Cheers from parents and chants from the student section fill the ears of spectators as support goes wild after the Pleasant Valley football team scores yet another touchdown. Although common to most high schools, this passionate scene can only be found at few sporting events, such as volleyball, football and basketball. While it is good to support school sports, some students have started to voice their opinions about the inequality of attention given to certain sports compared to others, whether it be from the athletic board or the student section.
Senior swimmer on the Girls’ Swimming and Diving team Lauren Kulas gave her perspective on the topic. “Football definitely gets more from the school – from equipment to promotion – which is somewhat understandable though because they bring in a lot of revenue,” Kulas said. “But from my past experience on the [swim] team, I don’t think that swimming has ever gotten new equipment or a charter bus to go to meets, even our 2+ hour away one.”
When observing the pool, both the girls’ and guys’ swim teams have access to the same well-used equipment, such as buoys and fins. Some club swimmers have voiced disapproval, stating that the equipment looked as though it is are at the end point in its life.
Along with practice equipment, there are other issues that swimmers have noticed. Senior varsity swimmer Aviana Zahara noted how the yearbook had numerous issues regarding the swim page in which the pictures of captains, names of members and content were incorrect.
“Recognition is also lacking [compared] to other sports,” Kulas said. “This is evident in our yearbooks because for the last few years, swimming has only had one page while most other sports get two, and within our page, only three-fourths seem to actually be edited.”
Another sport that is often widely neglected is baseball.
Jacob Fuhrmeister, a senior baseball player, gave his input on the PVHS Baseball team’s publicity. “The real reason baseball doesn’t get as much attention is because we’re not as good as the softball team and not as many people enjoy the slow pace of baseball,” Fuhrmeister said. “I think part of it is that the softball team is more active on Twitter. The twitter feed for the baseball team is run by the players and is often pretty inconsistent. As far as recognition, we don’t have as many all-state players or awards.”
To counter the perception of PV football, senior football player Fritz Friederichs shared his opinion as to why football and its games are such a big affair.
“Football turns the most profit, that’s for sure,” Friederichs said. “The profit that is turned in one game is more than enough to fix all the broken gear – each year we replace the jerseys in the worst shape – as well as still have left over for the team. I personally think that if any other sport promoted as well as football, they’d get gear themselves.” Friedrichs went on to say that “If anything at all the football team is benefiting the rest of the sports by providing lump sums of money that they would otherwise not have. But overall, no team deserves anything, everything is earned.”
Other students inquire about travel commodities, noting the common perception that the certain teams have access to charter buses as opposed to the common yellow bus that most teams use. Athletic Director D’Anne Kroemer was quick to dispel the rumor, saying that no team preferentially gets charter buses.
“The Pleasant Valley Community School District bus service is owned by Durham School Services,” Kroemer said. “So the Pleasant Valley Community School District does not own our bus service, it’s contracted out. […] There have been a couple instances in the past where Durham School Services have had to pay for charter buses to take our teams because they don’t have enough buses to meet the needs of all school activities district-wide – that includes the junior high.”
Whether sports seem to be treated fairly or not, that decision relies solely on the students. If student-athletes have concerns or complaints, Kroemer suggested that they should reach out to their coach so as they can relay those complaints to the administration during coaches’ meetings.
