Opinion

Opinion: Smaller Sports Deserve More Appreciation

Larkin Tackett, In-Depth Editor • January 24, 2025

The JV, Junior Varsity, Wadsworth High School Girls Tennis team doing their team chant after their game. The team practice and competes at the tennis courts near the Wadsworth Middle School. Photo courtesy of Claire Harig.

Lesser known and smaller sports deserve more appreciation from the community. Sports such as tennis, gymnastics and bowling lack community members and other student’s support at their matches, meets and games. Staff, students and the community need to support each other by going to school events.
“We don’t get any of the spotlight, usually, like how basketball and football do,” said Ava Greenlees, a sophomore Junior Varsity tennis player at Wadsworth High School, WHS.
Most athletes in sports that are less valued at WHS feel that their sport is pushed to the side, so the other, bigger sports have the spotlight.
For example, the gymnastics team is constantly posting about their events on social media platforms. However, these announcements do not seem to get the word out about the competitions, tryouts, and meetings.

**Nathan Weyand is bowling during a match at Kolony Bowl lanes. The Wadsworth High School Bowling team receives much support from the owners of Kolony Bowl.** *Photo courtesy of Eddie Pustay.*

“No matter how much info we send out about our events still it’s only really parents that show up,” said Cora Robinson, a sophomore and Varsity gymnast at WHS. “A lot of people at the school don’t even know about so many of the smaller sports, it’s sad.”
The majority of coaches of lesser-known sports feel that their athletes are less supported by their peers within the school.
“It’d be nice to see more students finding out about what the bowling team is and that is coming to a match,” said George Steele, Wadsworth High School’s boy’s bowling coach.
The support of these teams is vital to their success. When there is a lack of support, the athletes are discouraged and do not perform to their best abilities.
“It would help a lot if more of the community came to our events,” Robinson said.
Large and highly appreciated sports get much more recognition through media outlets and the community. They post more about large sports and what they are doing, rather than small sports.
“We don’t have as many opportunities to get those recognitions,” Steele said.

The student-run Wadsworth barstool accounts, which bring excitement to students for upcoming sports games, usually do not post about the smaller sports as they do for large and popular sports at the high school. Some sports are left out and isolated from the rest of the high school’s sports community.
“It would help a lot if more of the community came to our events,” Robinson said
The teams are not included in the sportsmanship of the rest of the school, and that is detrimental to the athlete and coach’s confidence.
“More people coming to watch us would be cool because we usually don’t get many people,” Greenlees said. “People should bring their friends to come to watch us, and to support us because we don’t get enough attention.”
Beyond more community members showing up to more games, some smaller team’s equipment is being disrespected. For example, the gymnastics team’s mats are being used by other sports teams.

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Also, some smaller sports have to go practice at a different location, other than WHS. The bowling team does not have its own lanes, so they have to practice at Kolony Bowl and the gymnastics team cannot use the gym full time, so they have to practice at Power House Gymnastics.
“It is kind of annoying having to drive there every day, which is something most sports don’t have to do,” Robinson said. “I understand that we use a lot more equipment than most sports, but it still feels like we’re being left out from all the other bigger sports groups.”
When these students are in small environments of people, they tend to get closer to each other, rather than being in the outside sports world.

**The JV, Junior Varsity, Wadsworth High School Girls Tennis team doing their team chant after their game. The team practice and competes at the tennis courts near the Wadsworth Middle School.** *Photo courtesy of Claire Harig.*

“Being in a smaller sport the overall environment is different,” Robinson said. “In a small group, everybody is a lot closer, whereas in a more popular sport, there might be people on the team you don’t even know the name of.”
All sports schedules are on the Grizzlies Athletics page under the calendar of events. More members of the community should support smaller sports.
Go to whsgrizzlies.com to learn more about and support these small sports teams.

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About the Contributor

Larkin Tackett, In-depth Editor

Larkin Tackett is a junior at Wadsworth High School, and she has been on the Bruin staff for over two years. In her freshman year, she took the Newspaper/Yearbook I class, and by April, she was accepted to the staff. In her sophomore year, she was a staff writer, involved in each in-print issue, social media, and website. In her junior year, she is the In-Depth editor, involved in the in-print, online, and social media, while helping the staff writers and other editors write stories efficiently. For her senior year, she hopes that she will become the in-print editor-in-chief, hopefully with her friend Aaliyah as a co-chief and Noah as the online and social media editor-in-chief. Larkin's favorite part of The Bruin is hanging out with the other staff and educating the public about new news. She loves collaborating with students with differing ideas from her own.