High school sports have become ubiquitous with life in one’s teenage years as a way to help make friends and learn life lessons and skills. In fact, according to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the participation in high school sports in California has increased to over 800,000 students in 2023. Yet, as the gap between a high school athlete and one at the collegiate level grows, it has revealed a problem of favoritism and an inherent bias against merit.
High school sports have been corrupted since their inception. Often, this corruption stems from a conflict of interest between players and coaches. This problem reared its ugly head recently, when head coach of the St. John Bosco High School Football program was caught using school funds allotted to the team for private dinners and other nefarious activities. Furthermore, he also alleged to have used this money to pay the tuition of students on the team. This begs the question, are there any safeguards against sports corruption–especially in sports that are even less popular?
Many students share concerns regarding nepotism in sports. One of them is CHS junior Wei Qi Lim.
“[Sports] should be a meritocracy judged purely based on one’s own performance,” Lim said.
This sentiment is what should be valued by high school sports, yet nothing much is done to prevent this from happening. The CIF has outlined its goals: “To emphasize the proper ideals of sportsmanship, ethical conduct, and fair play.” Despite this commitment, there are zero guidelines stating a specific punishment for coaches that might prefer specific players. This makes it incredibly unclear what the punishment might be if a coach was found out to be biased when selecting players.
To ensure fairness, CIF should adopt more regulations to stop nepotism and biased support for certain players in sports. As the landscape of high school sports continues to evolve, the governing bodies of sports must do more to ensure the games we cherish are fair. CIF should be making specific guidelines for players and coaches to explicitly punish and warn offenders. This would make clear that favoritism, bias, and nepotism will not be accepted by CIF. If we do not start somewhere, we will continue to see bias and favoritism pollute the sports we love. When that happens, it will ruin the high school experience for everyone.
