Aurora should implement new sports
Sports play a big part in students lives as they have for many years. Lots of students play at least one sport and there are plenty who play up to 3 sports (or 1 sport per season). Traditionally, students take part in sports such as basketball, volleyball, swimming, etc, but there are tons of new sports Aurora doesn’t have.
After sending a survey out to the high school, 112 people answered some questions about their current and future participation in sports.
Out of the 112 students that answered, 58% of them played a sport already. There was a large range of answers to why they participated in the extracurriculars, mostly including their interest in a certain sport. Some of the more concerning answers were the ones stating “they don’t interest me”, “I didn’t think it would be much fun for me”, and “there aren’t many sports.”
Based on those previously anticipated answers, the next question on my survey asked, from a list of sports, which, if any, of these other/new sports would you consider be taking a part in.
Only 20 of the students selected the “no” option, meaning at least only 17.9% of the students have 0 interest in a sport or maybe just not a new sport.
The highest interest in a sport was for lacrosse, followed by boys volleyball and an almost three way tie between skiing/snowboarding, field hockey, and ultimate frisbee. Yet all of the sports on the list seemed to have enough student interest to start a real team, keeping in mind only 112 people answered the survey out of approximately 920 students currently in Aurora.
Junior Catherine Victor voiced her opinions of waterpolo,
“The sport itself is extremely easy to pick up, but equally challenging to master, as it requires both physical and mental fitness. Although I truly loved playing in games and tournaments, I think that the best part of water polo was the friends that I gained from playing the sport.”
In order to see the change in sports interest, the next question asked if the students would consider playing a sport if these sports were in the Aurora School District.
After seeing the possibility for additional sports, only 11 students continued to have no interest in considering to be involved in a sport. This means 36 more students considered joining a sport who didn’t currently play one. Many students who already played a sport showed an interest in the other sports as well.
Although bowling and skiing/snowboarding clubs exist, many students expressed their concern that it’s not the same. Many of the high school students consider the ski club a “middle school” club, which high schoolers believe they’ve outgrown, but the interest for the sport still exists.
Similarly, students think the bowling club isn’t serious, just a fun club, which does not compete and learn how to get better in.
Starting a new sport in Aurora has never been easy as Paul Powers, the athletic director, explains,
“To start a new sport we would first need to show the Aurora Athletic Department that we have enough student interest to have the sport. Student interest is usually people coming forward with a petition. Once we have the interest we discuss with the superintendent and the Aurora Board of Education if we should offer the new sport. The Board of Education needs to look at funding to be able to offer the sport.”
Still, schools frequently stress the importance of exercise through sports, which also creates a new motivation to work together, put in hard work, and focus on something other than school. With all the benefits of sports and the obvious interest of students to join different sports, wouldn’t it only make sense to try these new sports in Aurora?
