The growing popularity of high school athletics

By Sophie Newell

Participating in a school sport has been a staple in American youth for decades. Interscholastic athletics was introduced by the students of Worcester, Massachusetts high school in 1859. 

They had banded together in order to form a baseball team, which included them recruiting nonstudents to the team, this action caused the school administrators to take control over the athletics. 

According to an encyclopedia.com article Interscholastic Athletics, with the goal of preventing America’s youth from affiliation with gangs, people figured that bringing athletics to school would not only occupy their time but also produce productive adults.

 Luther Gulick, Director of Physical Education in New York City, created the PSAL (Public School Athletic League) in 1903. 

These ideals were adopted by dozens of American cities, including Washington D.C.; this is where Edwin B. Henderson introduced it to the District’s segregated schools. Soon after in 1906, Gulick followed with his assistant Elizabeth Burchenal to create the girls’ branch of the PSAL.

Due to the pressure put on girls at the time to be molded into refined young ladies, there was a clear difference between the amount of male and female athletes, this is still occurring today. 

With the constantly growing commonality of most sports, you wouldn’t be surprised if someone said they play football or soccer, but what if someone told you they were on their school’s rodeo team or surf team?

The game of American football was introduced to high schools in 1875 when the Norwich free academy and Bulkeley school for boys played the first high school football game. Since then football has brought people together for the enjoyment of the game. 

Since then, there are roughly 1,093,234 high school football players in the U.S. making it the most popular sport for high school boys in America. 

Track and field have been the most popular sport for high school girls for several years, with a total of around 488,267 participants. 

But what about some of the odd sports, the ones you don’t hear about, or even know that they exist? One example of these strange sports is Broomball.

Broomball, a game played on ice similar to hockey, originated in Canada making its way to America in the 1930s.  First spreading to colder states like Minnesota, Broomball became quite popular. Played in three fifteen-minute periods, there are six players on the ice at once a goalie, two defensemen, and three forwards. 

But what about Oakmont, how have our sports enrollments changed over the years? 

Edward Fitzgerald, assistant athletic director at Oakmont Regional High School, says he has noticed the largest increase in lacrosse. Saying from the beginning of its time at Oakmont to now we have gone from scraping for players to have a surplus of them. 

When asked if he thought we might lose a sports team that might leave Oakmont, Fitzgerald said he was most worried about the indoor track team. This was not fully because of numbers but mostly because of space and expenses. Due to the fact that Oakmont does not have an indoor track we don’t have too much space for the team.

Although Fitzgerald said that numbers in our sports do come in waves, saying there have been years the football teams have had too many players and too few players. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did notice a lack of kids playing sports, but we have definitely come back from that. 

Oakmont Regional High School is known for its flourishing athletics program, and although we might notice a couple of bumps in the road with participation in some sports, it will never take away from the rich history and upcoming future of sports at Oakmont.