Palms sweating, sophomore class president Aaron Mayfield waits and hopes that his proposal for the first HCHS basketball team will be approved so that the school will finally have a mainstream sports team. To his dismay, this basketball team will only exist in his dreams.
With the big homecoming games at home campuses in mind, many students yearn for their own football or basketball team, but most do not realize that the school was built in 1984 with one of the goals being to eliminate the distractions caused by team sports.
“Part of the mission was to create a school that was focused on academics and offered some form of athletic opportunities for students but not necessarily the team sports that can be offered at other campuses,” assistant principal Brad Hebert said. “The school was built with the intention of keeping the focus on academics.”
However, this mission has been challenged by some students, including Mayfield, who helped organize a group of students willing to become the school’s first basketball team, and presenting his proposal to administration.
“Initially, the goal of this school may have been to focus on academics and prepare for college, but I believe that we have laid that foundation,” Mayfield said. “And if we continue to excel and prove that we can balance academics in addition to athletics, then we should expand our views to a more well developed athletic program.”
However, some faculty members, such as athletic director Ralph Turner, understand why some sports are not offered.
“In the beginning, as 9th graders, students are so gung-ho about us not having team sports,” Turner said. “But after they’ve been here and they see what it requires to be a student here and be successful, it becomes not as important to them.”
Although football, soccer, basketball, or volleyball are all sports one would not find here, a variety of other athletic outlets, such as intramurals and solo sports like cross country, track, swimming, bowling, tennis, and golf are offered.
“These are all really good sports that require a lot of commitment,” Hebert said. ‘Our students do really well in the sports, and we have great coaches that work with them.”
The school doesn’t provide certain school sports simply because it is looking out for the students’ success, and not because the sports do not contribute anything to high school education.
“If there’s a sport that someone truly loves, I hope they find a place that they can play that sport,” Hebert said. “I don’t want to take someone away from something they truly love.”
However, the school’s lack of team sports has a bright side: The school basketball team is undefeated, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.