I feel as though that our school and the West Shore community does not put enough energy and support into our sports teams as we should. I feel that academics are a very important part in our lives and that we should all take our education very seriously, but as a school and as a community we should get behind our student-athletes and show how good of a school we are. We strive to be the best when it comes to our academics, so why shouldn’t we strive to be the best in our sports?

As a student-athlete myself, I know I play better when there is a big crowd of my fellow West Shore students at the soccer games because I don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone. This is one of the reasons I feel we as a class and as a school should get behind our sports teams. I think more athletes, no matter the sport, would be more motivated to play harder and to play better when their fellow classmates are their watching them.

Team sports can help an individual gain team bonding and also teach someone how to work with other people, all of which these skills can be transferred into the classroom. I feel like as a school we tend to place sports at the bottom of our list when really we should put it near the top. High-school sports give us students a chance to interact with other students and help us create friendships.

By Cooper Stein