There are so many sports to play at East High School. With sports come players, and with players come family members, classmates, administrators and friends that all go to watch. Support radiates off of players jerseys, cheerleaders uniforms, and students, “Go Big Red” sweatshirts as they all walk through the halls. If a game is to be played, it will not be unknown, because sporting events are a major part of East’s culture, but they also seem to get the majority of the support as well.

“The average kid knows football more as a high school activity, more so than theatre,” art teacher, Jason Soliday said.

Last year, Mr. Allan needed money, music needed money speech needed money… The list of underfunded activities was quite large. With $170,000 in the schools budget this year, Mrs. Morris has made sure that $5,000 of the budget goes to band, that theatre has new mics in the auditorium, and that the speech and debate teams are funded.

“Debate, speech, fine arts, performing arts: those are as important to me as athletics. I don’t know why they aren’t funded sometimes in high schools, but they are in my high school,” Principal, Mrs. Morris said.

In order for any team or activity to get the money that their students need, the teacher or director needs to ask for it. They also ask for students and staff to show up and support the students who are involved in these under-dogged activities, because they’re just as important to the school as any sport could ever be. But unfortunately, not every student feels as though it is.

“A lot of people support sports way more than they have ever supported drama or anything for that matter. It’s always been that way and I doubt it’ll ever change. That’s why I feel people who are in drama, choir, IHSSA, even speech and debate, we are our own biggest fans. We cheer for ourselves when no one else will,” IHSSA and theatre participant, Courtney Young said.

Young isn’t the only one with a strong opinion on the issue. Many others feel the same way about how supported they are in what they do.

“People definitely support sports. That’s visible in our audience vs. crowds at games. There’s triple the people, it’s ridiculous,”

Choir, Theatre and IHSSA participant, Tim Schonkaes said.

Whether it’s a football game or a Choir concert, we are all one student body. We are all East High, and making each other feel important by showing up and cheering on one another is the only thing that will lead us into victory. Not only as a school, but as individuals as well.