade
point average to participate in activities.
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