Athletics are very prominent at Manhattan High School. We provide students with the opportunity to excel in sports and the students at Manhattan High School love to support our teams. Athletics are not only a great activity to be involved in, but they are also a very large source of income for the school and the athletic department. Lots of the athletes at Manhattan High school continue their education while also taking on a sport post high school.

With National Signing Month being this month, lots of students at Manhattan High signed to continue to play sports in college. At the signings, many radio stations, local newspapers and other forms of media attended to cover the signings. I think that this is a great thing, and that our school and community should continue to celebrate these amazing athletes that are continuing their sports careers. However I do feel as if the students that are not athletes, but have a large academic accomplishment sometimes go unnoticed by our school and community.

Many students in the 2016 class have been accepted into schools such as Yale, Stanford and other very elite schools, but the only recognition of students continuing their education have been because of sports. These students should feel proud of their accomplishments and should receive support and recognition from our school. If we choose to ignore these accomplishments, lots of the students will feel as if everything besides athletic achievements aren’t valid. If we recognize all of the different achievements going on at our school, it encourages other students in the future to aspire to do these things. Our school offers so many extra curricular opportunities besides athletics, and many students go onto pursue those post graduation. But the only accomplishments we ever hear about are the athletes continuing their activity.

The athletes work very hard to continue to play sports after high school, and it is so great that our school celebrates and encourages that. But the students that take multiple AP classes and get accepted into Ivy League schools also work very hard to achieve their goals. Other accomplishments that go unnoticed are students that get accepted into various college programs such as university choirs, art programs and debate teams. These students are continuing their education as well as their extra curricular activity, and they receive very little recognition. Why does a student that gets signed to play a sport, receive a signing with all their classmates attending, media coverage and the entire school supporting them? But a student that gets accepted into a university with a 3% acceptance rate receives no support or recognition from their school?

Lots of students at our school are getting accepted into amazing schools all over the country and are achieving amazing things, why does our school only want to tell the world about the athletic achievements and not brag about all of the students doing amazing things?

We shouldn’t start to ignore anyone’s athletic accomplishments. They are a large part of our school and major accomplishments to celebrate, but we shouldn’t overlook the other amazing things that students at our school are doing. Why not focus and be proud of all the amazing things the students are achieving instead of centering all of our attention on one?