Students are screaming. Music is blaring. This is the setting of a pep rally, where everyone is getting hyped for the upcoming game. Down the hall, the debate team prepares for nationals-where are their fans?

Although academics are hard to cheer for, they can still be supported. The West Side Story asked students and teachers if West gives enough appreciation to its academics.

“West actually does a very good job valuing and providing opportunities to cheer on their academic programs,” said Travis Henderson, a social studies teacher. Henderson shares that speech and debate are often asked to give recognition speeches at pep rallies, and this year participated in the musical chairs competition.

Mason Koch ‘16 is a star football player at West High and scored a 36 on his ACT. “I think academics come first, they are more important for your future, but you have to be motivated in both to have success.”

Koch has his goals laid out in front of him, and although football is one of them, academics are the top priority. “I think sports are glorified, but academics deserve that kind of praise too.They just don’t necessarily get it because I think it’s expected of everyone to achieve their academics, and sports are just something that if you want to do then go for it.”

Katie Bozer ‘17, one of the captains of Science Olympiad, has a different view. “Science Olympiad is in its third year at West High. Many of our team members have placed first, second, and third in their competitions [but] our placement is not very publicized. Our friends know, but there is not really anything ever said school wide.”

Shalom Alarape ‘18 developed a similar opinion with Bozer when she first came to West for a show choir audition. “Walking in I saw these big places for all these trophies and I was like ‘woah, West is really good at sports’ but that’s all I knew [and heard about].” To Alarape, academics should come first. “What if you break your leg before your senior year? That’s the time when colleges are watching you [and now] your sports life is over. You then remember your freshman-junior year when you were only focusing on sports and not your grades.”

Dave McNair, a Spanish teacher, brought up a similar point. “It’s really a pipe dream for most kids, [not all of them] are going to go pro. Many of them are passing on their education because they [want to] go pro right after high school [and] I don’t agree with that.” He shares that yes, some people get famous, but not everyone has that possibility.

Many people were able to provide new ways to improve West’s academic appreciation, like displaying achievements on the 24-hour announcement system in the library, adding a segment similar to “Carter’s Corner” on the advisory channel regarding academics, or displaying all West’s trophies together to show that our school excels in both sports and academics.