Since the beginning of time, sports have been a big deal when it comes to High School. Some of the biggest events have been Friday night football games, that allow a big crowd of students, parents, and visitors to come together and support one another. There are so many different events that could bring in so much more support for the girls teams such as soccer games at dusk, volleyball games, but the biggest difference in support is for the girls basketball. One of the biggest things that brings in support are themes for the student body. Most of the sports have a theme for home games, minus the girls sports. Boy’s Football, Boy’s Soccer, and Boy’s basketball always have a theme, but where are the Girls’ themes? 

There is a real problem regarding high school sports, and it’s the difference of importance between girls and boys high school sports. For example, every Friday night the football team is flooded with huge supportive crowds filled with excitement, all dressed up according to the theme, and to tie it all together the band plays music to get the entire section of fans excited for every play in the game. Everyone seems to disregard the fact that this has never once happened at a girls sports game, let alone some other boy sports besides football. I can understand some people generally have more interest in watching a football game compared to other sports, but the real problem behind it all is school spirit and support for the girls. Girls soccer, Girls softball, Girls basketball have no student section. 

Sadly, this is not just our high school that has this problem, but instead  is a worldwide problem. Everywhere men seem to be treated better than women simply just because of gender. This comes across as sexist to all the strong women in the world that have worked just as hard in their sports as men have for decades. The deffiniton of sexist is  characterized by or showing prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex. This may sound familiar, because this is the issue that is happening within schools, and worldwide.The main point is just equality between both genders, having a team off the field in the stands, cheering you on, is just as helpful as the one on the field passing you the ball. 

Still in the support category of it all, do you ever notice how a big fraction of the boys athletes at Forest Grove High School are missing? As a female high school athlete, our team does the absolute best that we can to show support and always be at the football games, but we have seen very little support within our bleachers. As said by Mr. Thompson “About half of the student body leaves after the boys games are done.” The sad fact is that if it was put out that the football team was going to a girls game, more spectators would be there. Athlete on Athlete support is also very important. 

Overall the stats show that the ratio of the amount of people that attend boy sports vs girls sports is very different, favoring boys. This needs to change.