According to synchronized swimmer, junior Ava Tronson, who has competed at State multiple years with her team, her sport does not receive equal recognition for achieving the same goals as other Park teams.

“Since the football team has never really been to State, it was nice the school recognized it, but synchro goes every year and we place pretty high and we should get way more recognition for that than we do right now,” Tronson said.

According to Athletic Director Andy Ewald, all students who compete at State receive an award from the school board after the competition was held.

“Any team or individual that makes it to State, we offer a chance to be recognized at a school board meeting. We do that through our office and in that way it’s equitable,” Ewald said. “We offer that to everybody and I’m there as part of that recognition with the school board.”

Senior and track captain Anna Jennissen, a participant at State last year, said athletes that compete individually should receive even more prior acknowledgement because they will not have teammates by their side.

“Individuals who go to State almost need more support just because they don’t have a team to rely on as much, and going to State is stressful, so for me it would’ve been nice to know that the whole school was there for support,” Jennissen said.

Senior and varsity swimmer Luke Anderson said some of his peers got the chance to go to State but weren’t recognized nearly enough for what they had accomplished.

“I believe that having some of my teammates having the opportunity to compete at State should be a big deal,” Anderson said. “Hayden Zheng finished first and third at State as only a ninth grader and that deserves some recognition.”

Jennissen said a good way to acknowledge all athletes who reach high achievements is to have Student Council coordinate different ways they could be recognized.

“Student Council has a lot of power and say with school spirit, so if they kept on top of different achievements within sports they could definitely organize different things to support those athletes — whether it’s putting posters up, recognizing the kid when they go through the hallways, or at different pep rallies, just saying their name,” Jennissen said.

According to Anderson, the school could organize a big pep fest each sport season to celebrate not only one sport, but all sports who made it to State either as a team or individually.

“There was a pep fest that only celebrated the football team reaching State, so I think that there should be a pep fest in each sport season that celebrates all of the athletes who made it to State,” Anderson said.

According to Ewald, students and administration could sit down and brainstorm new, reachable ideas on how to congratulate and praise these State athletes.

“I’m sure there are lots of ways that we could enhance recognition, it’s just a matter of time and having consistency and making sure it’s equitable every time,” Ewald said. “If there are people who have ideas for how we can do this and want to take ownership, whether it’s Student Council or anyone else, our office would be very supportive of that.”