It’s no secret that football is one of the most popular sports in America. Football is the sport that garners so much support and promotes the most school spirit, but this year’s game schedule makes it hard to go support the team.
Many students here at HP were disappointed when the schedule was revealed and we only had two home games on Friday. Students were even more disappointed when that first home game against Fremont was rescheduled to a Thursday because of extreme weather.
We play a total of 10 games this season and even though there’s an even split between Thursday and Friday games most of our Friday games are away which discourages students from going to support the team.
The schedule is especially disappointing for this year’s seniors as it’s their last year before heading off to college.
I myself planned on going to as many games as I could this season before I go off to college but I can’t justify going to all our games on Thursdays and off our field to my parents.
However, I have friends who went to the Fremont game Thursday and they came back on Friday tired and unmotivated so imagine how the athletes feel every week.
In previous years it felt like there was more excitement around the games because people were more inclined to go if the games were on Friday and on our home field.
Looking at last year’s schedule we had 5 Friday home games which is a huge difference when compared to this year’s 1 Friday home game. And when looking at the number of Thursday games we have, last year we only had 3 and this year we have 5.
The schedule doesn’t just affect student turnout, it also affects the players who have to travel to games and show up to school the next day when the games take place on Thursdays.
Students don’t get back home until around 11 o’clock both mentally and physically tired. It’s unfair to these athletes to have to get up the next day for school after they’ve played a game. Having a couple Thursday games is fine but half of our games being on Thursday undoubtedly affects the lives of our athletes.
They’re not able to put in their best work if they’re exhausted. The football season lasts about 2 months meaning that for all that time our student athletes are having their academic and personal lives affected by the game schedule.
Our athletes work so hard throughout the season, practicing tirelessly after school to bring home as many wins as possible. I know a lot of time goes into creating a working schedule not just for our school but for all schools in our division, it’s not easy to schedule everything 50/50, but more thought needs to be put into how the schedule affects athletes and their peers. We owe it to the students for all the work they put in.
Written by: Logan Gonzalez, Staff Writer