| The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports was established in 1956 through an executive order issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as part of a national campaign to help America’s younger generation get physically fit. |
 |
Each year, the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge presents three schools in each state with a State Championship Award. To earn the award, a school must have the highest percentage of its students qualify for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award (individual scores of the 85th percentile or higher on the Physical Fitness Test) in its school enrollment category:
Category 1: Schools with 50-200 student enrollment
Category 2: Schools with 201-500 student enrollment
Category 3: Schools with over 500 student enrollment
Rite of Passage was recently named Nevada State Champion in Category 1. The winning school in each category receives a distinctive award certificate and recognition on the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge Web site.
Students who help their school become the state champion earn individual awards. These awards, initiated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, are given to students who excel in all categories of the program’s five assessments for children ages 6-17. The categories include curl-ups, a shuttle and endurance run, pull-ups or flexed-arm hangs, push-ups, and sit and reach exercises.
Aside from the recognition, research has proven that regular exercise improves mood, combats chronic disease, strengthens your heart and lungs, promotes better sleep, improves children’s ability to learn more effectively, and improves focus.
Rite of Passage has embraced such initiatives by incorporating fitness programs similar to the national presidential program in the daily regimen of its academies for nearly 25 years. It was this daily training that prepared Rite of Passage students to accept the President’s Challenge.
