California Department of Education policy states that students need a minimum GPA of 2.0 and be on track to graduate in order to participate in school sports and all other extracurricular and co-curricular activities. However, most students are not aware of this and many clubs at San Marin do not enforce this rule. This policy has been implemented into all San Marin sports, and the average unweighted GPA of student-athletes during the 2018 fall season was 3.39. Athletic Director Dennis Davis believes this is because “students are motivated to learn because they are hardworking, not because they want to do sports.”
Kian Namiranian, a Junior Varsity member of Speech and Debate, believes that implementing the GPA requirement into Speech and Debate, one of the most education-centered clubs on campus, and as well as other academic clubs may be beneficial
“Enforcing the GPA requirement would motivate our members to perform better, which would benefit the school in a number of ways, as well as making sure that the members of our club are the right people who are committed to our success,” Namiranian said.
Other students find clubs as a safe place that distracts them from the stresses of school and enforcing this policy would take that away.
“Mock trial gives me something to put brain power into that isn’t related to school,” senior Justin Keizer said. “It’s something for me to look forward to and it’s a good place to hang out with my friends in the club too.”
Davis believes the priority for students is academics and that students need to make sure that they are in clubs for the correct reasons. “We are here to learn first and sports [and other extracurriculars] come after. It is important that students don’t overwhelm themselves with other activities,” Davis said.
