SPORTS OPINION

If you’ve ever been to a girls basketball or flag football game, it’s pretty obvious that these games receive less support than a boys basketball or football game. Taking a look at crowd size alone, the disparity is unmistakable. According to junior and varsity girls basketball player Norah Rosenberg, “Sometimes at our games we have like, 20 fans max, and it’s like parents mostly, and the boys games the tickets are all sold out and like everyone’s always there.”

It’s 2026, but there are still almost no girls sports games that get the same attendance, publicity, and support that so many boys sports games draw.

The Homecoming game is boys tackle football. The legendary Whitney vs. Lane game is boys basketball. 

This story is by no means an attack on the long-held traditions, rivalries, and truly entertaining boys sports games that have come to be iconic events in the high school calendar. 

Homecoming is a time for school spirit, and the anticipation of a high-energy Friday Night Lights fuels excitement for the week of fun. The Lane vs. Whitney basketball game is the last time I lost my voice cheering; our rivalry is a timeless aspect of Lane sports life.

What this story is doing however, is pointing out that despite immense progress in feminism and girls sports specifically, there is still a lack of equality in the way girls sports are treated, attended, and marketed. 

For instance, the boys Lane vs. Whitney basketball game is preceded by a week of social media hype, administrative emails detailing requirements for ticket sales and entry, even earning an end-of-day loudspeaker announcement. It has a theme we repeat every year, an intense security and ticketing process, and this year the Lane barstool account on Instagram began a Michigan vs. Ohio State “Hate Week”-esque habit of crossing out all the “W’s” on their posts.

In stark contrast, most of the school didn’t know the girls Lane vs. Whitney basketball game was happening, until it had already happened. And the reason anyone found out the girls game had been played was likely because they actually beat Whitney, and their win was advertised by administration in a boys game ticket email. Despite the school’s attempts to hype sports equally, boys receive the majority of audience support and demand.

Why is it that the boys team, who in this case were predicted by the student population to lose (dramatically), have games that are still more attended and hyped than the girls team who had a real chance to come out on top?

It can’t all be attributed to tradition, so what is it?

Rosenberg theorized that it’s about exposure: “I don’t think it’s necessarily because people think we’re bad but just because it’s not being put out there as much.” 

Rosemary Carroll, a sophomore on the varsity dance team, said social media definitely plays into support. “Honestly I think our Instagram and everything we post on there is how we get our word out there better,” Carroll said.

Student-run, non-school or team-affiliated accounts like barstools play into this a lot. Rosenberg said the official Lane-affiliated accounts “do a fine job posting when our games are, but I think they could maybe try to get more student interaction.” Some official accounts act as the engaging account for sports teams, but these are few and far between. For every team’s account, except for boys football (with 3,840 followers), the main, all-encompassing, Lane barstool page has more followers, at 3,399.

It’s also important to note that many parents, CPS accounts, and teachers will follow the official sports accounts, but barstool accounts are run by students and cater exclusively to students. In a school of approximately 4,500, having the majority of 3,399 followers be students is a telling ratio of how important student-run pages are.

However, these student-run pages promote girls sports events a lot less than they promote boys. I personally believe they promote based on the owners’ predetermined judgment of student interest, so Friday night football games get a lot more support than swim team meets. I don’t see the disparity between girls and boys promotions as malicious or intentional, but it is there; and it’s impacting how girls sports are viewed and attended.

If there isn’t a reason to go – a theme to follow, a sense of school spirit to cater to, a student section energy to be a part of – then people won’t come. And a lot of those factors begin on social media, specifically on student-run pages.

There is something to be said for the lack of iconic events and thriving rivalries to encourage attendance and hype at girls sports events. Even with boys basketball, there’s a huge difference in attendance whether we’re playing a rival – like Whitney, Lincoln Park, or Kenwood – and when we’re playing a smaller or unconnected school.

But girls sports support suffers from this deficit, and Lane needs to forge new traditions surrounding new events. In comparing a potential iconic girls sports event to the boys football Homecoming, Rosenberg suggested, “Maybe like a girls volleyball game or something because that’s also in the fall, and so if they could get a lot of fans that would be really fun.”

Carroll thought about something closer to this time of year. “I think of things like Women in LIT fest, which is something that talks about feminism and stuff,” Carroll said. “But maybe we could have something surrounding, like Women in LIT fest, but for girls sports.”

Girls face more blocks to athletic success than just underwhelming audiences and lack of iconic events. Even though sports sexism has decreased dramatically in recent years, it is far from absent in reality. 

The level of discrimination faced by many female athletes can impact their athletic success and mental health, especially when they’re younger. Carroll said when she was younger, she faced a lot of barriers as a dancer. “When I talked about ‘Oh I have three hours of dance, I have three hours of practice’ and I would say a lot of the boys in my class would dismiss it.” Carroll went on to say, “[They’d think] that it’s not really anything serious, when in reality like this is my life.”

In my own experience playing varsity golf, my team has been treated distinctly differently than our male counterparts. In multiple situations where the girls’ tee times were overlapping with the boys’, the boys teams have been allowed to play first, sometimes even getting boosted without a schedule conflict. 

And once we get onto the course, discrimination continues.

During a practice round with three other girls on my team, we were walking to the next hole with a player’s dad. A group of older men at an adjacent hole addressed her dad, who was not playing, and was several feet ahead of our group, and said, “You must be the coach, or is this your harem?” When her dad told the men that he was “just a dad,” the man replied with “Lucky man” and watched closely as our group of underage girls walked past. 

That type of behavior just wouldn’t occur if it was a group of boys playing. And it’s clear that high school sports need to do better.