Photo by KAVYA PATHAK

It’s the only sport that fills the whole stadium with fans, everyone dressed in maroon and gold for the big event. Going to watch Friday night football games has been a tradition at our school since it opened, and it never fails to draw students to the football field week after week. Kids and students line up from 7 a.m. to buy their tickets to key games, and even away games have a substantial group of students on the visitor’s side of the field.

“I love going to football games. The excitement and the crazy atmosphere is awesome,” Kayyla Wenger said.

“Watching football games on Friday nights is a really fun part of the high school experience.”

Football takes precedence over any other sport here, with far more hype surrounding games, including rallies and Fight Song Fridays.

“I think part of why football is so popular here is that it’s just an American pastime,” varsity football coach Mike Gimenez said, “People love watching games at home, and that just transfers over to school.”

However, other sports deserve a chance in the limelight too. Various fall sports involve the same levels of speed and agility that are shown by football players, and the games are just as exciting and eventful as football games.

The woeful lack of promotion of all sports other than football is a key reason for their lack of popularity. Unlike football games, where tickets are sold and dates and times are well publicized, other sports are virtually ignored, only occasionally advertised on the morning announcements. Attendance at soccer games, volleyball games and tennis matches is almost nonexistent compared to football games. This lack of attention to the various athletic events going on at our school that are not related to football is highly unfair.

Our school needs to recognize the importance and value of the multitude of other fall sports that are forced to compete with football,  and we must give these events a chance in the spotlight.

To give these other athletic events this attention, ASB must start promoting these sports as heavily as it promotes football. Though some fall athletic events are X-Factor games, they are not nearly as well publicized as football games are. More coverage these games on the morning announcements, such as short videos promoting games and tournaments, would help to give these sports more publicity.

Giving out more free school merchandise, in addition to the X-Factor shirts already given out at X-Factor games, would also help to boost attendance. The opportunity to get different shirts other than the one X-Factor shirt, lanyards, and other items, like dance tickets for one lucky winner at each event would help draw more crowds. Organizing Fight Song Fridays for sports other than football and giving out free merchandise during these events would help to promote more student interest in different fall sports. Making larger, more interesting posters to put up on campus, as opposed to the small black and white pieces of printer paper advertising these events, and writing on the concrete with chalk would also build up more excitement toward these games.

With more publicity and more incentives to attend sporting events other than football, these athletic events will no longer be in the shadows and will achieve the popularity they deserve.

By KAVYA PATHAK