Women's March Madness Tournament battling attraction from all audiences

by Callene Laslo, Staff Writer

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

The Women's March Madness Tournament has never been a popular thing across the United States. Because the tournament airs at the same time as the men's tournament, it tends to get minimal attention. Ally Hunt (9) says “I don’t really keep up with the women's tournament as much as I do the mens but I still like the teams”. You rarely see a women’s bracket handed out at school to complete, and honestly there is no true answer in regards to why men's basketball is so much more famous.

Personally I love the women's tournament. Being a high school basketball player, watching both sides of the game can only help you especially because the pacing of both sides of the game are extremely different. The teams on the women's side are fantastic and super talented at what they do. Watching these outstanding players can help grow your basketball IQ. As an example Stanford, has insane chemistry with each other and can help educate yourself to become a better player in all aspects.

This year’s tournament attendance skyrocketed! COVID most definitely limited the attendance last year, but even tuning in on television was a huge thing this year! The attendance of this tournament keeps going up every year which means more young women can experience this amazing event.

The returning champions Stanford Women's basketball are back and better than ever for this tournament. To me they look like they would be able to do it all again but there is some good competition this year, like UConn who unfortunately beat them in the semifinals. Katey Kirk (9) says, “Stanford is my favorite team this year! It stinks they lost though.” This plays into the gender inequality because this woman’s team has gotten farther than the mens team but people still don’t respect that side of the game. I’m pumped to see the winner of this tournament because there is some insane talent.

Kira Morisue-Lesser (9) speaks about on women's sports as a Soccer and Basketball player at Hilliard Bradley. Photo by Callene Laslo.

This isn’t just meant for basketball. We see these types of things happening in all sports aired on the television with both genders participating. Kira Morisue-Lesser (9) says “I see these types of situations happen in soccer too. Why can’t we all be equal?” We wonder why men's sports get so much more attention than the women's and truly there is no right or wrong answer, it's simply different from every person's perspective.

As a young female athlete the older we get the more hate we get for doing what we love. We as women can accomplish anything we put our minds to, no matter the adversity that we face! Encourage and educate your peers on women athletes for everyone is equal in this world. We all deserve the same recognition!