Do You Care about High School Sports?

Homecoming week, pep rallies, mascots, track meets…do these words make you explode into a school colors supernova, or do they make you want to hide in your room with a book? Or a little bit of both?

Sports are an odd part of the whole high school experience—it’s not that you love or hate them, it’s that you love AND hate things about them. So what is it about high school sports that makes us go WOO!! and booooooo?

Reasons HS sports can be annoying...

Homecoming week
After the school rams the homecoming game down your throat for a week with pep rallies, banners, morning announcements and a dance, your team usually goes ahead and loses the game anyway.

Ridiculous team names
High schools are incapable of coming up with good team names. For instance, the "Winged Beavers" is one Connecticut high school’s team name. My home state had the Awesome Blossoms and the Spuds. Can anyone shout “Go Spuds!!” without laughing? (Or having a strong craving for sour cream?)

Embarrassing mascots
Most mascots aren't bad on paper, but when it comes to turning these animals (or whatever) into a reality, most high schools just don’t have the budget to make them passable.

Going against herd mentality
Trying to resist mob mentality is one reason you may find yourself rooting against your own team. Sure, it’s your team and you would be happy to see it and the school succeed…but when you see people running down the hall, faces covered in paint, screaming nonsense about DeSTRoYiNG the other team, you want yours to lose just to take the wind out of their insane sails.

Reasons HS sports can RULE...

Supporting your friends!
You may have friends on sports teams, and why would you root against your friends? And if victory is sweet from the sidelines, it’s sheer ecstasy when you’re the one in action. The physical feeling of accomplishment after setting a track record or winning a baseball game can't be beat.

Releasing some energy with classmates
Games/meets/competitions present students with that rare opportunity to go totally nuts in public without being judged and/or sent to detention. You can chest bump, fist pump, scream, boogie dance, and otherwise make a fool out of yourself without anyone blinking an eye. In fact, sports games are one of the few times your teachers will hold it against you for sitting quietly with your hands folded in your lap.

Creating a sense of community
High school sports do bring people together, especially freshmen. When you're struggling to find any common ground with another human being, you can always rely on the tried-and-true “So how about those [high school sports team]?” Sure, it’s probably as interesting as “how about the weather?” but it’s a conversation point nevertheless.

Getting out of class
Even if you have zero interest in high school sports, you probably have an enormous interest in getting out of class. Between pep rallies, announcements, and other events, high school sports disrupt the daily monotony of school often enough that you just might find yourself cheering on the team even if you think people make touchdowns in basketball.

What do you think about high school sports? Do they mean as much to you as pro teams? And how dumb is your school mascot?