Sports. It’s something that is widely talked about, watched, participated in, and overall enjoyed. Almost everyone can say there is some sport that they like to play or at least watch. There is just something about sports that makes them so enjoyable to so many people, whether it is the competitiveness or just being part of a team. One of my favorite things I love about sports is that anyone can participate, no matter their age, gender, or disability. Not to mention you don’t have to be in the big leagues to play a sport, which is why I’m so thankful for school sports.

     Speaking of school, we’re already one month in and we’re almost halfway through fall sports season. For those of you who don’t know, at Boro, the fall sports include football, soccer, tennis, field hockey, volleyball, gymnastics, marching band/color guard (which, yes, are technically sports), cross country, and cheer. That’s a lot, right? I’ve never played a fall sport myself, but in general I think that certain sports, especially when they’re played by a certain gender, are never viewed or liked as much as others.

     I think that the girls’ fall sports, or all girls’ sports for that matter, are being overlooked. I didn’t even know that we even had a girls’ gymnastics team or that the tennis and volleyball season for girls was in the fall until I looked up the sports on the school website.

     It wasn’t until recently that I really started seeing the difference between the care students had for girls’ sports. Just recently, the girls’ soccer team was selling team merch to raise money for the team. Each of them had to sell a certain number of items, and let’s just say I saw my friend struggle to get people to buy them. During lunch and in between classes she would go to all the teachers and students and try to get them to buy girls’ soccer team merch, and barely anyone would even consider buying one let alone actually buying one, even the teachers. 

    I asked my own friends who participate in girls’ fall sports what they think on the matter. In short, they did think that girls’ sports are overlooked with them saying comments like “More people show up and care about guys’ sports” and “I feel some people may think that guys are more fun to watch than girls for whatever reason”. Even on social media, the school gave a shout-out to the boy’s cross-country team on their personal bests at the New Balance Shore Coaches cross-country meet, including some of the boy team members’ times. There was no recognition for the girls. Someone even commented under the post asking: “How did the girls do?”

     In 2004, the airtime coverage of women’s sports was 6.3%. Not even twenty years later, that number has dropped to only 1.6%. This is the percentage for professional women’s sports games shown on TV. These athletes worked extremely hard to get where they are. If people don’t even care about professional women’s sports, what makes you think that they are going to care about high school girls’ sports?

     During football games, the stands are filled with people watching all of the teenage boys play the game. Students, parents, and teachers make up the crowd for both teams and they stay for hours enjoying the game. Meanwhile, for girls’ sports, their stands are practically empty, with no students except for the ones playing and the only parents there are watching their daughters play a game that to some people would have found more enjoyable to watch if they were boys.

     These girls work hard for several hours almost every day. Not getting home until later in the day from practice or games just to do homework, go to sleep late, and wake up and do it all over again the next day. What’s the difference between girls’ and boys’ sports? While that question can be and is debatable, the answer is different for everyone, it doesn’t mean that one is more important than the other. The girls work just as hard as the boys, and for what, since they are not getting the recognition they deserve. You don’t have to be at every game, but if you have female friends on a sports team, support them. Show them that they are appreciated and that their hard work is being recognized.