Recurring conflict because of gym space has been a problem. In the past soccer players had to share the field with the football players; however, with their season ending, badminton and volleyball have been constantly stressing over who gets the gym. Here, there are two gyms, one smaller than the other. Considering the limited gym space, coaches have been forced to create a packed schedule to fit all ongoing sports. 

During Fall season badminton would practice in the big gym on Mondays right after school; however, this meant that girls volleyball had to delay their practice by two hours. These two hour postponing created difficulties for the girls having to reschedule their personal lives to revolve around the other sports.

Sharing gym space has its politics, badminton coach Lerina Johnson is the student government teacher constantly throwing events for the kids. However, volleyball Coach Fred Man also has a busy schedule and works with STEM students daily; thus, the gym goes to whoever needs the gym more and would benefit from it most rather than focusing on the teacher’s schedules.

“I want to say that there was almost a hierarchy system going on where they made it easier for us to practice,” said junior badminton player Nicole Baird. This idea of the gym sharing being a “hierarchy” opposes the fact that badminton had around 35 girls and had to practice in the small gym every other day, allowing them to put up only four nets. 

“We were crammed, we would sometimes have eight girls on each court. Bumping and hitting each other left and right,” said sophomore badminton player Rebecka Bonita. 

Trading gym space back and forth is “tedious and inconvenient”, even during the school day. Volleyball has weights fourth hour, and badminton has their weights sixth hour. Thus they practice in the big gym for an hour just to take it down and put all the nets back up in the small gym nearly every school day.

Volleyball is not able to put more than one net in the small gym; nets take twice the space as badminton’s, giving them the excuse to keep practicing in the big gym. “We have lots of tall girls. The big gym is just barely enough space for us. The badminton girls are short and don’t have as many of us making it easier for them to practice in the small gym.” Said Adi Galvanoni.

Gym space is not about pride but about the injuries and the need for practice. Volleyball drills need space in order to practice the right form just as much as badminton. So there is this constant underlying conflict between badminton and volleyball debating who needs the gym space more. 

This ongoing conflict happens throughout school sports but never between two different sports. Baseball and football never have to share within their sport but because they have a designated field it is never difficult to create practice times. With only having one big gym, bigger sport teams have trouble getting a “good” practice in.

Gym space is something that could be avoided. But not easy to come by, money is the biggest issue next is space. Expanding the gym takes time and consideration. Talking about it to the district is the most indoor sports can do right now.