If you play a sport at Tam, you are spirited and proud of your school. As a Tam athlete you support the school, you represent it, and teachers know that.

However, if you are like me and play a club sport outside of Tam, many members of the community have different expectations and views of you as a athlete. As a rugby player with the Marin Highlanders, I have a few issues with the way club sports are viewed at Tam.

In my experience, if you can’t come to class because you have a game at Novato for Tam soccer, they tell you to have fun and wish you good luck. If you tell a teacher you can’t come to class because you have a game in Novato for your club team, they ask you to make up the work as soon as possible or tell you that you can’t go.

Just because I play a sport that isn’t connected to Tam doesn’t make me less worthy of support than a student who is the captain of our school’s lacrosse team. Club sports athletes deserve the same level of respect that Tam athletes receive.  

There is nothing wrong with playing for a club team. If anything I think the experience is better. You meet new people who don’t go to your school and you are exposed to another social group with different interests, friends, and lives.

The essence of sports is to bring people together through a common passion for the game. It shouldn’t be about who is better. Yes, sports are competitive, and yes, we all like to win, but does there have to be a stigma around club sports being elitist or better than school sports?

We should bond over the fact that we are all getting exercise and doing the things that make us happy.