Sports: The overrated and the underappreciated

                Basketball team makes it to Regionals? The school throws a parade. Track team goes to nationals? Nothin.

                It’s a rather irksome topic; at least to me it is anyway. The topic of recognition towards our sports teams at West Springfield.  Our overly acclaimed football team received quite a bit of praise this past fall, earning Toyota Game of the Week and gaining a few headlines in the local newspaper, The Fairfax Connection. Not to mention a few honorable mentions in the Washington Post’s All Met Fall Sports Edition. All this is fine and dandy, and I’m proud of their hard work, but if you ask me things have gotten a little out of hand when it comes to who deserves the praise.

                For one thing, when was the last time you heard anything about our girls gymnastic team? How did their season go? We wouldn't know would we, considering our school hasn't made announcements and/or any other news about them. For all we know they could have won districts but we’d have no idea. Or the crew team for that matter? Whatever happened to them? The logic behind that whole debacle is that because crew isn't a school sponsored team and only a club, they don’t deserve the same amount of recognition? I beg to differ.

                And speaking of winning districts, how many students would you say know about the boys track team winning districts this past winter? Or even the girls tennis team? Probably only a handful most likely. What they received as recognition for all of their hard work and success was a brief statement over the morning announcements for their win. But when more popular sports (lacrosse, football, soccer, etc)make it to the semi-finals of districts they receive not only an announcement but also an article in the newspaper, video coverage, and so forth.

                Not to be forgotten are the track runners who received All-American this past indoor and earned themselves a top 10 place finish at nationals. I may have a biased opinion on the topic, but am I just suppose to accept the fact that even though our girl’s were national runner ups in the DMR and that Seals, probably the most talented athlete in the entire school, got 8^th in the high jump  at nationals were given no credit whatsoever just because the national meet just so happens to occur after states? And the fact that about 5 school records were set in track alone, including the boys 4x200m relay who also went to nationals received no recognition?

                All I’m asking is a little more publicity to the other sports, it doesn't have to be the track team (although that’d be nice too), but simply to the ones who have earned it, not the ones who rake in the most money, but those who have truly made the most of their season and made us proud to have  them be a part of our school’s sports program. 

This issue thought doesn't just stop with our school though, it extends to society as well. If anyone had noticed this past summer all the talk was about the Olympic gymnastics team, swimming team, and  a bit about the track team winning gold. Most of us happened to overlook however our other successful USA sports teams and continued to remain ignorant to the talented athletes that just so happened to help us win the overall medal count. Archery, water polo, badminton, shooting, fencing, cylcing, the list goes on of the number of sports you probably never took the time to notice in the past. But I won't bore you any longer sugar, feel free to disregard this as you may, but all I ask is that you remember this in return: Don't get too caught up in the popularity of a sport, learn to give credit where credit is due, and never undermine the integrity of a sport. Like ever.

If you're ever interested in finding out more about these types of under appreciated sports, here is a compiled list of the top ten most underrated sports in the athletic world:

http://osu.uloop.com/news/view.php/71727/top-ten-underappreciated-sports

I hope I didn't bore or upset anyone in the process of this post! If you wish to contact me for any particular reason my email is: cmalcorta@gmail.com