Team sports overshadow academic groups
.
February 23, 2009 • Maddy Dahl
Filed under Opinion
Last year, our concert band placed first in Districts. The group also placed second in their category and earned a Gold Award at the Heritage Festival in Anaheim, California.
At the end of the year assembly when all of the school awards were announced, the band was overlooked.
Our choirs continue to earn state and national recognition, but even, we on the staff of the student newspaper do not give them their credit due.
Students are notorious for glorifying contact sports and ignoring activities with less action, even though our lesser-known teams and clubs often win or do exceptionally well.
Football and basketball receive far more attention than tennis and swimming teams.
In the fall, football games often enjoy a great spectator turnout and there is constant buzz about how the football team “might” make it to the playoffs.
Over the years, our football teams have not performed particularly well, yet the majority of the students attended at least a few of the games. Let’s face it, Americans love their football.
In the 07-08 winter season, boys basketball saw some of the greatest spectator turnout of any sport at Summit, despite the team’s 4-10 record.
Every year, however, our swim team places well in the district and state competitions.
The men’s swim team earned the State Championship in 2008. Most people don’t take this into consideration when thinking of school pride and some people don’t even know about how well we do in competitions such as these. This is not to mention the fact that very few ever attend the swim meets.
Another example of blatant oversights in teams doing well at Summit lies with the cross country ski team. They constantly win competitions and yet many aren’t aware of their incredible success.
The cross-country ski team had to form its own league, known as Oregon High School Nordic Organization (OHSNO), because other teams argued that MBSEF skiers shouldn’t be allowed to participate in the OSAA competitions.
In this new conference, the Summit team competes against the Redmond ski team and ski teams from the valley. The Nordic team competes with larger schools and almost always wins these competitions.
Seniors Tyler Walsh and Josh Guyer placed first in tennis doubles last spring.
The student body basically ignored this great feat. The yearbook staff even failed to mention Walsh’s name.
Tennis is a highly competitive and exciting sport, but the student spectator turnout at tennis matches is extremely low.
To add an even bigger insult, the yearbook only commented on Guyer taking the state title and failed to mention his doubles partner, Walsh. We need to do a better job.
Last summer, two members of the Speech and Debate Team competed at the national competition and two summers ago seven students were sent to nationals.
Why then, do students always overlook the Speech and Debate Team when talking about areas where our school excels?
Speech and Debate is not a contact sport, so students might not find it exciting, but it still has interesting and sometimes even humorous qualities.
The many events of Speech and Debate include Humorous Interpretation and After Dinner Speaking, which are often quite amusing.
The Mock Trial Team always fairs well in the district competition and has attended the state competition for the past five years. Why does no one know about it?
These lesser known clubs and sports receive less newspaper coverage at both the high school and professional levels.
The Eye of the Storm sports section recently became more diverse, including a water polo story, but this story was disproportionately small compared to the football story.
Our school announcements don’t include swim meets or Speech and Debate tournaments news. Everyone knows when the basketball team plays because of special announcements and posters.
Unfortunately, individual sports and clubs don’t receive this kind of attention.
Maybe if we gave individual sports the same enthusiastic support that our team sports enjoy and paid more attention to academic club achievements, our school truly would turn into a more well rounded place, a place for all students to call “their house”.
Loading ...
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!