Sports have become a very important part of Arlington High School over the years. They not only give the school something to talk about, but sports also keep people athletic and involved in more aspects of the school. So why not add more?

Two students, Maggie Delaney (‘20) and Jeffrey Andrews (‘19), have been waiting for AHS to add their favorite sports: swimming and hockey. Both Delaney and Andrews are passionate about the possibility of these additions because they have been involved in the sports their whole lives.

Delaney first started to swim because her older sister did and she was dragged along to every meet her sister had. “I just gave it a try,” said Delaney.

After trying it out, Delaney has stuck with it for 11 years now and currently swims at Marysville Pilchuck with her club team, the Mighty Marlins Swim Club. Likewise, Andrews has played hockey for 10 years through the Everett Jr. Silvertips and grew to love it because of influence from his father.

Arlington High School’s Athletic Director, Mr. Roys, who has held the title for 9 years, fully supports the addition of new sports to our already successful program. Roys explained that the only problems with adding these sports would be the lack of facilities and funding our school has.  “Swimming and hockey would be in the same boat as for not having facilities,” said Roys.

If the school had the right funding, Roys would fully support building new facilities for the teams to practice in. Although, he says that the possibility of adding hockey to our array of athletics is slim. “Hockey is not recognized by the WIAA as a sport,” said Roys.

As for swimming, there’s high hopes. Roys said that the athletic department here at AHS has made multiple attempts to practice with both Marysville Pilchuck High School and Stanwood High School at the MPHS pool, but our school was denied both times. Despite the setbacks, Roys said, “We would add swimming in a heartbeat.”

But still, you might ask why we would add hockey and swimming to the school’s sports program. Both Andrews and Delaney believe that their favorite sports would be good for Arlington High School.“[Swimming] includes a lot of people,” said Delaney.

Andrews claimed that if hockey was offered here, it would make the school a lot more fun, especially for the people who enjoy hockey. For the people who don’t enjoy hockey as much, another sport is just another way to be social and school-spirited at games.

School spirit shows itself at all our sports games here at AHS, so introducing more sports would only be inclusive to more people and definitely add fuel to that fire. Delaney said that since swim is a no-cut sport, adding it to our school would bring more people around. She believes that swim could impact students’ lives in different ways, too. “Knowing how to swim is kind of an important thing to know,” said Delaney.

Besides the inclusive factors, trying new sports would be a memorable and exciting experience. Andrews thinks that adding hockey would positively impact our school. “It’s a very fun sport to play,” said Andrews.

Incidentally, including more sports into Arlington High School’s array would not take away from the recognition or glory of the ones that we already have. Roys believes in adding more sports and keeping all of them without consideration of eradicating ones that are most in the same season. “I would not want to lose any opportunities for students,” said Roys.

At the end of the day, if AHS were to add more sports, it all comes down to making students at school feel more comfortable and have a more positive attitude towards the school. For Roys, it all points to the positives that come out of our athletic program and allowing for students to grow. “Athletic Director is a fun job because I get to be involved in all sports and I get to watch kids compete,” said Roys.

Delaney still holds high hopes and continues to chase the dream of competing in swimming here at Arlington High School. Andrews has significantly less hope, but he still chooses to compete for the Jr. Silvertips.

Until the time comes, Andrews and Delaney choose to make light of the situation. “People would actually acknowledge that swimming is a sport [if it was offered here],” said Delaney.