By: Henry Chiles (282)
Central offers an impressively diverse array of sports to play. What other school has official golf, football, cheerleading, badminton, wrestling, and bowling teams? The amount of options available for every Central athlete is great, but unfortunately it also creates many challenges. Each sports team at Central is affected by frustrating external factors that hinder a student athlete’s ability to play and succeed.
For instance, most teams do not have access to the necessary field or court their sport requires. For example, the bowling team needs to take the bus to a bowling alley for practices and games. Dezlen Long (282), a member of the bowling team, is angered by the lack of support his team receives, remarking, “it sucks because we have to go and take (SEPTA) to go to the bowling alley… when it would be so much easier to be like other sports teams who have a place to practice in school.” One of the teams with a place to practice at Central whom Dezlen refers to is the Badminton team which regularly reserves space in the gym. That doesn’t mean the team is without struggles, though, as they have to share this gym space with the volleyball team. Badminton player Chloe To (282) finds that sharing this space can be annoying, “there are so many times a volleyball comes flying across when we are in the middle of something… if we did have access to a real court the entire team would benefit from it.” What Chloe and Dezlen ask for is not easily obtainable and they are forced to play through these issues.
There is something affecting teams that indoor sports do not need to worry about: the weather. Dezlen admits that “if you are indoors there is less of a likelihood of having to miss valuable time spent practicing or game days.” A downpour of rain causes a team to lose a practice or postpone a game, but sometimes players have to brave harsh conditions and that can be difficult. For example, baseball player Alex Doroshow (282) has a tough time playing in certain elements, “when it is cold your hands freeze up so it is hard to swing a bat and throw a baseball… when it is windy and the ball gets hit in the air it is hard to track the ball because it moves a lot.” Every team who plays a sport outdoors has to deal with the repercussions of terrible weather and it has a serious impact on the team’s ability to reach their full potential.
All sports played at Central deal with some form of adversity that they need to overcome. Sports played indoors often lack the space that they need. Sports played outdoors are frequently affected by the weather. Either way, these teams know there is nothing they can do to change their situations and must make the best of it. They put their head down, play hard, and work towards success, despite whatever challenges they may face. Their perseverance is remarkable.
The Centralizer 