Aragon has always had a wide variety of sports for students to partake in, though the sports offered have changed over the years. While sports such as gymnastics, flag football and field hockey are no longer offered at Aragon, others, such as lacrosse and girls golf, have recently been added.
The gymnastics program at Aragon, which started in 1976, was divided into an all-underclassman junior varsity and all-upperclassman varsity team due to the wide range of skill levels on the 20-person roster.
In gymnastics competitions, Aragon athletes could choose to specialize in either bars, beam, floor and vault or participate in all of them.
A few people, such as Aragon alumnus Kelley Abad were heavily involved in the gymnastics world through athletic clubs.
“There were [a few] people who I competed … from club,” Abad said. “[But] … I’d say mostly new students were wanting to try out gymnastics.”
Abad graduated from Aragon in 2005 and was inducted into the Aragon Hall of Fame for gymnastics.
“I won CCS vault champion in 2002,” Abad said. “[I also won] CCS floor champion in 2002 [and] 2003 … and then I was … second place all around in 2003.”
“Competitions were typically at one host gym so … you [would] go to … different gyms and you would compete against the other teams,” Abad said. “You [compete] … individually and … they do … overall team scores.”
“Gymnastics is … technical [and] could be dangerous”
Gymnastics requires a lot of space for specific equipment, such as the balance beam, pommel horse and mats. Initially, Aragon set up the South Gym for gymnastics during the spring.
“[It] became [unrealistic] losing [the gym] to only gymnastics when … the number of teachers who could teach it in PE started to decrease,” said athletic director Steve Sell. “Gymnastics is one of those [sports] you don’t want to teach if you don’t have a … thorough training in it. It’s technical [and] could be dangerous. [Eventually] the gymnastics team moved off site to … San Mateo Gymnastics in Belmont.”
After school, the team would commute to the gym by bus, allowing members to bond with one another.
2005 was the last year that Aragon allowed students to play their sport during sixth period and earn PE credits. However, with this change, the gymnastics program was discontinued.
“Lack of interest [was why the team discontinued],” Sell said. “Once the kids … [had] to [practice] after school and it wasn’t going to count as their PE class, they stopped [joining].”
Another sport that was discontinued at Aragon was flag football, a winter sport. The JV and varsity teams shared time with the soccer team on the football field and competed against local schools. They were coached by Britt Williams, a teacher who coached varsity football from 1979 to 1999.
“They played in what was the old Mid-Peninsula League,” Sell said. “It was basically just schools within our school district.”
Flag football was popular among the girls, especially because there was no girls soccer team. The team was discontinued due to lack of interest, likely because of the new girls soccer team in 1996 under head coach Michael Flynn and former coach Will Colglazier.
Prior to 1972 and Title IX, field hockey was also available.
“Title IX [says] … anyone who receives public funds cannot discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, anything else and [basically told] schools that you can’t have boys athletics … play[ing] all the sports and girls not being able to [play],” Sell said.
“Title IX is … [when] they started taking sports more seriously”
The field hockey team played during the fall and only participated in local games through the Girls Athletic Association.
“[The GAA] was pre-Title IX [and] separate from the umbrella of the boys athletic program,” Sell said. “They would play a couple of contests but … [didn’t compete] … for a championship. So Title IX is … [when] they started taking sports more seriously. But I do not think we had field hockey post-Title IX.”
Another reason sports offerings have changed is the allocation of funds.
“As a school district [and] as the Peninsula Athletic … League, we could make a decision to have flag football … and field hockey for girls … [at Aragon],” Colglazier said. “But … is there enough demand and [are] the resources of the school going to be allocated … to that? Sometimes that means cutting other sports, but sometimes it can mean … adding a sport.”
Throughout Aragon’s athletic history, sports such as lacrosse, girls golf, girls water polo and competitive cheer have also been added to the offerings at Aragon due to interest from the student body when they were not already offered.
“They were responding to [the] interest of the student body,” Sell said. “There [were] girls wanting to play golf and compete in golf and we didn’t have a girls golf team … So we started and we had an interest and we’ve been very successful and same [goes for] lacrosse and girls water polo … for certain.”
The Aragon athletic program will continue to offer sports that the students are interested in and discontinue those that have lost popularity so long as a balance between genders is maintained.
Written by Gary Green
