Dear editor:

Fresno Christian needs a new rule in regard to athletes who want to switch sports. For example the school should allow athletes from other sports to join the recently started golf team.

Junior Justin Bridges and several students who enjoy golf, cannot participate because of a school policy which states that a student who participates in a sport (like tennis) cannot switch to a new sport (like golf) without sitting out one year.

Bridges held the No. 1 position on the tennis team last year, and wanted to play golf this year but was deemed ineligible because of his previous commitment to tennis.

To its credit, the school?s policy keeps ?small interest sports? like tennis in tact. None-the-less Bridges and several other students plan to sit out from tennis this spring in order to join the golf team next year. Since they are not playing any sport this spring, it makes sense for them to become eligible for golf.

The school is too small to let students sit out from sports. With less than 300 students, we need as many people as possible to play. Bridges said if he knew about the rule, he wouldn?t have played tennis last year so he could play golf this year.

Obviously there was no golf team last year, so golfers played other sports. This year we field a team and many proficient players are told that they cannot participate. It is hard to compete in a sport with some of the school?s best athletes sitting out.

For the sake of the students, please revise the policy.