Feature Photo By: Eric Huynh – Liam Skousen (left) And Matthew Marshall (middle) talk while waiting for the tennis varsity matches to finish up. This was their 2nd official match for Rangeview’s JV tennis squad.
By: Eric Huynh, Review Staff
A number of students are participating in this year’s fall sports — even those that don’t go Rangeview specifically…
Liam Skousen and Matthew Marshall, a junior and freshman, are students at Vista Peak and who wanted to participate in tennis but unfortunately, their school doesn’t have a team.
According to The National Federation Of State High School Associations’ 2017-2018 annual survey, out of the top 10 most popular sports for boys, tennis is ranked 8th participated sport at high school level.
Kathy Truong, a junior at Vista Peak, is on the girls’ tennis team and explains why there’s no boys tennis team at Vista Peak, “They [the girls’ tennis team] never talk about anyone being interested in boys tennis.”
Football and soccer are more popular sports at Vista Peak which means there aren’t enough people to play tennis, according to Skousen. Additionally, Marshall said that there aren’t enough coaches as well.
They both decided to give it a shot by interacting with the athletics here at Rangeview.
“They [the transferring student] come in to fill out a form out and they have to send it to their school,” said Terri Marshall, Rangeview’s athletic secretary. “Then we send it to CHSAA to determine whether they are eligible or not.”
According to her, CHSAA is the governing body over athletics and activities for Colorado and one of the state associations of the main body, The National Federation of State High School Association.
They are the ones that review the forms of students wanting to play a sport at a different school. The reasons can range from the student moving houses, for academic reasons, their school not having a certain sport, etc. Home schooled students or students who attend charter schools can also participate as long as they live in the school’s boundaries.
At Rangeview, there have been other students who transferred and are given eligibility for sports such as volleyball, football and soccer.
Living in Vista Peak’s area, Skousen and Marshall are consistently coming out to the tennis practices over at Rangeview until tennis season ends. According to them, this will be their first year playing for a high school tennis team and they look forward to playing.
Marshall said, “Yeah, I like tennis and VP doesn’t have a team, so it’s nice to go somewhere. I get to play tennis either way.”
According to AtYourOwnRisk, they provide plenty of reasons why sports can be beneficial in a teenager’s life, providing reasons such as developing life skills, a greater success rate into college, being more healthy, etc.
“Yeah, I would recommend someone playing a sport,” said Skousen. “It’s good to try new things and have fun.”
Currently, the Rangeview tennis team is 1-7 in their overall matches, but they still have a couple of more matches to end off the season before getting ready for Regionals.
For more information on CHSAA and/or the National Federation of State High School Associations, visit their websites:
