Throughout my four years here at DGS, I’ve had the privilege of being on an undefeated sports team. A team that is currently in its fifth undefeated season and has sent multiple girls down state each year, yet I sit through the homecoming pep assembly and realize something that strikes me as an issue.

Our school’s tradition of announcing current sports teams is unfair and unequal among all of the sports teams.

I personally feel that if our school is going to announce half of one team’s varsity roster, then they need to announce every team’s varsity roster. While I have no hate against our football team, I do feel that they are receiving too big of a reception during the homecoming assembly, and it is causing inequality among the other fall sports. While the volleyball games and swimming meets might not be the Friday night hangout, they all still deserve the same recognition that the football team is receiving.

Each sport has its own star athletes, and we need to acknowledge them too, not just the stars who play under the Friday night lights. Why not take a second to announce the girls cross country team who is traveling all the way to Arizona for a meet or the girls bowling team which has gone down state as a team the past two years? It is highly discouraging for other teams and athletes to not receive the recognition that they deserve. 

All of our sports teams here at DGS work unbelievably hard to become skilled in what they are doing. Hearing your name announced during the assembly in front of the entire school is a rewarding feeling that only certain athletes get when in reality every team should receive that fulfilling feeling.

Let’s take a look at the girls swim and dive team. They are here every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 6 a.m. for morning practice along with after school practice each day. They have also been conference champions for the past 5 years and are currently on their fifth undefeated season.

Our girls cross country team has been on a conference winning streak. They have been conference champions for the past 20 years. Along with winning conference, the girls cross country team has qualified and placed at state for the past three years.

Yet we have been allowing only the state qualifiers and the popular season sports to be announced. We have winning athletes who aren’t state qualifiers that deserve recognition. 

This tradition of giving sports teams different recognition at our assemblies needs to stop.

I believe that there is a very easy solution to this problem that each team could implement regardless of the season or level. Currently, not every sports team here at DGS has a set of captains, such as cheerleading and swimming for example. If each team would create a set of captains, I believe this would help fix this current inequality issue.

If each team had captains, only the captains should be announced during an assembly. It not only would decrease the amount of time spent on the sports section of an assembly but it also would allow for each sport to receive the recognition that they work so hard each season to achieve. We are always told to play equally and fairly so we should be treated that way.