With winter sports drawing to a close, many student-athletes at Mamaroneck High School find themselves feeling disappointed.
Although most are ready for the break following the end of their sporting season, there are always the determined few that dread the months-long wait for the return of their favorite activity. Luckily, many opportunities are available for students to get involved in sports outside of the high school, via various club, travel, and other outside teams. These opportunities are known as outside agency.
However, only certain sports (such as rowing, gymnastics, etc) are represented in the outside agency option, leaving many soccer and football players with fewer choices if they want to spend their off-season playing sports. Needless to say, this needs to change. Athletes that want to continue to participate should be given the option, and students across the board would benefit from an increase in sporting opportunities.
Athletes’ options during their off-season aren’t the only things that would be improved by increasing outside agency. According to Aaron Weinbach (‘23), a member of the MHS wrestling team, the athletes themselves would benefit from experiencing this kind of training. “I think the school just doesn’t have the facilities to properly train certain sports and make it enjoyable. Due to this, outside agency sports are something that should have as many possible opportunities as the school can arrange.” Unfortunately, the school simply doesn’t have the kind of resources that a private organization would, which prevents athletes from reaching their full potential. By allowing students to access outside agencies during their off-seasons, teams would grow stronger and more experienced and would overall improve in both skill and understanding.
Of course, bringing more outside agency into the school isn’t free. There are fees involved when joining any sports club or organization, which may cause issues for some families. However, the kind of benefits that students would take away from increased athletics would far outweigh the cost of equipment or an annual fee. Sam Gatti (‘24), a member of the MHS girls’ soccer team, agrees with this, saying, “[Outside agency] grants athletes [an] opportunity to do other sports in their off-season that are not held in the school, like indoor tennis or indoor soccer.” Gatti goes on to explain that outside agencies would also give students that didn’t make the school team a chance to participate in the sports they love. Although the price may become an obstacle in certain cases, the broad takeaway is that there are way too many benefits to ignore.
Overall, it’s important that we support our student-athletes by increasing the outside agency available to them. For many athletes at MHS, the off-season can be a very difficult period. Diminishing that time in any way possible would only serve to make our students happier and more fulfilled.