Being a girl in sports is tiring, being a girl who plays a “boy sport” is frustrating — but asking for the same respect as boys in sports is too much? My bad, I’ll just go back to the kitchen where society tells me I belong.

There have been countless times where the girls’ teams at Vergennes have been proven better than boys’ teams. The girls’ soccer team were State Champions. The girls’ basketball team was 17-5 while the boys were 16-7. The girls’ basketball team had a player score over 1,000 career points — an achievement that had not happened since 2017. And there are many more.

Ever since I was little, I loved basketball. But I’m so sick of being told “The girls’ team isn’t as good as the boys’ team,” or “Your competition is so much easier,” or any other excuse the boys at my school make when we win a game and they don’t. This is all said even though they can’t be bothered to come to a game.

While sports play an important role in many people’s lives, the sad reality is that audiences tend to favor boys’ sports over girls’ sports. This can be noticed in things like social media posts, the number of people that attend games, and the amount of respect boys’ sports get.

Don Lugo is a school in California with a website called Quest News. Quest News states that the girls’ basketball team at their school is getting pushed aside just because they are not winning as much as the boys’ team, and that their crowd is only half the size of the crowd at boys’ games. If Don Lugo High School is anything like our school, I could bet the girls go to all the boys’ games, but the boys couldn’t even go to one.

I know it’s not just me that feels this way. I’ve talked to my team about it and we all agree that it definitely helps our energy level go up when there are more people in the crowd cheering us on. In our very first game the stands were packed. We were shocked, but it helped because we only ended up losing by two to the hardest team in our division. We hoped there would be that many people the rest of the season, but that was not the case. Our girls’ varsity team made it to Barre this year. The student section only had about 20 people in it. Later this season, the boys went to Barre. Our student section was more than double the size.

And look, I get it, boys’ sports can be more intense, but I still think we could give the girls teams the same love and respect we give the boys teams. Girls are changing the game, a game boys thought they owned. A game that needs more girls than ever.

Girls’ sports want the same respect boys’ sports gets. It’s not a huge thing to ask. You can start by just going to a Friday night game.

A Concerned Middle Schooler
VUMS Student

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Students at Vergennes Union Middle School finished a civics unit by writing open letters. The driving question was: What makes democracy work? To create this final project, teachers and students used the New York Times open letter contest framework. Students could choose any topic they felt passionate about. The letters are being published in several different venues: in our school newsletter, on Front Porch Forum, in The Addison Independent, and on school bulletin boards. Two students submitted their letters to the NYT contest! Our students did a wonderful job writing these letters, and we hope you enjoy reading the ones that appear here. We expect these students will continue to use their voices to highlight issues they care about!

Libby Payeur and Nan Guilmette
VUMS Humanities Teachers