Have you ever heard of fans that boo for their own school team?
I’m a soccer player, and at the game against Vallejo HS, the score was 2-0, and the Vallejo team scored another point. A wave of disappointment washed over me, not with my team, but with the students who were supposed to be supporting us. I saw a lot of Mission High students laughing and booing the girls’ team and how we were playing. Even my friends told me they were at stake of being labelled the “worst player’’ of the team, making my teammates feel distracted, unmotivated, and really angry about how the game was going.
It made me mad, I was really frustrated, and I felt how unmotivated my team was, as if our efforts meant nothing to the students who started booing the team. In turn, I felt as though I was playing worse than on a normal day.
This poor behavior by our own peers makes it really difficult to play. I get really discouraged, and the communication among teammates is really difficult during these games.
Girls’ soccer at MHS should be supported because the team works really hard, represents the school with pride, and they deserve the same encouragement and resources as the boys.
As the 11th grade counselor and Girls’ Soccer Coach, Amber Wilson says, “We get new uniforms every few years, the same as the boys, but it seems some sports have more gear, like sweatpants or sweatshirts, and it’s not clear to me how we can get those for other teams. As the coach, I would love to have more girls out there. I think word of mouth is a good way, so it’s helpful when the school community promotes it. Then, as far as game day support, I think the school community is supporting us as much as the boys. We just need to improve our record.”
The girls’ soccer team has fewer resources than the boys’ team. A former student athlete who played girls basketball, Terrance Hubbard, said, ‘’We have way less resources than the boys’ sports do compared to the basketball teams. The boys have more stuff, get new shoes every year, and have five coaches, and the girls’ team couldn’t even have one for the year.’’
I’ve had a similar experience, as I’ve witnessed firsthand over the course of my two years of playing soccer just how many more resources the boys’ soccer team has when directly compared to the girls’ soccer team. Similar to what Terrance Hubbard stated, the boys’ soccer team appears to have new jerseys every year, while the girls’ team has the same ones for 4 years in a row, and the boys’ team seems to have a lot more soccer equipment, like balls, training cones, and extra coaches.
Coach Wilson donates and supports the team by purchasing some equipment with money out of her own pocket, or clubs that she has. Even though it sometimes feels like nobody thinks that we deserve the same things as boys’ soccer, if we had the same resources as the boys’ teams appear to have, it would help an incredible amount and enable us to perform better.
I feel like MHS is the only school that doesn’t support its girls’ soccer team. When Lowell came to MHS to play, more Lowell students were supporting their team than MHS students were supporting us. When I was there playing, I saw a lot of Lowell fans, increasing team morale and enabling them to play better. If we could have the same support, our team would likely play better. At home games, the players and coaches are usually on the opposite side of the fans. They don’t think we hear any of the booing. But we do, and also the security hears the booing. But sometimes security doesn’t do anything unless the coach goes at halftime to talk to the fans.
People are saying we are not good enough in the division that we are in right now. We might not be the best in the city, but we are trying our best to represent our school. Just because we aren’t the best doesn’t mean we shouldn’t receive resources and moral support from our school.
How can we be good enough if you are making the team play worse by yelling at us, booing us, and making senseless bets?
