Beyond the Bleachers

Design by Diego Acevedo

I have always loved sports. I watch hockey and baseball with my dad, NASCAR with my mom and Formula 1 with my brother. Football and soccer are “family sports,” even if my brother frequently skips out on Sounders games. 

In many ways, watching–and playing–sports is my family's love language. One of our preferred things to do together is watch a game or make a day trip to Seattle for a sporting event. These are also some of my favorite activities to do with my childhood friends. 

I went to schools where sports mattered. The main community activity in my hometown is the Friday night Woodinville High School football game; games I started attending regularly at the age of eight. When I switched to a private school in sixth grade, I found myself in a school where football mattered even more. In my time there, we won the state championship four times and attendance was expected at both home and away games. 

You’d think with all this sports exposure at both home and school, I’d be chasing more of that in my college experience.

To be honest, it didn’t even cross my mind when I chose Santa Clara. I chose to come here regardless of whether game attendance was high or sports were important to people because of everything else this school had to offer.

Instead of spending my Friday nights at the basketball court or my Saturdays getting ready for a big conference football game as I might at a larger public institution, I have had time to participate in numerous events outside of athletics.

In my time here I’ve attended the Multicultural Center’s culture shows, KSCU concerts, Activities Programming Board events, acapella concerts, honors program conversations, College Catholics’ worship nights, Ignatian Center social justice events and so, so much more. At larger schools where the only activity students can find to do on their weekends is go to sports games, you don’t engage in a culture where you attend unique events that teach you more about the students you interact with. 

Santa Clara’s culture is one of the things that make this school so special. Without the diversity of events, you lose the ability to learn things you never could in the classroom or at a college football game. 

Not to say that I no longer care about sports or haven’t found time to watch it while at Santa Clara. I’ve attended professional soccer, hockey and baseball games in my four years here (all when my beloved Seattle teams came to visit). On campus, I made a point to attend both women’s and men’s soccer, basketball, baseball and softball games, all while dragging along my sport-apathetic friends to these games as I introduced them to athletics fandom on and off this campus. 

So, I do still love sports. But I also love the many other opportunities and experiences I got to have on this campus because the people around me did not. It forced me to grow in new ways that other school cultures would not have and, in the end, I think that's what college should be about.