By Sam Keller ’19, Staff Writer

It’s Friday night. The lights are bright on Coursen Field, as music from the Jazz Band fills the air. A sea of red and black swarms the stands. These are obvious signs of the Newark Academy community’s support for their football team. School spirit surrounding football is a hallmark of high school sports in the United States. A quality football program is often viewed as a reflection of the quality of a school’s athletic department. This premise leads some students to question whether some teams at Newark Academy, including the football team, receive greater attention and budgetary support in comparison to other teams.

For a small school, Newark Academy Athletics are highly successful. While 83% of Newark Academy students participate in the athletic program in some capacity, the student athletes are spread across 23 varsity and junior varsity teams. Though this fact both limits the pool of athletes available to play any one sport, and spreads the resources widely, the athletic department finds ways to guarantee each team has strong athletes, state of the art facilities, and appropriate financial support. While there remains an obvious intention to provide every team with equal opportunities, there are still boundaries preventing this total equality. When questioned about her opinion on the support provided to every sports team, 2015 Girls Basketball Captain, Karina Mehta ’16, explained, “when it comes down to gender specifics, I believe women’s sports receive slightly less recognition; however, I feel for the past few years the athletic department has been trying to vamp up the program to equal the level the men’s teams are at.” Some members of the volleyball team expressed agreement with Mehta’s first statement when the downstairs basketball court was damaged by water in May of 2015 and administrators made the decision to move the Girl’s Volleyball team to the upstairs gym for their fall season. While members of the volleyball team may have been disappointed in their temporary facilities, as Karina described, this attempt to elevate girl’s sports to maintain equality was displayed when, according to Ms. Bona-Beach, Assistant Athletic Director at NA, “the athletic program chose to drill permanent holes in the floor of the upstairs gym in order to properly support the volleyball nets and players.”

Facilities impact the success of other sports at the Academy as well. Mehta continued to express her belief that “the new facilities have definitely made a difference with the teams, providing a more positive atmosphere.” Previously, some sports, such as football, were perceived to receive more attention than others from the Newark Academy administration. However, sports such as fencing, swimming and wrestling, that traditionally receive less attention in other schools, are elevated at Newark Academy through strong facilities, including the Cetrulo Fencing Center, a six-lane swimming pool, and a wrestling gym.

So how does one measure success? While the football team may be known for garnering the most fans, Newark Academy teams have won 75 Prep and NJISSA championships in total. In addition, within the past four years, 41 student athletes at the Academy have gone on to participate in collegiate sports. Although some teams may be more successful than others, the athletic department is actively developing a community of athletes who display a positive attitude, have a passion for their sport, and play hard.