By: Alexa Tironi
On September 30th, North Warren Regional students bundled up, grabbed an umbrella, and ventured out into the cold, rainy September evening to attend the girl’s soccerfest game against Blair Academy. Upon arriving at the field, it was clear that fewer people would be attending this event, compared to the NWR boy’s soccer fest, or most sporting events for that matter.
So these multitudinous students trudged through the muddy grass and up the icy bleachers to their high corner perch. The players ran onto the field, the ref blew the whistle, and the game began. As the girls passed the ball up and down the field; a low rumbling of chants could be heard from the children in the stands. If a coach or player on the bench was to turn around and squint their eyes into crowd, they would read signs that said “You have coxsackie now losers!” and “God loves us for free...I think.”
Nowhere to be found was a sign supporting our players on the field or the North Warren School in general. The cast of characters attending the game that night spanned from marching band members, there to supply pump-up music, cheerleaders to pep up the dwindling crowd, friends of girls on the team giving emotional support, and NWR football players who were offering their fair share of noise.
Noise from the crowd is usually a positive thing. Noise shows excitement for the situation at hand and enthusiasm in the experience. Yet, the chants and cheers from these onlookers was not quite typical for a soccer sporting event. If a person walking from the parking lot was to stop, and listen to the shouts from the field, phrases such as the ever popular “We have coxsackie” and “The ref beats his wife” could be heard floating through the air. Disheartening bellows would continue throughout the game as boys from the bleachers called Blair players “mediocre” and chanted out names of random North Warren Football players who were attending the game.
Limited support for female athletes is something we see in pro leagues and it trickles all the way down to tiny schools like North Warren High School. A girls’ varsity soccer player gave her opinion on the type of reaction displayed at soccerfest female sporting events in general: “If you’re not going to support the team, stay the hell home. Football has supporters every week and we cheer for their games but as soon as they come to ours it’s just a joke...the “fans” not taking it seriously definitely affects players on the field.”
Perhaps it is an underlying sexist opinion, that female sports don’t deserve genuine support, or maybe it implies that not enough publicity is given to these teams, so they receive the recognition they have earned. Whatever the reason may be, it should prove to be invalid. The NWR girls soccer team should enjoy the same praise given to the football team and boy’s soccer team.
Editor's Note- Tori Young scored her 100th career point this past Thursday against Sussex Tech in girls soccer. That's a feat that may not be duplicated in the near future. Come out and watch one of the best players North Warren has ever seen before she plays her final high school game. As her former coach, Tori is well worth the price of admission, which happens to be free for all students. Get out and support the girls!
Great insight given.
ReplyDeleteA great article!
ReplyDeleteThat's a strong thing to say without evidence to back it up
ReplyDeleteAnyone at the soccerfest or senior night could see it. The games are filmed so you can hear the football team chanting things like that
DeleteAnyone who went to soccerfest or senior night could see it. The games were filmed so there are videos of the football team chanting things like that.
DeleteRight off the bat you intro this article saying how crappy of a day it was on girls soccer fest. It even describes the bleachers as icy and the day as cold and rainy. Now it goes on to say how there weren't as many people at this event or as the boys soccer fest. I wonder why...maybe it's because it was a crappy day, or perhaps it was the fact that it wasn't on the originally scheduled date or that it was changed out of nowhere. Would you want to go to a completely rescheduled event(maybe you had plans) and knowing it was such a horrible day out? Another huge point to make is that you completely left out the entire conflict between the soccer team and the football team. I am a soccer player so don't take this as biased, as “The Stigma Against Girl’s Sports” Article is. However the soccer teams started the whole problem by rooting for the other team at one of the football home games before the girls soccer fest event happened. “Football has supporters every week and we cheer for their games but as soon as they come to ours it’s just a joke...the “fans” not taking it seriously definitely affects players on the field.” That statement is a lie. I don't even like our football team but if you kick a bee’s nest your going to stung .The soccer teams had it coming to be honest and I don't have a problem with that.You get what you give. I have a problem with false info or the fact that this is completely biased.
ReplyDeleteUmmmm? Huh? Your comment is very hard to follow....What's your point?....isn't the writing considered an "opinion" piece anyway?
DeleteI followed his comment very well, He had very valid points that were not addressed in the above article. When writing an opinion peice you need to gather every fact and interview both sides of the story if you are going to write a piece on it. The key is to do proppper research so that you do not misinform the readers. I can confirm that what happened at girls soccer night was because of the ongoing conflict started by them the night the football team played butler. The key here is that instead of looking at a situation from what you have heard. Investigate the story to understand the whole truth, then form your opinion based on what you have heard. Just don't jump to conclusions.
DeleteI do not know about the boys soccer team, but I know for a fact that the girls soccer team did not root for another team at any football game. I have read through this article and the comments many times, and I can confirm that from my point of view the information in this article is accurate. Furthermore, neither the girls nor boys soccer teams held up offensive signs or yelled obnoxious things during the football games.
DeleteThe football team and both soccer teams have had many issues this past season. Both sports have done disrespectful things to each other. But that issue was resolved directly between the captains of all three teams. So to say that the football team is just trying to get back at the girl's team for what they did at an earlier football event, which was in response to a cruel comment the football team made about a boys soccer player, isn't true because the issue was already resolved. So no, what happened at soccerfest was not part on an ongoing conflict, because that conflict had already been dealt with. What happened at soccerfest was just a group of people making jokes, and having fun, not because of the issues the programs have had in the past.
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