Students have often wondered why Hamburg lacks certain sports, especially ones that they think lots of students would be interested in. At first glance it may seem silly that we do not have these sports, at least until students look into the logistics of it. Some sports we do not have are swimming and rifle, which are rarer sports to have at a school. Some of the more common sports missing are volleyball and lacrosse.
When interviewed Hamburg’s athletic director, Mr. Menapace, said that there are just not enough girls that play sports that could fill up all teams. Since girls volleyball takes place in the fall, that would take girls away from soccer, tennis, golf, and cross country. Some of those sports barely have enough to fill a team as it is, and the same goes if lacrosse was added. He also mentioned that some of these sports may be fun to play in places like gym class, but not many will be dedicated to them for an entire season. Menapace emphasized that it is a population problem, especially since the percentage of students and athletes has been decreasing over the years. Students must ask themselves the question, where are we getting 25 players without taking them all from other sports teams.
Another complication is finding space for additional teams to practice. Fields would need to be added and there is not a budget for that. Menapace also added that in all his years at Hamburg, he has never seen enough participation where this would be possible. Instead, Menapace mentioned that he once got closer to cutting a sport than adding one. Menapace suggests that if students feel very passionate about wanting to do one of those sports then they should start a club and pracice every day for two hours for weeks and then maybe there can be a discussion.
Ryan Gebely, school board president, agrees with Menapace that at the moment there just are not enough kids involved in sports to add additional teams. Another thing Gebely added is that today more than ever some kids are five sport athletes because they may play sports for school year round but also do year round sports out of school and club sports year round which may take kids away from a potential extra sport at Hamburg. Gebely did add that if kids wanted to start, for example, a volleyball team and get a petition signed with enough students signatures it may be up for discussion.
In the future of Hamburg if a students wants sport added, it will all come down to how dedicated and how much they want it.
