I was six years old when my father strapped me into my first pair of skis, “Skiing is way more fun than snowboarding. Snowboarding isn’t even a real sport,” he jokingly told me while putting on his own skis. Little did my father know I would later become a snowboarder at the age of twelve, following the example of my mother and two brothers. During my junior year at age sixteen, I joined the brand new snowboarding club at Blackfoot High School. Although the club only functioned for a year, I realized that small, northern towns like Blackfoot Idaho were full of winter sport fanatics.
This thought brought a question to my mind; are there schools in the U. S. that have snowboarding as an actual high school sport? After more research on the subject, I found that only a few private boarding schools around the country offer snowboarding as an actual school sport. Public high schools usually include sports that require physical exertion, competition and a way to generate revenue like football, basketball, soccer, baseball, volleyball and much more, so I asked myself; why not snowboarding? To answer the question “why should snowboarding be considered a high school sport? we must first ask the question “what defines a sport? ” The dictionary definition of sport is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature. ” A more precise question for this matter would be; what defines a high school sport? Along with the physical and competitive attributes, the sport should be able to generate revenue and attract a viewing audience. This brings us to yet another inquisition: how could snowboarding as a high school sport meet these qualifications?
If you have ever watched the “X-Games” or the Olympics, you would already know that snowboarding is undoubtedly a national sport that has many viewers and generates plenty of revenue. Is this not enough for the sport to branch off from professional and recreational activities? You must take into consideration a sport like football, which has grown to be extremely popular at the professional level. It is because of this popularity that football has also developed into a high school, middle school and even a grade school sport.
Football at the high school level obviously has enough viewers and generates revenue, which I assume was one of the reasons it was able to become a high school sport. Snowboarding at the professional level also has many viewers and generates revenue. According to the International Olympic committee in 2011, “Last year, the exposure and popularity of snowboarding halfpipe during the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver was hard to ignore. With 30. 1 million viewers tuning in to watch the men’s finals, according to NBC, it was the second highest viewership of all the 2010 Olympic programming. (Transworld Business, 2011). Snowboarding is an enjoyable recreational activity that many people from all over the world participate in and is noticeably very popular at the professional level; so why isn’t this sport seen as a regular high school event? Some would say that snowboarding, being considered an extreme sport; would be too hazardous to the athlete’s safety.
However, statistics show that football is responsible for “fifty-seven percent of all concussions” caused during the participation in a high school sport. Thirty-nine percent” of high school and college football players obtain a catastrophic head injury during their football career (American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2007). Statistics also show that a maximum of “sixteen in one thousand (1. 6%) snowboarders obtain a serious injury from snowboarding” (Johnson, 2009). With these statistics, I suppose it is safe to say that snowboarding is as safe, if not safer than your usual high school sport. It is true that snowboarding would only be able to pass as a sport at some schools due to the lack of snow in areas like the South.
Nonetheless this opportunity could be exciting for any school, in the winter that resides in an area with the right weather conditions. One might also insist that a high school sport must be competitive and that snowboarding is just a recreational activity that does not meet such a requirement. I would tell this person to look at how the Olympics and X-games portray this winter sport and that it is much more than just a recreational activity. Country against country, as seen in the Olympics, would change to school against school.
These schools would compete in matches or competitions, very much like wrestling. The matches would consist of the four areas of snowboarding shown on the official Olympic roster: slopestyle, halfpipe, freestyle and snowcross. Each snowboarder would exercise their specific skill in one of these areas to benefit the team. I believe that most of these events, if not all, can be performed at the high school level. For a person who has never watched the winter Olympics, or participated in winter sports for that matter, the words slopestyle, halfpipe, freestyle and snowcross may seem very strange and unfamiliar.
Slopestyle is where the competitors would start at the top of a hill and race to the bottom through flag posts, over snow mounds and jumps, along with many other obstacles. The halfpipe routine is where a single snowboarder would drop into a large obstacle that looks like a pipe cut vertically in half, hence the name, and perform their best tricks while jumping in and out of both sides. Points for this routine are awarded for style, best trick and gracefulness. Freestyle is the area of snowboarding where a single competitor would race down a slope at full speed and perform the best, single trick they could off of a single large ramp.
Points for freestyle are also awarded for style, best trick and gracefulness. The last Olympic snowboarding event is snowcross. This event includes four individuals racing through a track with turns and jumps at high speeds; the winner is based solely on who has the best time. Like all sports, snowboarding requires training and practice. When I started snowboarding for the first time, I was able to catch on rather quickly because of my previous experience as a skier. Although some would say that the sport is easy and effortless, snowboarding can be very physically demanding.
I can remember days where I would leave the snow hill with sore quadriceps or aching back muscles. Like any other sport, physical fitness and time in the gym can help immensely when shredding the mountain. Practicing for this new high school sport could be done at the school or on the mountain, whether working on strength, form and agility or carving, jumping and speed. Each individual would be able to practice specifically on their area of expertise or even multiple areas if desired.
Not only do I feel like snowboarding would be an excellent sport to be offered at high schools; I believe it is a sport that students would enjoy. Many students do not participate in sports because they cannot relate or find an interest in the sports offered. Students with experience in the snowboarding world and students with out would definitely be attracted to the idea of this great sport becoming a regular high school event. In conclusion, I would like to agree that every sport has risks, but as I have proved, snowboarding is a relatively safe, competitive event that shapes and defines our characteristics.
