What is a sport? This is the battle fought for ages at a very undecided border.

Well, I’m here to resolve the argument. Whether it be from the dictionary or from tacit societal understanding, there is a structure to everything in life. Sports is no exception to that rule.

When you think of a sport, many things may come to mind. For me, it’s big stadiums with enthusiastic fans screaming as though their favorite player can hear them. For others, it’s watching people perform in a controlled and rehearsed environment, throwing people in the air after a scored point. But, only one of those scenarios is correct.

Here’s the issue: as a society, we’ve bent and broken the qualifications of a sport, allowing for menial activities to join the label that should be set aside for the big leagues. In order to get to the root of the problem, we have to add certain guidelines back into this mess.

Perhaps the guidelines we’re searching for lie in activities that are confirmed sports such as basketball, football and soccer. It can get messy defining why these activities are irrefutably sports, but let’s try.

For starters, each of them have an opponent or team to face off against. There’s definitely a desire within each of the players to not only beat their opponents, but to, in simpler terms, be better and perform better than their competitors. The Lakers would be utterly useless if they didn’t have other teams to crush on the court.

Let’s discuss physicality. What incites the excitement within us as spectators is the hope for a battle: two people or two teams going back and forth, progressively getting more aggressive. Watching a linebacker manhandle a quarterback gets our blood pumping and hearts racing, so much so that some of us dedicate our lives to rooting for specific teams.

But what is the real reason we all watch sports? Easy, for their unpredictable nature. Nothing in a real sport can be scripted. I mean come on, if real sports were scripted, the Patriots would have never lost the Super Bowl to the Giants in 2008.

Now, even through the ink and words, I can feel some of you cheerleaders, dancers and band kids judging me.

Listen, this by no means is a personal attack on any of you. I’m simply trying to arbitrate an argument.

Though schools have labeled activities sports such as cheer, dance and marching band, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are or ever were. These activities have been defined as sports as a way to earn P.E. credits. High school sideline cheer is simply waiting for a certain queue. For some, cheer as a sport never crossed their mind until P.E. credit came into the conversation.

And marching band is mostly that of a performance. Before halftime, they play rhythms in pep tunes to match the events in the game. Even at halftime during their moment to shine, they are moving in the pattern they have rehearsed numerous times prior. Once the time passes, back to the stands they go, repeating the cycle.

Now, I am aware of the competitions, including the Southern California championships. But, here’s the thing: they know their routine. They step onto the field and every step they make, every note they play is prepared in advance. Whereas, a sport has you waiting at the edge of your seat because no one knows what going to happen next.

The dance team is once again a similar theme, a performance. At rallies and half time, they come on to show what they have practiced over and over again. Even then, only to the domain of Oak Park.

Here is the thing, a sport can practice all they want, but you cannot practice the unknown. Anything can happen on a court or a field, that is the very beauty of sports, waiting for the unexpected.

Cheer, dance and marching band step onto the field or floor and know exactly what is going to happen when. Each person knows their role, even the role of person next to them.

I’m not this pig-headed and stubborn bigot who only believes one thing. I am more than aware of the ‘competitive’ nature of cheer, dance and marching band scene. I even admire and admit the physical exertion involved in these activities can be challenging. However, they lack a certain passionate anger and aggression that is part of sport.

More importantly, each of these activities is coordinated, choreographed and controlled. When cheerleaders and band kids step onto the mat, they know where there have to be, what they have to do and when to do things on the dot. And dancers? They’re on the other side of the spectrum altogether. Dance as well as marching band is a performance and an art. Along with cheer, they may be competing, but they know their routine when they step onto the floor. As a dancer, they have to translate a musical message with conviction and emotion through movements. That, in its purest form, is art.

The definition of sports has been thrown around so much, it has lost its true meaning. We now have this loose definition to simply satisfy everyone who does something. It seems we must appease everyone to avoid hurt feelings. But the truth is, some ‘sports’ have little to no qualities of an actual sport.