What Does EXTRA----mean?

It used to be that extracurricular activities went on outside of school hours. That's pretty much the definition of the term. Now, coaches in the state of Texas want to make sure that student athletes can get credit for all four years of athletics. They site the danger of attrition if this doesn't happen. Really? Do you really have athletes dropping out of varsity football to take APFrench? I mean, it could happen, and I know kids who are in athletics and advanced courses, but is this really necessary? I think what bugs me is that this goes into the whole erosion of the class load. Right now in Texas students are required to take four years of the four core classes, plus economics, government, health, fine arts and two years of foreign language. That's a pretty full plate especially if a kid has to backtrack a couple of times. So why are coaches doing this? In my experience, coaches get hired first and fired last. Is there really that much danger of a coach losing a teaching job? Our AAAAA team has 75 students and TEN ASSISTANT COACHES!!! That's a 1:7.5 ration. Compare that with the average English class that has 32 students and the differences are amazing and appalling. I hope the TEA doesn't buckle on this because this smacks of being just another jobs program for coaches. They get precedence already, they don't need this ruling.