If you’ve seen, many of the schools near us today—such as Vallejo High and Jesse Bethel—have a variety of sports, including football, soccer, and more. Even though we have an incredible color guard team, we lack the variety that other schools have, which is why many MIT students are asking for more sports. This year, our school and administration are making changes. Mr. Owens and Mr. Carrington arrived at MIT with one goal in mind: to change the history of MIT’s lack of sports. Sports teams are currently being established, as coaches Mr. Owens and Mr. Carrington are making progress with our school’s brand new basketball teams! With this, students will now have more opportunities to participate in sports. Along with that, we have an upcoming game down in Oakland. Let’s take a look at the progress of the girls’ basketball team.

For a long time, MIT Academy had no sports. Many of our students have been here since sixth grade, and some have even had older siblings who attended MIT before them. Even then, there were no sports. Our lack of sports throughout the years has made it a rough start for our new athletics department to begin these new programs. Mr. Owens mentioned how he planned to add the following sports teams to the upcoming school year and sports seasons: In the spring, there’s boy’s volleyball, though some seasons are unknown; girl’s soccer and baseball; and next school year, girl’s volleyball. These programs are a challenge as the school just started with a couple of sports teams already in place, along with this being a completely new thing for our school. Despite the hardships, Mr. Owens, the sports director at our school, took on this job because of these challenges. These difficulties have resulted in boys and girls basketball; now let us look at the women’s progress!

Compared to the boys basketball team that we have right now (being coached by Mr. Carrington), the women’s basketball team (coached by Mr. Owens) is a little bit behind as it only consists of five players compared to a whopping 15–20 players on the boys basketball team. Although the women’s basketball team is a bit behind, it is also due to the fact that we have such harsh weather conditions—cold, windy, and not to mention daylight savings—getting in the way of their progress, as MIT does not have the facilities to be provided with an indoor training facility. Their basketball philosophy is inspiring, though a bit confusing; they have the spirit to help us win and play. Despite all those conditions, they are making progress rapidly as their five players are learning and growing, though they still need more support.

“Support.” A key term we need right now As the school is improving, Nick Driver, the superintendent, was inspired by this change and added sports teams to our school. He knew MIT was a catch and acknowledged it as “a hidden gem.” In the interview conducted by Mr. Hill, Nick Driver states how many changes, such as us, as students, being able to join different teams from our schools, were a major difficulty but an inspiration to give our schools teams. He voices out his thoughts and how he “felt lucky to be here,” considering the history of his knowledge of this school as well as mentioning that “there was a lot to be done here,” inspiring his devotion and changes to give us the sports we have right now. Though the students are demanding more sports, we only have a significant number of students on the women’s sports team, which differs notably from the boys’ basketball team. We need your support, MIT Academy.