If You Build It, They Will Come

by Emily Siansky ’22

Just by appearance, the baseball and softball teams’ facilities illustrate a drastic difference between girls and boys sports at Sherwood. The baseball field sits right next to the football stadium. Being so close to the school allows for better amenities and experiences. On the other hand, the softball field is easily missed; it’s at the very back of the school. Players and spectators need to walk on the grass through the practice fields behind the tennis courts to reach the field.

Building better facilities and getting the money to do so comes only in part from the county. Instead, coaches and players have to find ways to fundraise for themselves. Beginning in the 1990s under coach Billy Goodman, baseball started a tradition of fundraising for the program. Baseball coach Sean Davis played at Sherwood and saw firsthand how to fundraise for the program. “When I took over in 2011, I kind of continued along that same mindset. The extra bells and whistles such as the pressbox came from a lot of extra fundraising and a lot of alumni support,” said Davis.

Softball has not had the same fundraising history as baseball. Before softball coach Ashley Barber became head coach, “there was not a dime to softball’s name.” The coach prior to Barber relied mainly on donations from The Warrior Club, an organization of parent members and volunteers that historically is more willing to help a team that is showing its own efforts at fundraising.

Sometimes, parents of players on the team take the initiative to make needed upgrades. In the fall of 2019, parents brought in BobcatS175s to tear down decrepit dugouts at the softball field and build longer and widers ones to better accommodate the players on both teams.

Athletic Director Jason Woodward makes it a priority that county and school athletic funds are distributed equally among the boys and girls sports at Sherwood. “As far as the two facilities, especially since Mr. Woodward came in, when something is done to one field, the same thing is done to the other,” commented Barber.

Athletic Director Jason Woodward makes it a priority that county and school athletic funds are distributed equally among the boys and girls sports at Sherwood. “As far as the two facilities, especially since Mr. Woodward came in, when something is done to one field, the same thing is done to the other,” commented Barber.

Students Missing Out on the Success of Girls Athletics

by Tori Newby and Maddie Tringone ‘22

Students pose for a photo at a football game (left, taken by Jason Woodward) and a girls soccer game (right, taken by Maddie Tringone ’22).

With loud student sections and themed spirit days, it’s no secret that boys athletics are much more celebrated and advocated for in comparison to girls athletics. Boys basketball and football are the most highly attended sporting events at Sherwood, according to The Fiscal Year (FY) Athletic Financial Reports 2018-2021, with no girls sport coming close to attracting a comparable number of fans. However, the countywide and schoolwide athletic directors are doing their part to ensure that athletics are equitable, and the responsibility for the disparity between boys and girls athletics lies in the hands of students themselves.

According to the financial reports, boys soccer, basketball, and lacrosse received a combined $9,195 in gate receipts (ticket sales) in the 2018-2019 school year (pre-pandemic) and $6,581 in 2019-2020. Girls teams of those same sports received a combined $5,130 in 2018-2019 and $3,536 in 2019-2020. Football alone received $13,899 in gate receipts in 2018-2019 and $23,374 in 2019-2020.

“There are a lot of different ways to read into the data,” said Athletic Director Jason Woodward. “It could [be attributed] to who our opponents were. Truth be told … if the teams were winning fans come out. They do tend to support the boys team more than the girls team, depending on how the season’s going … It’s a matter of students making the choice to come to the boys game versus the girls games.”

According to Woodward, the scheduling for MCPS athletics is done centrally by the county, and over the course of two years, boys and girls teams of the same sport play approximately the same number of home games. Woodward uses the athletic department funds to spend similar amounts of money on girls and boys teams each year, with the exception being football, whose equipment is required to be conditioned each year.

School-related accounts, such as the schoolwide SGA Instagram account @sherwoodsga, post promotional edits for primarily football and boys basketball games, which are often re-posted on students’ personal accounts. According to SGA vice president Ariana Welch, SGA focuses on posting about games with student section themes to promote school spirit, but the reality is that many girls teams do not have student section themes precisely because of low fan attendance at their games.

Welch noted that members of the varsity football and boys basketball teams approached SGA and asked them to promote their events. As captain of girls varsity soccer, Welch noted that attempts to garner support via social media for her own team had little impact on attendance. “I do agree that we need to advertise for both genders,” said Welch. “I just don’t know how much of a difference that would make.”

Senior girls varsity volleyball captain Sophia Kluska said her team was unaware that in order to be promoted on the SGA account, they needed to contact the officers for every game. After contacting SGA multiple times later in the season about posting for the volleyball team, Kluska was disappointed that SGA “added fine print to one of the football promotion posts on social media’’ for the volleyball state quarterfinal game. “I’m not saying that one social media post would have a huge impact on the size of our student section, but the principle of girls sports having the same level of support as the boys is important to me,” said Kluska.

The success of girls teams does not necessarily translate to more students and community members attending their games. Girls varsity volleyball finished the regular season this past fall with a 14-0 record and the postseason with a record of 18-1. “We made it to state semifinals, undefeated, while barely having a student section,” said senior captain Morgan Conner, who attributes the low attendance to students’ “internalized misogyny due to the fact that we play a women’s sport.”

Woodward runs a twitter account called @WarriorResults to promote each team and provide updates and final scores of each sporting event at Sherwood. However, such efforts to promote all teams do not overcome the fact that football and boys basketball are popular social events for the school community; many students attend for the social atmosphere rather than primarily to watch the sport. Regardless, girls teams work just as hard as their male counterparts with similar practice schedules and often have similar or better records, but they do not get the reward of as many spectators at their games.

At many football games this past fall, most of the student section disappeared after halftime to find new places to socialize. “I didn’t enjoy the feeling knowing that people left the game and didn’t watch us go out there to represent Sherwood and to win, knowing all the hard work and countless hours we’ve put in,” said senior Nathan Natoli, who is a varsity football and boys basketball captain. “I feel bad for the girls because they put in a lot of time and effort, and I feel that they should have support at all of their games as well.”

Although many girls sports at Sherwood are highly successful–girls varsity soccer, field hockey, volleyball, and cheerleading all made it to state quarterfinals or beyond in the 2021 fall season–some still find watching girls athletics less appealing.
“I love watching both girls and boys sports, and I think they’re equally as entertaining, but the only thing I could think of would be that in some boys sports, the pace is faster,” said senior boys varsity basketball captain Donovan Prophet.

The concept of boys sports being more entertaining and more attended goes further than just high school athletics. For one of countless examples across collegiate and professional sports, in the 2019 professional basketball season, the NBA had an average of 18,000 attendees per game whereas the WNBA averaged 6,768 attendees. Mirroring this disparity, the revenue made from the 2019 NBA season was $7.4 billion while the WNBA made $60 million.

“[Unequal support] is a glaring issue; that does need to be addressed. [Girls and boys athletics] should be promoted equally,” said Woodward. “Do I think it needs to be equitable and fair? One hundred percent yes.”