When was the last time you went to a swim meet? How about a tennis match? Nationwide people have different interests. Some like fashion, some are into music, or science, but above all it’s a known fact that our country honors our athletics, and with over 70% of Americans watching live sports a year, this is very evident. 

One of the more specific instances of this is in your average high school, where dozens of students across all grades will clear their Friday night schedules to attend a football game, or during winter call out of a shift just to be a part of our basketball team’s “white-out” themed game. But what about the sports teams that you never hear about? It’s not because they’re losing, or they don’t have stacked roasters, it’s because they don’t get the same coverage as some of our more popular sports do. 

If you were to take a look at our school’s student-run page MHS Tribe, you will see that since August when the school year started, there has been 1 post about volleyball. There has been 1 post about swim. There have been 4 posts about soccer. There have been 21 posts about our boys football team. When you see the difference in student involvement in our school, I can’t help but think that the lack of acknowledgement of these sports is a reason why some lack, and some excel, and I’m not the only one that thinks this.

I interviewed some of our student athletes about this topic, and they had a lot to say. When talking to some girls on our school a volleyball team, they claimed that they never have over 15 students at a home game, and that the ones that show up were always personally invited rather than showing up out of interest. “For an average home game, sometimes it feels like we barely have any fans at all.” claimed varsity starter, Paige Lockman. With varsity soccer player Payton Lockman, I also discussed representation on our student led pages. “Literally a post would be so easy and would mean so much.” she stated. “If we were posted more, it would definitely affect the amount of people that are coming to watch.”. I also interviewed students on our swim team, and tennis team, who said almost the same things as these girls did.

Now, I couldn’t just show one side of the coin when it comes to this issue, so I compared these responses to another interview I did with varsity football player, Samuel Asare-Anti, and the responses were vastly different. He claimed “A lot of people come to our games.” and that our school’s football team feels “Really supported” by our student body. I didn’t even have to bring up other sports before he claimed his was “One of those things that are over represented” and that with other things like volleyball, or soccer games, students really don’t “hear much information about much sports teams until the day before or day of”. 

This issue is being discussed by students all over the school, and the effects of underrepresented sports are not going unnoticed. A problem with crowds during sporting events can lead to underperformance, and overall lack of passion in the activity theyre doing. We as students overall need to do better and support each other the best we can. So maybe next time you hear about a soccer game on the announcements, make a sign, it does way more for the athletes than you know.