Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash
By Preston Blake
In most, if not all, high schools and colleges across the united states, sports play a very large and fundamental role in the college atmosphere, and Skagit valley college is not an exception to that. For many students, school sports provide an enriching experience that can provide them with many opportunities such as possible future careers, or perhaps the student is just looking for some fun with a sense of comradery with teammates. Whatever the reason over 8 million students yearly take part in school sports. However, not all students choose to pursue this avenue instead opting for other things to occupy their time. With a strong sports culture present, how do students who aren’t involved in sports feel about them specifically at SVC?
The cardinal newspaper talked to two of Skagit’s students who have never been involved with any sort of school sport. Jocelyn Acosta who has been attending Skagit for almost two years and is heavily involved in the theatre community around the Skagit county area, and Weston Kerkoff who has also been at Skagit for about two years and is a computer science major. Neither of them has ever attended a game at Skagit valley college so both of their views are from the outside of the sports community looking in. They were asked what they thought about the sports teams and athletic department at Skagit and to share their thoughts if they had any knowledge on the subject. Weston responded with “I don’t really have any opinions on the sports here at Skagit, I haven’t really heard much about them at all”. Jocelyn responded with “I think it’s awesome if you are interested in sports, I think it’s amazing the number of sports offered at Skagit and I think if its something you’re even a little bit interested in you should definitely go participate!”. When informed about the yearly budget of Skagit valley college they were asked whether or not they thought the athletic department should get more or less funding. Weston responded “I think it should probably get more funding, if an average student like myself knows so little about them, they should probably get more funding to get their name out there more and better market themselves”. Jocelyn responded saying “The athletic department seems to get the proper funding to keep it alive and people really love it, I do however think the drama department and other artistic avenues deserve more funding. I hope that’s something we will see in the next 10 years, is more funding for the artistic departments offered at Skagit”.
So here there are two students who have never partaken in sports at Skagit with two different looks on them. On one hand, there is someone who thinks the athletics/sports department should get more funding at least to him, they haven’t marketed themselves very well and he is not the only one to say that. Out of 27 students in a chemistry 121 class at svc who were asked by the writer if they have heard about sports return to svc or if they ever been to or wanted to go to any games before the pandemic, 16 said they had not heard anything about any sports nor did they know what time they were being held, where to find them or in the current case how to watch them at home, they knew they existed but did not know significant information such as the team names, game dates or important news. On the other hand, there is a student who has heard minimum information about sports at Skagit but believes they deserve the funding they are getting but not necessarily receive more. Between the two there lays one common issue and that being a lack of information provided to them about what sports at Skagit have to offer them as possible fans.
When asked how do nonathlete students feel about sports at svc, it’s hard to find someone who knows enough about sports that dont play them to get a solid answer. From consensus, it seems not many students at Skagit who aren’t directly involved in the athletics field know much about it which is truly the same because Skagit has many sports with many wonderful players that all cardinals can feel proud to have represent their school. If the athletics department wants more cardinals to get involved and watch and root for their favorite cardinals then they need to consider some severe marketing of their teams and how to watch them right now during the pandemic. Although the content of this article cant speak for all students, it shows that there is at least a good portion of students who aren’t aware of the sports culture present at Skagit valley college.
