Okay, but on a real note, when have you ever been to a high school girl’s game?

The most overlooked extracurricular activities are usually associated with girls. There were approximately 30 people at the last Watkins Mill High School girls’ soccer home game. Thirty people. That’s beyond embarrassing. Imagine putting as much practice and hard work as the boys’ soccer team and only receiving half the amount of support.

“It hurts to know that we try very hard and we’re not appreciated,” senior girls soccer co-captain Chioma Nwoye said.

Another girl-dominated sport that is overlooked is cheerleading. Most people assume that it is not a sport. Cheerleading is a sport. Having to carry a 110-pound girl should give anyone the right to call that sport a sport.

“We were probably the only empty section of the gym,” junior cheerleader Jalisa Williams said about the number of people that showed up to support the cheer competition. The cheerleaders were hoping to receive the same energy that they give to other sports teams on their competition day. They were disappointed to see how few students attended.

“We cheer for so many other teams and we asked them to show up for one thing and we don’t get it,” senior captain Ashanti Rogers said.

“It’s kind of tough because we [girls] already don’t get recognition in life, especially minority females, so having something that you work hard for be overlooked by your own school really hurts,” Rogers added. Lack of recognition for a sport that includes practice from 3-6pm every day, including weekend practices can be very discouraging.

“Any sport that doesn’t require hitting or running doesn’t mean that it isn’t a sport,” senior field hockey player Ana Rodriguez said. “People don’t come because they say it’s not a sport, but if they picked up a field hockey stick, they wouldn’t know what to do.”

The average practice time for all after-school sports is between two and three hours. If every sport is practicing the same amount, but only one sport gets all the attention, it questions the loyalty of Watkins Mill as a whole.

We, as a school, need to do better in making all athletes feel supported by displaying equal attention to both girls and boys sports.