Take a moment to picture the typical high school experience. Think Algebra I, awful cafeteria food, cliques, etc. What comes to mind might be reminiscent of the popular teen show “Riverdale”, or depending on your taste in film and friends, it could resemble “Freaks and Geeks.” No matter how you picture it, one aspect will eventually come to fruition when considering the pivotal American high school experience: football.
When someone thinks of a word to encapsulate Jones, they might think academic excellence, downtown Chicago, or The Blueprint. I think you can come up with a multitude of words to describe Jones before describing it as “sporty.” It seems we rarely prioritize sports here with most of our focus being on our CTE and art programs. But at what cost?
Football has many aspects that provide an outlet for social and emotional growth during your time at school, whether you are on the team or not. The game has an innate ability to build a sense of community.
For example, “Friday Night Lights” football is not just about the game; it is about bringing together students, parents, teachers, and the local community to support the school and evoke a little unity and pride. The people, the shared excitement, the chants, and the school spirit create a lively atmosphere that is seldom found in many classes. It is the place to be on a Friday night if you want to hang out with your friends.
This kind of community is what Jones needs the most. I‘ve heard teachers and staff complain about how our student body “lacks school spirit,” which may just be the lack of enthusiasm about walking up six flights of stairs every one and a half hours. No matter the case, I think that having a unifying face that we could all root for like a football team could work wonders for Jones’ school spirit.
To be fair our school is located downtown, which makes it hard to find places to practice. However, I still believe that this is a manageable feat. For example, the Jones soccer team treks to Chinatown just to practice on an official field, which a football team could do as well. We could even practice on another school’s green, like using Whitney Young’s field for practice like the Jones/Ogden/WY lacrosse team does. The point is that not having a place to practice should not impede us from having a football program.
People are willing to travel that far for practices and games too, as seen by the number of Jones students attending other CPS football games like the games at Lane Tech. Lane Tech is a school that is much more sports-oriented with, arguably, much more school pride.
A football team could save us with its community building capabilities and hype, and so I think it’s important for our high school to have football.
