Graduation is meant to wrap up a senior’s four years of high school. Seniors receive honors cords for their hard work all four years and being an honor student, which is a student who takes honors/AP classes and has a GPA above 3.5. Just as students work hard to maintain high grades for all four years, there are athletes who work hard to achieve varsity status for all four years. In light of this, it is disheartening that these athletes don’t get the same recognition.. 

Being a four-varsity athlete is almost like being an honors student in terms of stress. Coaches put a lot of pressure on athletes to win. Just like honors students have to be at their best academically, athletes have to be at the top of their game. 

As an athlete, it’s not easy — I have coaches breathing down my back and pushing me to do better. I have to live up to a picture perfect image, no complaining. When I graduate, I want to be proud of myself for being able to do a sport for four years, and the cord would show my accomplishments to myself and my peers. 

Graduation is about celebrating all that the hard work the seniors have done the last four years, and thus competing in sports for four years should be celebrated as well. The graduation cords show the accomplishment of students’ hard work. 

Not all sports have senior night — cross country, track, tennis and golf don’t have one. Those seniors don’t get to show off their athletic achievements to their parents and peers. Graduation cords for the varsity athletes should be an outlet for athletes’ pride. 

When looking at other schools around us, they also don’t have cords for athletes. Oak Park should lead the way. Once one school starts something new, the rest of the schools follow. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that honor of starting something new at Oak Park? 

An athlete who competes for many years utilizes dedication, hard work and even emotional commitment. Your body basically takes a beating from your sport and that can cause injuries that can prevent them from doing said sport. The amount of hours that get put into a sport is crazy, and people often wonder how we do it all the time – all our hard work as athletes should be recognized.