On Tuesday, Nov. 29, our social chairs, Charles (Chaz) Zayed and Will DeAngelis, released a brand new hype video featuring a private jet and the men’s varsity basketball team exiting the plane.

The hype video phenomenon has become a huge hit within the school and other schools in the area in the past few years. The purpose of these videos is to excite students and staff, and bring the student body together to support our incredibly gifted athletes.

That being said, this video, and unfortunately many others, are missing an integral part of the student body: our female athletes.

At a regular men’s varsity game, there is a massive turnout with the majority of the school showing up. But if you attend a women’s varsity basketball game, you would notice a much smaller crowd, mainly of parents and families, rather than groups of friends decked out in spirit wear.

 “I think it’s a bit unfair knowing that as varsity athletes, girls receive less recognition than boys. We work hard year round just like they do so it’s often disappointing to not get the same recognition,” said Riley Burr, senior and co-captain of the women’s varsity basketball team. “I personally think hype videos are a great way to bring the student body together and promote the team. I think if girls varsity sports were advertised a little bit more, it would attract more fans to the games and promote girls athletics.”

It is unfair, as Burr put it, to seemingly ignore a huge part of not just athletics, but the whole student body. Some sports don’t have a women’s team, like football for example. At the same time however, that doesn’t give the creators of the hype videos the right to exclude female athletes and female non-athletes from their projects.

“I think overall when it comes to hyping people up, they do a pretty good job, but I definitely don’t think they pay equal attention to sporting events of different genders and different types of people. If I could change anything, that would be it,” said Josh Lange, sophomore basketball and volleyball player. 

Not everyone is going to like every hype video produced nor will everybody agree on certain aspects of the video or how it portrays our school, but the lack of female representation is becoming more and more visible. Including a variety of students, not just senior boys and student council, should be an absolute priority that we should all strive for starting with our social chairs. Their voices reach everybody in our school and they have the opportunity to create a more inclusive environment.

In my opinion, waiting for a female varsity basketball player to step out of a private jet is absolutely ridiculous, especially when you consider how far women have come in the past century. If our social chairs are going to talk about including everybody at games and major school events, they should be doing the same. This doesn’t just go for basketball season either. Volleyball, soccer, lacrosse, etc. Practice what you preach.