When anyone looks around other schools in other counties, such as Frederick and Anne Arundel, they will see state-of-the-art weight rooms and top notch artificial turf fields and facilities. When they look around schools in Montgomery County, they will see dirt fields and crammed weight rooms.

In Montgomery County, more money must go towards athletics and building up facilities so we can compete against other counties athletically, and not struggle to keep up with them.

Now, it’s not that athletes do not care about academics — they do– but athletes in Montgomery County know that it is difficult to compete against other counties in state championships because they do not have as many resources and opportunities that they have.

Any athlete who plays an outside field sport can relate to how much it truly sucks when there is inclement weather. At CHS, we do not have a turf field or any state-of-the-art facilities, so unlike some schools in MoCo and almost all the schools in other counties, we have no choice but to practice indoors, making it almost impossible to get anything done in such a tight space.

All of the high schools in Anne Arundel and Frederick County have turf fields, compared to only about half of the schools in MoCo.

Although it is understandable that funding almost twice the amount of schools as other counties is tricky, seeing as MoCo is the largest county in Maryland and 18th largest in the country. However, MoCo should offer the schools fundraisers and booster opportunities to compensate for the lack of money available to the athletic programs instead of brushing it over their shoulder.

School spirit is a major key to the general well-being of the students.  An increase in funds will cause school spirit to skyrocket because sports teams will start winning more games and gaining more support from the student base.

According to U.S. News and World Report, Montgomery County proudly holds seven of the top ten schools in the state of Maryland, while Frederick County has one and Anne Arundel County only has one. So, it is obvious that an appropriate amount of funds is going towards academics to make our schools the best academically.

However, with a decrease of funds in other categories, such as maintenance and electronics, and maybe a slight decrease in academics, we can increase the amount of funds going towards athletics so we can compete athletically against these counties.