Female Athletes Need More Support
February 24, 2020
For years, the female athletic department has not been given the same attention from the community as its male counterpart. Although the Lady Riders have proven their increasing excellence, there are still nowhere near as many supporters at their games.
Female sports should be given the same recognition and respect as the male sports.
Female athletes apply the same amount of effort into their sports as boys do. The Lady Rider athletic program’s hard work was proven to be successful last year as they qualified for playoffs in volleyball, basketball, and soccer. In addition, the Lady Rider track team placed 7th in the state for relays. Because of all these reasons and more, they should be given the same amount of support as the boy’s teams do.
Girls are playing the same sports as the boys and are still not given the same respect. As the Lady Riders continue to strive for success, it is vital that they are shown the same amount of support as the boys are. Even as the girls continue to show their grit and win games, they are still hardly given any recognition within the community or student body.
Although some people claim that men’s sports are more fun to watch, it is still the same game being played, there are just different athletes involved. The same rules and regulations apply to a girls’ game as a boys’ game. Games are more fun to watch if there is an involved audience. The boys receive a much higher attendance at their games simply because they are respected more than girls regardless of the outcome of their games.
People should understand that females deserve the same credit for their achievements and begin to support them as much as the boys. This can be accomplished by showing up at the girls’ games and supporting them from the stands. In addition, the community can invest in their female athletes and raise awareness of their increasing success.
Alli is new to the newspaper staff and currently in her sophomore year of high school. Alli very actively participates in the athletic program. She is...
Gustavo Pallares has been on the yearbook staff since 2018. In his spare time, Gustavo enjoys listening to music and looking at different types of art.
Very short but very hard-hitting. Spring sports are already neglected by the public and—to add the fact that no one pushes themselves to make time for female athletic events—it’s embarrassing how we allow that sort of attendance at games.
This seems to be a goldmine for a column. I’d love to see you go out and search deep on why attendance is so poor for female games. Were female games well-attended when we had national quality female basketball players (I mean think about it; the most notable athletes in Center’s history have been two female African-American basketball players)? I’d like to see interviews about how poor attendance effects female performance. How much do we really care about winning games if female soccer won more games than football (a few years ago anyway—not aware of football’s record this year)? If athletics is such an important part of our School Board member’s campaigns to get elected, why do they forget about the other half of the athletic department? Is the issue a fault of the school system or the school’s outside support system? Also, there must be race issues involved here. Just look at softball attendance vs. female track and female soccer.
The scary thing is that most people agree with this article’s point; you won’t find many people out there supporting less attendance for female games—but still no one comes. Sorry I wrote so much—your article just really did a number on MeMarkPerkins. Thank you for writing it.