written by journalism student Jasmine Drake

            Imagine being at a Clarksville boys’ varsity basketball game, on a Friday night, the seats are completely filled, people are cheering as their peers are running back and forth on the court. One of the boys makes a 3-point shot, everyone jumps up from their seat,  cheering and screaming with joy. The cheerleaders do their routine, flipping and jumping around. Everyone is excited, and thrilled Clarksville is winning. All they can do is smile and cheer. At half-time the line is long with people waiting at the concession stand, and music plays over the speaker in the gym as players practice free throws. The room is filled with excitement and joy, people are laughing and chatting with their friends, even people only seen passing you in the hallways are attending the game, everyone. Now, imagine a girls’ varsity basketball game, the seats are completely empty, maybe a couple parents of the girls playing, but other than that no one is showing up. The girls are losing by 20, and no one is cheering, not even the cheerleaders are there. The gym is dull and boring. That is how the girls’ games go, no one wants to come out and support the girls, ever, and we need to fix that.

        It is a pretty sad thing when everyone can show up to a boys’ game, meet with their friends and have a nice time, but can’t do the same for a girl’s game. Most people say it is because the girls never win games, so what’s the point? Well, if that was the case people would stop attending the football games, last time I checked, the Clarksville football team won less than 5 games this season and last, but people can still attend those games. Or people say, “Well the girls games aren’t any fun, so what’s the point?” Well, maybe if people started coming, and cheering at the games it would be more fun.

        People should show up to the girls games. The cheerleaders don’t come every game and cheer; now that is saying something. It is showing the girls that people just don’t care enough about them, and that is definitely not true. I feel that the girls are just important, if not more than the boys. Why should the boys have all the attention, all the recognition, when the girls are putting in just as much work and effort as the boys are? So people need to start attending the girl’s games to make the girls feel like they matter, that they are working hard hard. But all that hard work is going into no one showing up at their games, and people making fun of them. This needs to stop; we need to show the girls that they matter also.