- York Suburban varsity cheerleaders bring excitement and pep to a game at Biglerville High School early in the basketball season. Photo Submitted by Kayla de Garay.
York Suburban varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders get the football boys, students, faculty, and parents hype for the homecoming game at the bonfire. Photo Submitted by Kayla de Garay.
Imagine yourself walking into a gym filled with cheering students, parents, and faculty. Laughter echoes as the basketball whisks down the court with an even exchange from one team to the next. Suspense and anxiety fill the air and hearts pound.
Sweat drips off of every players’ face and the intensity on the court increases. The tension is addicting and each quarter is a higher level of thrill. If asked if this description that best fits the male or the female high school basketball game (or any game), most people would say boys with no hesitation.
The feeling entering a girls’ basketball game is a more subtle competition. The cheering is less aggressive, referees are more interested in being fair, and the coaches are developing the players’ skills. The gym itself is mostly filled with parents rather than students and peers of the players, and the intensity matches what you might find on the field of intramural sports.
When considering the reasons that a boys’ basketball game would have a better outcome than a girls’ game, sophomore Natasha Green said, “Boys’ games have more entertainment there, like the cheerleaders and the half time show with the little kids playing. They have way more advertising throughout the school and on the announcements too.”
When games are announced regularly and more entertainment is provided, this would naturally fuel the students and peers to have a desire to attend the girls games.
Freshman Georgia Dumars said, “Girls’ games are deemed as boring and less successful as the boys. A lot of people think that girls’ sports are a joke.”
Both Dumars and Green agreed that boys and girls should have the same recognition and support because they both work just as hard.
Perhaps if the school administration, faculty, parents, and students would take the same interest in girls sports as they do with boys, the turnout of girls’ games would mirror a boys’ game.