During Homecoming season, we saw all the halls decorated for each grade’s theme. The junior’s theme was Friday Night Lights that honored the fun Friday nights where everyone shows up for the Football game, bringing together the school to cheer for the Football team. Notably, the junior’s hall included boy’s football jerseys that were hung and commemorated individual players on the Football team.
What was missing was recognition for any cheerleaders. Junior Sierra Worster is a part of leadership and noticed this issue almost immediately: “There was definitely room for the ability to recognize women, but that opportunity wasn’t taken,” Worster said. Cheerleaders work hard to create the exciting environment during Friday Night, yet there was zero recognition for them in the junior’s hall during Homecoming. Junior Mia Walloch, who is also a part of leadership admitted, “I feel like we could have put the cheerleaders up as well. It would have been a touch that was more equal.”
This issue, however, goes beyond the hallways. Senior Brooke Maher, a part of the Competitive Cheerleading team, notes the effort the cheerleaders put in even off the field: “We show up to every home Football game, we decorate the locker room, and we make goodie bags for the Football team.” Junior Isabelle Porcella agrees with Brooke: “We make posters for them and it’s just not reciprocated.” There is no other sport, especially a girls sport, that gets the type of attention or support that football receives from the cheerleaders, or honestly anyone.
Maher also spoke about the lack of awareness for the cheerleaders on the field as well: “They’re more interested in watching [the football game] and ignore us a little bit, which sucks when we put in so much hard work.” Porcella mentioned “Nobody even looks at us, I mean, we don’t get cheers when we do anything.” It is incredibly disappointing for cheerleaders to receive little recognition or attention despite the immense effort they put in.
There is also a lack of understanding about what the cheerleaders do: “Football games are not our main event because we are the competitive team, so we mainly focus on that,” It is not common knowledge that the Competitive Cheerleading team does their own competitions. Porcella goes on to say, “They think we just do football games and rallies, which is just not true.” It’s important for the community to recognize that cheerleaders participate in their own competitive sport, rather than the perception that they are an accessory to the football team. When Football is appreciated by the Cheerleading team, but not reciprocated, it creates a discrepancy of respect between the two sports.
Not only do the cheerleaders lack recognition from the school, but so do other girls sports like flag football. As a new sport that was only introduced to our school a couple of years ago, flag football’s team is still being expanded. Senior Grace Allen shares the discrepancy in recognition: “I don’t think it’ll ever be the same as guys Football, because those games bring the whole community together and we just have our parents.”
Her teammate, junior Maya Reed, echoes Allen’s point: “It’s a sport that just got developed, so it’s important that we take it seriously, but it’s definitely not respected as much as boys football.” The lack of respect turns into misinformation about Flag Football: “They think it’s just a girls version [of football], and it’s not,” Reed added. These athletes highlight a key issue within female sports: misconceptions have perpetuated unfair assumptions about sports such as cheerleading and football, which needs to be changed if we can create more equality within the sports community.
Despite these challenges that girls’ sports face, many female athletes tend to speak positively about their experience of being a woman playing a sport in the Campo community. Senior Avery Jules, being the only girl on a football team full of guys, speaks positively about the environment that the boys on the team and Coach Macy have created for her: “[Coach] Macy is great and with the support from my team what the other team says about me hasn’t really been a big deal for me.” Allen also talks about her time in the weight room for Track and Field. The throwing team consists of mostly guys with fewer women taking up the weight room: “[The boys] try their best to incorporate us into their workouts.” With a supportive community, these types of issues don’t go unnoticed. We can thrive as a community by speaking up about these issues and fixing them, rather than sweeping them under the rug.
Even with the positive experiences, sexism does not just go away. Not only are women’s sports not equally appreciated in high school, but often in the professional world as well. High school is where students and kids are supposed to learn real life skills and how the world works. So when only the boys’ sports are honored, it sets up women to believe that this is how the world is supposed to work especially when they grow past high school. The issue of sexism in sports starts here. So to make any sort of change, it needs to happen right now. This problem needs to be continuously addressed by the students and the staff as we cannot turn a blind eye now more than ever. These discrepancies need to be noticed especially by the athletes of both genders and everyone needs to take action by recognizing the girls’ sports and giving them the respect that they lack from the school. Cheerleading can be appreciated more by the Football team and the crowd, Flag Football can be recognized by the school more, and each girl’s sport can be honored more by everyone. Actions can be taken, but it needs to happen now.
