Benilde-St. Margaret’s is filled with multiple high-achieving sports teams. What some people forget, however, is that there are some teams that don’t get the same level of attention and glory. Although these sports may not get a lot of fans or “attention,” that doesn’t stop them from being successful.
The BSM Alpine Ski Team is one sport that has been very successful but isn’t talked about or mentioned a lot. The team works just as hard as any other sport but often doesn’t get the recognition for it. “I think it bothers a couple of the team members because we put in a lot of hard work and we’ve been improving so much, but no one knows we win a lot,” senior captain Elisabeth Malrait said.
Although the Alpine team gets a little frustrated about the recognition and attendance in their sporting events, they do understand there are some factors that lead to it. “It’s hard because where we race isn’t close by. Highlands is close which is where we practice, but that’s not where we race; it’s like a 30-minute drive at least,” Malrait said
The BSM swim team has been very successful recently by sending at least two or three people to the state tournament every year. Since swimming is more of an individual sport, the team itself doesn’t get recognized enough. “People don’t really see swimming as a popular sport. It’s not like football and soccer where there’s like weekly games; it’s kind of just hidden in the dark and other sports are put ahead of it,” senior captain Elizabeth Long said.
People don’t really see swimming as a popular sport. It’s not like football and soccer where there’s like weekly games; it’s kind of just hidden in the dark and other sports are put ahead of it.”
— Elizabeth Long
Since these two sports mainly focus on how you perform as an individual, and less on competing as a team, they understand why a lot of people don’t attend their events. “It’s kind of an individual sport, which is why it’s hard to get a lot of… fans to come,” senior Grace Horejsi said.
Along with Swimming and Alpine, the girl’s tennis team has had a lot of success these past few years. Similar to swimming, they always have at least 1 or 2 people representing their team in the state tournament. The team feels that it is unfair that the whole school gets out for soccer, basketball, and volleyball for example, but not tennis “I think that everyone should be dismissed because I feel like if we’re gonna get out for some sports then I feel like we should get release[d] for tennis,” senior Shale Hornig said.