The quarterback sprints toward the end zone, the opposing team hot on his trail. For a split second the crowd is silent. You can feel the suspense in the air. Then the stadium erupts into a chorus of cheers as he scores, clutching the football to his chest. TOUCHDOWN! Victory is achieved, and school spirit is at an all time high. But not at our school. University Prep students are left wishing we had a team to root for.

While many other private schools around us do not have football teams, many do. These include Lakeside, Odea, Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic.

Eighth grader Millie Burman sees the positive outcome that having a football team could have on students’ futures.

“It’s also a good opportunity to get scholarships and things for college,” Burman said. “Yes, there is a risk, but there are a lot of upsides too.” 

Despite wanting a football team, eighth grader Kevin Wang understands how it could be hard to find space to play. 

“I get how it’s also kinda hard, cause we don’t have a field. The only field we have is Dahl and that’s not really a football field,” Wang said. “So, we might have to use another area, other schools.”

Director of Athletics Rebecca Moe thinks that football isn’t needed to have school spirit.

“They feel like we have to have football to have school spirit. I don’t think so,” Moe said. “I think it comes more from student leaders and the students themselves, and it’s kind of organic and it goes along with the school leaders.”

However, eighth grader Jack Eyler disagrees, and thinks football has a level of school spirit that can’t be matched. 

“I think that football, being how physical it is, it’s a lot more competitive. So, naturally it would make people more invested into the games and invested into the season because of how competitive it can be,” Eyler said. 

According to Moe, there are many reasons we don’t have a team, but there are solutions to this.

“The few kids who do play are allowed to play at their public schools,” Moe said.