Petros Papadakis, a Fox News college football analyst and a sports talk radio host, visited West Ranch High School in Valencia Wednesday morning for a yearly dipping contest among students. Papadakis brought a dip station to the upper quad of the school, letting students take turns trying to complete as many dips as they can.
A dip is an upper-body exercise where the user grabs onto the handlebars of a dip station and lifts their legs off the ground, keeping their arms straight, and then bends the arms to a 90-degree angle while making sure to keep their legs off the ground, then pushes back up and repeats.
Mike Kane, a physical education teacher, football and soccer coach at West Ranch High School, was a listener of Papadakis’ radio show and heard him discussing dips. This gave him the idea to reach out to Papadakis and hold the yearly dipping contest at the school for the students.
“I’ve been doing this on and off for years for coach Kane … 16, 17 years ago, he called me and told me who he was and that he was a coach here and that you used to make fun of doing dips and stuff on the radio show,” said Papadakis. “And so he said, ‘I want you to come and do a dip thing at the high school,’ and it sounded so ridiculous. It was fun to come and do. You know, we went and did it. They made T-shirts, you know, you kids responded, and it was just kind of fun.”
Students come to the upper quad to try their best at the station and/or support their friends. Students were even able to interact with Papadakis after the short contest as well as getting a chance to get a free T-shirt.
“It’s always a really supportive environment,” Papadakis added. “This is a special school. I mean, obviously, the people here are really good people. It’s a really nice place and it’s beautiful, so it’s easy to come back and see everybody and do stuff like that. And it’s always gratifying so I’m always glad I did it.”
