Let’s set the scene: a Dice sports team has just won it’s 18th consecutive City Championship, a number so high that the team members and coaches aren’t even sure if the number 18 is accurate anymore because they’ve lost count. Both boys and girls teams absolutely dominated their respective championships, obliterating the competition. They accept their respective trophies and medals, and turn to celebrate with their teammates. Here’s where you expect them to be mobbed by their legions of adoring friends and fans, right? Unfortunately, that scene was the Cross Country Championships, and there were no friends and fans. Allderdice sports have been party to a staggering trend in the past five or so years: the most consistently successful teams (with soccer being an exception) are the ones… that nobody cares about?

If The Foreword walked around the halls and asked how good students thought the girls’ ultimate frisbee team is, odds are good that roughly half of them wouldn’t have the first clue, but if you asked them about the football team, everybody would know that the Dragons and their vaunted Loko-D have seen better days. Guess what? The girls ultimate frisbee team that nobody pays attention to is ranked fourth in the entire country.

The entire country.

It’s a shame that these smaller sports, while unquestionably successful, aren’t cheered on or congratulated the way the football and basketball teams are. Imagine how much fun it would be to have a gigantic crowd at an ultimate frisbee game: the sport is nearly identical to football, except it’s even faster moving! If the student body can get excited for a game featuring our football team, they should be ten times as excited about a similar sport where the team is competing at a much higher level.

Now, The Foreword understands that some of these sports aren’t necessarily spectator sports. For instance, the crew team would have a hard time getting people out to a crew race primarily because it’s not an easy sport to watch. That’s a reasonable qualm. However, what’s completely UNreasonable is the lack of acknowledgement that they receive for the hard work and dedication they put into their sport.

How about the girls tennis team? Do you know about the sheer domination they exert during their season and playoffs? How about Sophomore Hannah Famili getting to the quarterfinals of her PIAA State Championship bracket as only a tenth grader? She’s got two more years to improve and reach farther and farther towards a state championship. If you ask The Foreword, that’s far more exciting than reading about the football team’s most recent loss.

The point of this article is not to degrade the importance (or the skill, or the dedication, or the effort) of the football team. The Foreword has the utmost respect for Loko-D and the time the players put into their season. The point is that the student body has a ton of school spirit; instead of using it all up on the football and basketball teams, it should be spread evenly among all the athletic endeavors being tackled around Dice. You’ll be surprised how good our school is.