Monte Vista, a school surrounded by sports, has a persistent issue with not recognizing some sports, especially those that bring home the wins.
Some say that golf, wrestling, track and field, tennis, and numerous other sports that are not as mainstream as football are dismissed and overlooked. Many “forgotten” sports at MV have performed remarkably in past years, while the sports that receive the most attention and funding seem to be lower in the ranks at MV when it comes to performance records.
Recently (as of date), the Monte Vista Football team received brand-new helmets, along with a brand-new football field (built during the summer of 2022) estimated at close to half a million dollars. At the same time, the cheer team received new cheer uniforms and the baseball team is in the process of receiving new jerseys. While it is important to provide these sports with the necessary equipment, new jerseys don’t seem to be as necessary as other equipment that overlooked sports are in need of and don’t have.
A lot of these sports receive little to no recognition from MV students. Hardly any fans attend track meets, tennis matches, golf matches, swim meets, etc. All these listed sports have consistently won for years, with all of them qualifying for NCS in their seasons during the 2022-2023 school year. However, some of the crowd-attracting sports have been struggling to bring home wins in recent years, ending the 2022 season with a record of 2-8.
“Our team has amazing records compared to any other school and has so many athletes that aren’t recognized to the extent that other sports do,” said Monte Vista Senior Varsity track runner Natalia McGowan.
During the 2023 season, Monte Vista track and field sent twelve athletes to the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF) State Championship, further breaking 6 school records during their season. One school record to highlight is former Monte Vista senior Ethan Miller, who ran an 8:56.86 in the 3200 meters, the fastest known 3200m in the East Bay Athletic League (EBAL) history.
Not only did Track and Field attain great accomplishments, but so did many other underappreciated sports. The Women’s Beach Volleyball, Women’s Tennis Team, and Women’s Golf team all completed their 22/23 seasons undefeated. Women’s Swim took home third place at The North Coast Section (NCS) meet and Men’s placed fifth in NCS during the 2023 season.
Not only do track runners struggle to gain the recognition that they deserve, but they also don’t get as much field and weight room time, as they are considered “out of season”. However, they still need to train during their off-season. While track can’t train in the weight room out of season, football has no issues using the weight room for their workouts all year round.
The difference in recognition across sports at MV begs the question, is this fair? The answer to this question simply depends on who you ask.
“If school funding goes towards one sport more than another, it’s unfair to the sports that aren’t getting money for the things that they need,” said Monte Vista Varsity Baseball Player Liam Clay.
Rather than allocating money only to the sports that have fans, school funding should be either distributed equally or distributed based on which sport has the most significant need for new equipment. Track and Cross Country recently had their track re-done, but only because football received a new field. At the same time, tennis struggles to play on cracked and unlit courts, causing injuries, interference with the game, and the inability to continue playing when it gets dark. Beach Volleyball and Golf also don’t even get to practice on the Monte Vista campus, but rather at off-campus locations which may be far.
Another factor in the fairness of the allocation of resources is the distribution of athletic trainers across different sports. While some sports may be more injury-prone than others, any athlete in any sport can get injured. But what can they do about it if there is no one experienced with injuries to help? The school needs to also allocate some of its money towards hiring more athletic trainers, who can be on-campus whenever any sport has a game, rather than just when the more injury-prone sports play.
There have been various times when some sports, such as tennis, experienced injuries where there was no one to help treat the injury, not even in the athletic trainer’s office.
Athletes, Monte Vista, and the San Ramon Valley School District are in dire need of reimagining the way that they allocate funding across the sports and athletic training department, fairness with the funding needs to be ensured.
Monte Vista Students should also focus on supporting a greater variety of sports games, rather than just attending football games. Even if it means simply congratulating an athlete on a win, following the sport’s Instagram accounts, or watching a game or two, even if for just ten minutes. All athletes across the school should be receiving the recognition that they deserve, especially when they’re the ones bringing home the big wins.
