Leigh Adelizzi ’15, Brittany Belo ’14: For a school that enjoys basking in its own glory, Episcopal seems to be blind to points of its beauty. EA is known throughout the Main Line and Inter-Ac for its excellence in sports. For years, sports like football, field hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer have been celebrated and advertised at The Academy. Meanwhile, sports like swimming, track, crew, softball, golf and others wait on the sidelines as their counterparts receive recognition in the EA community. Even as these programs continue to grow in strength and number, these sports have become overlooked and lack the recognition they deserve.
The teams that have been left in the dark are not oblivious to the inconsistency of representation. Softball Captain Gabby Donnatucci ‘14 noted, “ With Softball in the past, we’ve been kind of a joke sport; my freshmen year we went 2-14. But we have really built up. People just don’t recognize how far we’ve come.”
Donatucci explained the various overlooked accomplishments of the EA softball team: “We came in 2nd in the state tournament, we beat Agnes Irwin for the first time in history, we had a really great season.” When a random group of EA students was asked if they were aware of these accomplishments, roughly 40% said they were while the others said they had no idea.
Photo Courtesy of Gabby Donatucci ’14
One reason for the lack of equality among EA’s sports lies in the accessibility of fields and games as well as fan interaction. It is much easier to go to EA’s competition gym for a basketball game than to Lehigh University for a track meet or the Schuylkill for a crew race. Another reason stems from the fanfare. Sports such as basketball, football, and field hockey are more suitable for larger, vocal crowds than a sport such as golf. “Having a good football team encourages the most school pride,” explained softball player Julianne Longen. “Having a good swimming team doesn’t have the same effect because it’s not the all-American sport that football is.” The popularity these sports have at Episcopal mimics the popularity that the sports have in the US as a whole. That being said, the different levels of interest should not excuse Episcopal from equally advertising all of its sports and athletic accomplishments.
With EA’s utilization of social media and website publications, there is a notable lack of representation and attention among sports teams such as track, crew, and softball.“[EA’s] Facebook has them, the twitter has them sometimes [achievements] are even announced in chapel and at the assembly,” said Donnatucci. Though these forms of recognition are true, having a majority of a team’s achievements announced at the Varsity awards assembly is unfair because the entire student and faculty body is not present.
Episcopal supplies a large feed of news from field hockey, lacrosse, football, and basketball, but fails to report the accomplishments of other teams of equal importance. The sports that will “sell” are the ones that are advertised most commonly. Gianna Pileggi, Captain of this year’s Field Hockey team, shared her view that “It’s just life…It’s not fair because the people controlling what is shown are choosing what to announce based on what people will watch.”
But all hope is not lost. Some measures can be taken to change this lack of representation, and it all begins with EA’s social outreach. If Episcopal was to reach out to teams regularly and stay updated, everyone would see there is a lot more to celebrate. Some responsibility also lies with the teams themselves. Teams should create their own twitter handles and report their own scores and accomplishments to EA’s twitter page and EA’s athletic twitter page to be retweeted and get the word out.
A good fanbase is built on interaction and personal connection between a fan and a team. By a team taking it upon themselves to enlighten the community on their triumphs, it creates a sense of personal connection and pride. It is up to everyone to get more involved in this community so that an equal share of praise is able to reach each deserving team.