The Sport Equality Dilemma at Don Lugo

Photo+courtesy+of+Diego+Cruz

Photo courtesy of Diego Cruz

Diego Cruz, Sports Reporter

We all know about the craze and hype of high school football. The loud noises, the crazy fans that show their spirit, and the cheerleaders chanting, but what people fail to realize is that there are other high school sports that deserve the same amount of attention as football. Sure football may seem more watched and more well known throughout our campus, but that doesn’t mean to stop watching sporting events that Don Lugo provides after the football season ends.

So far there are 11 sports at our high school, 4 of them are in Spring, 4 are in Winter, and 3 are in Fall. Seems pretty equal right? So then why does one sport get more views and attention than the other sports? Well first off, it seems like people view the three main so-called important sports, which is football, basketball, and baseball, which are all in different seasons. There are plenty of other sports rather than those three to explore and watch, such as exciting sports like water polo, volleyball, and wrestling. These sports carry the same excitement as the three “main sports” and deserve the same turnout

Photos of boys Senior Night basketball game(top), and girls senior night basketball game(bottom). Photo Credits: Diego Cruz

It’s not just boy sports you have to watch either, people seem to not realize that girl’s sports, such as softball, is equally as interesting as boy’s sports. Girl sports require the same amount of skilled players as the boy sports and they train just as hard. For example, this year our girls’ volleyball team had a great run and made it to CIF which was extremely exciting, but unfortunately not everyone was there to see it. Why don’t we show our girl sports some well deserved love? Even if people only watch the three main sports, you can watch girls dominate them as well. Some may be even more entertaining than the boy versions of them such as softball which people call faster paced than baseball. Take notes of a fan named Hank, he attends almost every girls sports games and cheers them on as he watches them triumph over their competition. Much like we should all be.

People always say that we watch men sports because they are the best at what they do, so we don’t watch woman sports because they aren’t the best? That argument doesn’t work.

— Amanda Ottaway

However, there are many types of solutions to solve this problem of sports inequality. This can be to advertise other sports other than the main 3 sports such as inviting some of your family and friends to make the event more fun and enjoyable. Maybe you can plan out your week to attend 1 different sport every day. For example, one day you could watch soccer, then the next day you can watch basketball, then the day after that you can attend a water polo game, and the next day you can show up to a wrestling match, etc.. You should always include variation to get the full package of your high school experience. These are all valuable and reasonable reasons to start attending the sports it seems everyone has forgot about.

While most of the attention goes to football, it is still important to provide attention to other sports that work just as hard as football does. Try attending new Lugo sporting events for the rest of the semester like baseball and wrestling. Maybe try and experience watching girls sports like softball and water polo. There are plenty of new sports to explore and watch after football and there is definitely more than enough Lugo spirit to share among those forgotten sports.