Attending sports events is a big part of the stereotypical high school experience. All over MHS you see and hear about the upcoming sports activities happening each week. But what you probably don’t realize is which sports are getting the most attention and which ones are getting forgotten about.

Football, basketball, soccer and baseball. These are the most popular, most talked about, most attended games and events in high school. Most students pack the stands for the Friday Night Lights football games and the back-to-back girls’ and boys’ basketball games. The teams could lose 100-0 or they could be winning a state championship. No matter how the team is performing, they can usually rely on a massive fan base supporting them unconditionally in the stands.

But what about the other teams? What about the ones that have been performing better than any team in MHS, year after year, and still get little to no recognition until their season is over?

The girls swim and dive team is one of those teams. I am a member of this team. For the most part, we may get an article or two or a poster made for one of our meets, but there are little to no students who show up for our meets. You may know about the team, you may know a swimmer or two, but do you have any idea how much we’ve accomplished in the last four years?

I have been on the girls swim and dive team since I was a freshman and we have been just as forgotten and unrecognized since then. Yet, we have won every single one of our dual meets, tournament meets (meets against 15-40 other teams), and our conference meet four years in a row and have placed top 5 at State since 2016. On top of all of that, this year we have a chance to place higher at state than we ever have before.

Swimmers put in more effort than anyone realizes and get less recognition than the majority of other teams. The most dedicated swimmers on our team swim for a club team when we aren’t in the winter high school season. Club teams run through the entire year, and that requires six to eight practices a week, with two to three of those being 5 a.m. practices followed by another practice after school. Club swimmers who are also on the high school team never have an “off-season” and never really take a break unless you include Sundays.

Last year, we were leaving on a bus for our conference prelims and we saw multiple posters for a wrestling match outside the school. We had no recognition. We were heading to our end-of-the year-conference meet against some of the best teams in the state that we were favored to win and did win by over 90 points I might add. Other teams get students out of school for a state student section. The only administrators we ever have recognizing us are the ones that have  a lot of swimmers in their classes, which is very few.

The swim and dive team, along with many other underrated sports teams, deserve more attention. I know that many other teams are in this boat, but as a swimmer, I can speak very well on this one topic. We have the best win streak in the school, and in February we have chances to show off our skill at our conference and state meets. We have the chance to perform higher in the state than the team has in twenty years.

While our season is coming to an end, the Swim and Dive team is not the only one in the school that deserves more attention. Take a look at the school calendar, talk to your friends and teachers about upcoming sporting events you may not know about. As for my team, we have our state meet on Thursday, February 14th and Friday, February 15th which is a half day. If you’re looking for a way to spend your half day and want to watch one of Marquette’s most successful teams perform one last time this season, we’ll be at the St. Peters Rec Plex.

When multiple news sources for the state are recognizing us more than our own administration and student body is, writing dozens of articles about us each season, that’s when you know there’s a problem.