Amid a new era, Doug Bierzychudek is one of the last champions of the ribbon.
The 27-year Jeffco Public Schools physical education teacher, who officially retired last week, is a Field Day diehard. And until the very end, he awarded placement ribbons each spring.
He ran a day-long competition for students at Blue Heron Elementary in Littleton. The morning was formatted like a track meet. Events like the 40-meter dash, hurdles, three-legged race, high jump and sport stacking featured five competitors per heat, with a blue ribbon given to the winner, and a different colored ribbon for each of the other places.
Then, in the afternoon, Bierzychudek staged non-competitive events that hewed toward what Field Day has become: a celebration of teamwork, sportsmanship, and ensuring that kids of all abilities feel valued when exercising.
“Over the last couple decades, there was a push to not being competitive at Field Day,” Bierzychudek explained. “Everything competitive was dummied down. Everyone gets a ribbon, everyone wins, everyone feels good. That notion hit the whole country, except for my classes and my Field Day. I just couldn’t let the true competition die.
“My Field Day presented real-life situations: Winning and losing. Welcome to the real, silly world that we live in.”
Bierzychudek did adjust to the change in philosophy, but he long remained in the minority of gym teachers who recognize winners individually. He believes that even with ribbons, he accomplished the same goal that’s now the national standard.
Joe Deutsch, the president of the Society of Health and Physical Educators and a professor in health, nutrition and exercise sciences at North Dakota State, explained that the shift is a reflection of the holistic change in physical education as a whole.
“Thirty, forty years ago, the focus (in P.E.) was on developing athletes, or developing elite physical human beings,” Deutsch said. “Therefore, Field Day was an identification of that. And that is not at all what Field Day should be now.
“It’s fun competition now, like your family playing fun games in the backyard. We don’t have to give out ribbons and establish dominance in the process. Our focus in physical education is and should be in helping people discover their passion for lifelong physical activity, and Field Day is supposed to be an opportunity for a fun reflection of that.”
That new approach could be seen in the afternoon portion of Bierzychudek’s Field Day — a period filled with games like squirt tag, the big clothes relay and the parachute, topped off by popsicles. But the morning? That more closely resembled what the annual elementary school rite of spring once was: A track-and-field competition that rewarded athleticism and winning.
The hybrid affair reflected a localized philosophy by school districts that gives P.E. teachers the power to conduct their Field Day as they best see fit.
“It’s all about what each school wants to do, listening to the culture of their school and what they’ve done over the years, and what the climate of the school is to determine what their Field Day looks like,” said Douglas County School District specials coordinator Laurie LaComb. “I think that is the case with most Colorado districts.”
New-age Field Day lessons
Of the eight P.E. teachers across four districts that The Post spoke to for this story, Bierzychudek was the only one who gave out ribbons. The rest put on events similar to the one at Powderhorn Elementary.
P.E. teacher Owen Plyler describes it as “a blend of health and fitness activities, team-building and cooperation activities, and a few competitive races with no reward for winning.”
Plyler, who also serves as Dakota Ridge’s varsity boys soccer coach, described his childhood self as a “blue-ribbon fella” but believes that “it’s fine that we’ve largely moved on from the pin-the-ribbon-on-the-kid days.”
“I’m not one to say it has to be either way,” Plyler said. “I just want everyone to get out and have a great workout. Have some competition, but not let winning drive our behavior and attitude.”
At Ashley Elementary in Denver, seventh-year P.E. teacher Kelly Donnelly says the philosophy of her Field Day is to “demonstrate safety, cooperation and good sportsmanship by following rules, staying with the group, working with various classmates, and encouraging others to achieve objectives of the game.”
Ashley’s Field Day this past Friday had a couple traditional events such as tug-of-war and the potato sack race, but it was a ribbonless day heavy on out-of-the-box team-building games.
There were leaky pipes, where students in a line passed a PVC pipe filled with water over their heads. There was the sponge relay, which consisted of students passing a soaked sponge over their heads to transfer water to an empty bucket. And there were the tallest tumbling towers, where groups worked together to build the highest possible towers using mega cups.
Donnelly says the sportsmanship and cooperation pieces of Field Day are heavily emphasized throughout the year. She even hands out “good winner” and “good loser” awards to reinforce the concepts during P.E. class.
