Sports are an important part of a high school. It can bring honor and pride to its players and its coaches. Accolades that can last a lifetime. Sports also have an immense impact on a person’s daily life and health.  

According to Manhattan Medical Arts, “They do not just give you an interesting routine but also a healthy body. Getting indulged in physical activities like sports improves your heart function, reduces the risks of diabetes, controls blood sugar, and lowers tension and stress levels.”  

Throughout the years participation in after school activities has increased, with more and more students deciding to participate in a sport. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 1991-2019 High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data, about 57% of high school students played on at least one school or community sports team in the past year. 

Some sports, however, seem to be less popular than others. Because of this “popularity” many sports suffer during their season, they don’t have enough kids to raise a decent amount of money for their season or they didn’t have enough money from the last season and have to play catch-up. Why is this? Is it because of the stigma that schools only care about huge sports or something else?  

One factor, and certainly a truthful one, is simply how long a sport has been around. 

Sports that have been around for longer have had more opportunity to grow their fanbases, develop and perfect their rules, and achieve financial stability, and a degree of legitimacy.  

The Medium, a sports related website said, “People are more likely to follow sports they grew up playing and watching and enroll their children in them down the line.”  

This is how some sports have a substantial number of players versus other sports at Weir. The number of players can help rake in more money for the team during its season, which can in turn affect the amount of money that sport has. This popularity is one of the biggest factors of sports income, but there are other factors that can affect it too. Another factor that could influence how much money a sport could get is parent involvement.  

Boosters are a huge part of each sport. The better the booster group the more money they can raise for their kids who partake in said sport. Bigger sports, like soccer and football, which according to AAA State of Play more than one million boys participated in the 2018-19 school year, have massive booster groups, with the number of parents filling up the little theater. Other sports, like cross country and swim, who per AAA State of Play have over 440,000 high school students that compete each year, have a parent group total of 3 members for each sport. 

Because of their huge following, football boosters can rack in hundreds of dollars per game, from admission, concessions, and sometimes even merchandise. Therefore, football has a lump sum of money in its programs funding. Other sports, that aren’t recognized as much, don’t get that kind of money and have a rough season. Without money they aren’t able to host a good banquet or have a good end of the year gift. 

For example, our swimming team had to pay for all their equipment because they don’t make enough money to provide everyone with the equipment to properly practice. It’s true that each sport requires a different amount of money since each sport is different, some need more equipment than others, but each sport should be treated the same in terms of stigma and popularity. 

Freshman Sarah Stewart, who is a member on the swim team, said, “Our equipment is falling apart. It might not seem like that big of a deal, but when you have mildew-y pool boys, not only is it gross, but it affects our training. Half of our flippers are falling apart, so when we wear them, they really don’t benefit us. Then also, there aren’t enough sizes for everyone with the same size foot. I had to use a size smaller and I had bad blisters, some still healing. It’s not fair that we also have to practice in a place that gives us chemical burn anytime we enter the water. My skin would break out in hives, and it took weeks to clear up after swim season. The best part was when there was two and a half feet of water missing and the pool was so cloudy because they didn’t have chlorine for 2 weeks. It was nasty and I hope we can fix this problem by next year, but without funds from selling heat sheets, concessions, or even having home meets, it’s going to be very difficult.” 

This shows that not just popularity can affect how a sport does during its season. A sport is more than just a big name, it’s the number of parents, athletes, and the commitment of everyone involved that can affect how a sport does during its season and how it can affect the generations to come.