Game-day fits are an integral part of the school culture surrounding RM sports. On game days, many student-athletes come to school dressed up in correspondence with a theme that their team selects. From “white lies,” to twin day to ugly sweaters around the holidays, teams dress up to create hype for their upcoming athletic events. However, conversation has built around why girls tend to participate more than boys, or simply whether or not this is the case at all. Regardless of this division, both girls and boys teams always have a strong desire to win.
To come up with the themes that her team follows throughout the season, girls basketball captain senior Emma Karlin works alongside her co-captain, senior Charlyn Chu, to create a calendar of themes for each game day. In creating their schedule before this season, they gathered inspiration from numerous sources. “We used ideas from past years, other teams and Pinterest,” Karlin said.
Other teams use different methods of picking out their themes for the season. For girls’ varsity lacrosse, junior Grace Coyne says that as a team, they decide on what game-day fits they would want to do in their team group chat. On the girls’ JV field hockey and soccer teams, the themes are usually picked out by the varsity teams. “When JV was able to choose for themselves on days without a varsity game, we would most often choose to wear our uniforms to school because most of us enjoyed how they looked,” freshman field hockey player Helena Sonnier said.
Junior Coby Ritter explained that for boys lacrosse, his team doesn’t participate in explicit themes, but they still show spirit in other ways. “Normally, on game day we will wear our jerseys, RM lacrosse apparel or even khakis and polos,” Ritter said. Evidently, there is a difference between how girls and boys teams reflect their spirit throughout the school day, but why this is the case displays an underlying message that has seeped into the world of high school sports.
Numerous students agree that there is a visible distinction between the game day rituals of girls and boys teams, particularly regarding how they dress. “I think it’s an interesting reflection of gender roles and how they are drawn out a lot in sports,” freshman JV soccer player Margot Ashford said.
Through game-day fits and the conflicting way girls and boys teams go about participating in them, an evident disparity is highlighted and clearly displayed. “I get the feeling that boys teams have more of a desire to be taken seriously, whereas girls sports have, in a way, let go of that,” Ashford said.
This systemic issue has also evolved to impact junior varsity teams. “Women’s sports, especially in high school, are ridiculed and undermined a lot, so I think many female athletes, particularly on the JV level, don’t really bother trying to prove themselves as super serious,” Ashford said.
However, many of RM’s female athletes see game-day fits in a different light. “I think having a theme throughout the day hypes us up for the game. It also is like a subtle reminder that our team is more than just the sport, it’s a place to make friends and have fun together,” freshman field hockey player Nuala Grady said. Players of other sports also express similar feelings. According to Karlin, Coyne, Sonnier and Ashford, participating in game-day fits establishes a bonded team environment. “I think it builds unity and a fun-spirited team culture, and that can translate into the games and how we play together as a team,” Karlin said.
Although RM’s athletes do enjoy participating in game-day fit themes, they also serve a substantial purpose in preparing players for their upcoming games. As Karlin touched on, dressing up for the school day unifies teams and highlights their team within the student body. This directly causes improved outcomes of games. “For my team, I think that dressing up for game days really brought us together and built a sense of community…having a good team dynamic is absolutely essential to winning,” Ashford said.
Nevertheless, regardless of whether or not boys teams participate in game-day fits, they still adequately prepare by getting themselves in the right headspace to play any opposing team. “In the days of practice leading up to our games, we will get our minds ready to face our new opponent, and our warmups and walkouts right before the game help build hype for the team,” Ritter said.
All in all, girls and boys teams have varying ways of developing a team environment and boosting pre-game morale. Although it may seem as if girls teams dominate in showing their team pride, game-day fits are all-inclusive. “I think it’s nice that people are able to participate to varying degrees because that way everyone feels like they can show team spirit in a way that they feel comfortable,” Ashford said.
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