When looking into high schools, many incoming freshman wonder if the school can offer seasonal sports on campus. At some point, we have all wondered the same thing but unfortunately, to our disappointment, there is an evident scarcity of sports at APB. For the past few years that I have been a student here, various students from all grade levels have been requesting and asking about sports with great fervor. Although we do offer Students Run LA, the majority of the students aren’t appealed to it. Students are more drawn towards sports that are in high demand such as football, basketball, and especially soccer.
The school administration and faculty are constantly questioning how they can improve our school and how we can get our students to engage in class and the answer that many give is “bring sports to the school”.
“But what good would the integration of sports do to our students?”
Sports do a great deal to our students and their academic environment. Sports enforces the concept of teamwork. There are teachers that do have some disruptive students in class. These students struggle to engage in the class and on teams but if they had a sport to participate in they would learn the necessary skills to become a team member. If more sports were available to our students, discipline wouldn’t be an issue and there would be less disruptions in class.
Students will get a chance to enhance their social skills due to the constant interaction with others. Not only would they be able to improve their social skills but also their grades. With the sports we have now, students are forced to keep a steady grade point in order to participate in the club.
Health is another section that would benefit from sports on campus. Everywhere, health is a concern for younger kids. Changes in their regular diets occur but there is still no exercise put into their routine. With seasonal sports on campus, exercising would be done on a regular basis, the food that is eaten will be tracked, and everyone’s health would improve greatly. As a result of all those benefits, many of the students confidence will have a major boost. The more confident they become the more comfortable they feel in their environment and the more willing they will be to interact in class as well.
We do have clubs dedicated to some sports at APB, like soccer and basketball but they are just clubs and are not able to play against other teams. Even if they were able to play, it would have to be after that sport’s season is over and the other schools are done. If another school agrees to a game, we would just play a game and if we are lucky, two games.
Pacheco, an 11th grade sports enthusiast said, “ If we were to have sports, people would grow and have more discipline with seasonal sports because it gets really competitive. And it can also look really great on our college apps and we are eligible for sports scholarships. We have great players but not an official team. Many students take it upon themselves to set up a game with other schools For example, I went out of my way to set up a game with Jordan.”
Coach Brown stated that “students should have more than just academics” and many agree with him. We all hope that later on seasonal sports can finally become an option for our students and more facilities are created to play the sports in. But until then we must make do with what we have and try to push for sports in our school.
