It sounds like the perfect school day – wake up at noon, start school at 1 p.m., physical education class until sundown.

Welcome to Big Apple Games, the summer sports program for New York teenagers who want an alternative to channel-surfing and don’t mind a little sweat.

For over 20 years, Big Apple has provided free athletic instruction to students and operates in 80 high schools and middle schools across the city.

It’s like camp minus the cost, said Peter La Marca, the teacher in charge of Big Apple’s program at James Madison High School in Brooklyn.

Plus, the eligibility requirements are minimal. “You have to have a heartbeat and you have to be above 13,” Mr. La Marca said.

Armed with a flood of cash from Snapple this year, Big Apple has expanded its offerings to include pilot programs in fencing, wrestling, and softball.

Enrollment is accelerating just as quickly, with twice as many students registered at Madison than this time last year.

“This program has blown up,” said Renan Ebeid, borough manager for Big Apple’s Brooklyn schools.

About 150 students pass through Madison’s doors every day, drifting from one sport to the next, with options ranging from basketball to swimming to weight lifting to ping-pong.

But despite the buffet of offerings, many students find a niche in one activity.

“Some kids stay here and play pool all day long,” said Laura Levine, who oversees the game-room’s pool tables, Scrabble boards, and other less pulse pounding activities.

The tendency toward specialization presents challenges to teachers like Sakinah Shaahid, who has been trying to convince students to take her fencing lessons.

“I try to push these kids and make it fun for them,” she said. An added bonus is guest instruction from champion fencer Ivan Lee, 22, who leaves for the Olympics in two weeks.

But fencing and the other pilot programs have yet to overtake basketball as the perennial favorite, said a recent graduate from Madison who gave his name only as Wesly. He said he decided to enroll in the Madison program because the school’s facilities, designed to accommodate 4,500 students during the school year, beat the neighborhood basketball park.

“And it’s free,” he said.

The new funding from Snapple only sweetens the deal. After the juice maker started putting vending machines in the city’s schools, they agreed to contribute $1.7 million to the Public Schools Athletic Leagues, a portion of which was allotted to Big Apple.

The program’s primary goal is to expose middle-schoolers to sports they might not otherwise encounter, said the program’s director, Bob Hoerburger. “If you go to Long Island, kids start doing sports by the time they’re 6 years old,” he said. “In New York City, kids don’t get that experience until they get to high school.”

Wayne Slater, an athletic renaissance man who left a career with the Chicago Cubs to become a gym teacher, has watched Big Apple evolve over the last 13 years. Since then, he said, the kids have changed as much as the program has.

“They’re bigger, stronger, quicker,” Mr. Slater said.

Mr. Hoerburger said he expects the program to continue expanding within the current framework. “Instead of having four softball locations, maybe we could have eight,” he said.