By: Kendall Coffey and Elsa Cybulski

Why doesn’t Seven Hills Have Football?

Have you ever seen videos of other schools at their school’s events enjoying a football game and wondered why our school doesn’t do that? Why don’t we have a football team and fun activities included? Well, it starts with our school’s history. Most schools with a football team today have had it for many years, and it’s a whole symbolic tradition. Our school, however, started as an all-girls school, so there was no football team when Seven Hills was created.

Safety

Football comes with lots of safety concerns that we have to consider. Football is built off of collisions, and that worries the athletic department. Data shows Football is bound to cause concussions and brain injuries. “If you get a concussion in other sports, like basketball or soccer, it went wrong in the play or is based on a foul. Having Football as a sport option worries the athletic department,” said Dr. Bolton. 

Quantity and Participation 

Seven Hills is a smaller sized school. Most high schools have about 30-50 people on a football team. In high school at Seven Hills, there are about 95 kids in a grade, and not everyone would be able to play Football, especially with other sports seasons going on. If there were enough people who would play, that would mean that other sports at Seven Hills would not have enough people. “If you offer too many of any given sport in a season, you don’t have the kids anymore to field it,” said Dr. Bolton. Seven Hills offers many sports and options for students so that everyone can have something to do that they enjoy. Having Football could impact how students decide on what they want to do. 

How Students Feel

Students at Seven Hills have mixed feelings about having Football at our school. Caleb Cybulski, a 7th grader from Seven Hills Middle School, thinks Football would suit Seven Hills. He and some other 7th graders are currently on a flag football team. “I do like football; I just don’t get to play it much,” said Caleb. Caleb also thinks that having a football team would improve the athletic program at Seven Hills, but he also understands why we don’t have it. “For a football team, you need a lot of players, so there is a question as to whether we would have enough people,” he explained. 

With the opposing opinion, though, is Cole Coffey, a 9th grader in The Seven Hills High School. Cole likes to watch and play football, but not competitively. “Yeah it’s a cool sport, I just don’t want to get hit.” He wants to keep his health in mind since he has other sports to play, connecting back with all of the safety concerns. He doesn’t think football would improve the athletic program, but he believes we have enough people to make one. “People would sign up just for the fact that there would not be a lot of competition for the positions.” Cole thinks students would only sign up because of how little the competition would be between players. When we asked if he would choose football over soccer, basketball, and track he said, “No. I like my sports right now, I enjoy them.”

Would certain events be more exciting if we had Football?

Dr.Bolton thinks Seven Hills can still make Homecoming and other sports events fun without having Football. “I think we can get the culture of turning out to support a team without football being the sport,” said Dr.Bolton. He believes that there is already enough energy, and also wants to find a way to get even more people to come to Homecoming so that it can be an even bigger event. 

Would certain events be more exciting if we had Football?

Dr.Bolton thinks Seven Hills can still make Homecoming and other sports events fun without having Football. “I think we can get the culture of turning out to support a team without football being the sport,” said Dr.Bolton. He believes that there is already enough energy, and also wants to find a way to get even more people to come to Homecoming so that it can be an even bigger event.