“What I always ask the students is, ‘What is more important: The people or the game?’” Donnelly said. “And they all know the people are more important. If they win, they’re not going to boast. If they lose, they’re not going to pout — they’re going to tell the other team good job, and look at their own teammates and say, ‘We’ll do better next time.’”
Over at Trevista at Horace Mann Elementary, Donnelly’s Denver Public Schools counterpart Aric Pelafas has also embraced the new style of Field Day. The eighth-year P.E. teacher installed a unique wrinkle in his Field Day where, instead of kids moving in groups from station to station in timed increments, he allowed partnered students to freely choose whatever event they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it.
If a pair of students wanted to spend the whole 90 minutes at the dunk tank, obstacle relay, or home run hitter competition, Pelafas was all for it.
Pelafas doesn’t do ribbons at his Field Day, but he puts on a school race in the fall where the top three boys and girls placers in each grade get a medal.
“New practice is doing small-grouped activities with as many kids moving as possible, as opposed to large games, large relays where you might have five kids waiting in line, and one kid moving at a time,” Pelafas said. “Since we’ve got (about 25) stations to choose from, now it’s more of a laid-back atmosphere. And since there’s not giant team or group activities, there’s less hype around winning and more hype around just having fun and moving their bodies.”
Ribbons of nostalgia
Still, Donnelly and Pelafas — both products of hyper-competitive Field Days as children — acknowledged there’s a lingering nostalgia for the old days.
“I’ve heard conversations among parents at Field Days like, ‘Remember when they used to give out the ribbons?’ And then usually there’s a laugh after, like, ‘How ridiculous were we for sometimes making kids feel less than if they didn’t win?’” Donnelly said.
“So there’s a nostalgia for those of us who went through that era, but I’ve never heard a parent say, ‘Why are we doing these other games now?’”
Grandview football coach Tom Doherty longs for the blue-ribbon days Bierzychudek refused to give up. He believes moments like the one he experienced in fifth grade at Shrine of St. Anne Catholic School in Arvada are part of what shaped him as a person.
“I remember thinking about Field Day for weeks ahead of time,” Doherty said. “At St. Anne, I could never beat (my friend) Dean Benallo in anything. I finally beat him in the shoe kick, got a blue ribbon and Field Day 1983 is etched in my brain forever.”
On the flip side, Deutsch believes that what Field Day has become “is not sport,” nor should it be. Rather, its current form is aimed at “the violin player and other kids who might not see themselves as an athlete, and so not as ‘physical education.’”
“… (Club and) travel sports are crazy today in comparison to what they were even 20 years ago, and so there’s plenty of opportunities for kids to establish their dominance in sports through those outlets that they’re participating in outside of school,” Deutsch said.
Bennett Moreland, a 10-year-old fourth grader at Cherokee Trail Elementary in Parker, sees both sides.
Moreland is a standout athlete and wishes his Field Day came with ribbons to commemorate his wins. But he also wants positive vibes for all of his classmates.
“I’m a competitive person, and I like winning,” Moreland said. “It’d just be cool to have a ribbon for events I’ve won. But I also get why they don’t give them out, because some of the kids who aren’t as athletic, I wouldn’t want them feeling bad for losing.”
Bierzychudek’s longtime district P.E. coordinator David Yonkie believes “the ribbons were not as important for the students as it was for the parents.” Bierzychudek respectfully disagrees.
It’s why Bierzychudek also lamented the demise of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, which ended in 2012 and ceased the blue, red and white patches that came with it. The blue patch was given to kids who scored at or above 85% of the national percentile on the test’s five aspects (endurance run, shuttle run, sit-ups, sit-and-reach and pull-ups or push-ups).
As he packed up his office to head into retirement, Bierzychudek vowed that his approach to incentive-driven athletic development of young people would continue even after he walked out the door.
“Kids, they miss the real competition. They thrive on it,” Bierzychudek said. “During all my Field Days, I saw how kids would wear those ribbons with pride. All blues, one of every color, it didn’t matter. Wearing the ribbons was important.
“… And as for the Presidential Physical Fitness Awards, I’ve got a drawer full of them and I’m taking them with me. All of my grandkids are going to have to earn their Presidential Physical Fitness Award, like I did when I was their age.”
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