The California Interscholastic Federation, also known as CIF, is what governs high school sports in this state. Its inclusion in Middle College High School would bring in great benefits for its students like improving health, providing opportunities for student athletes and even increasing school spirit. Unfortunately, the path for this inclusion is left unclear.
In total, there are over 1,500 schools who take part in CIF. The schools are divided into ten sections based on region. The southern section consists of over 500 schools and six of those schools are part of Santa Ana Unified School District. However, Middle College is not one of them.
It’s no surprise Middle College isn’t known for its sports. Despite its small school tournament and physical education classes, this isn’t the place most student athletes choose to attend. Those who do, have limited opportunities to compete and expose themselves as an athlete.
Matthew Curtis, the basketball coach and physical education teacher at Middle College explains the benefits of bringing in more sports opportunities to students.
“MCHS students could benefit from having CIF sports in a couple of ways: first, competing in athletics is scientifically proven to be great for students; it teaches them teamwork, dedication, hard work, and the obvious physical health benefits. Bringing CIF to MCHS would also allow us to have athletics teams that compete in leagues and get more opportunities to play than the one ‘small schools tournament’ we’re currently in; it would greatly increase school spirit for all students, and we would attract more student-athletes to our school that don’t apply here because of the lack of sports. Lastly, playing sports looks great on college applications,” Curtis said.
The benefits students are missing out on have led to some creating a petition drive to bring CIF sports to Middle College. The petition was created with the goal to let Middle College students be more competitive like other high schools. Junior Denise Loaiza is one of the students behind the petition and demonstrates her inspiration behind it.
“I was inspired to start the petition because I feel that the small sports we do have can be further improved with more competition. A lot of the students are talented individuals who don’t have the opportunity to improve. The majority of the time MCHS struggles to compete with small schools because other schools aren’t as committed. Student’s only get one opportunity to compete and because of the many students interested, they have to compete with themselves for their playing time,” Loaiza said.
The big question now is, what is keeping Middle College from incorporating CIF into their school? If there are so many benefits and support for its inclusion why hasn’t it happened yet? Loaiza shares her experience and thoughts on the matter.
“The only thing that is an issue is for the principal of the school to be willing to work on the issue. As a school that focuses on college, some people believe that it will be hard to balance sports and academics. However, like any other school, student athletes must be academically successful before they can compete. Therefore I hope that with this petition students will be able to get that experience while having the support of the staff of the school,” Loaiza said.
Senior Vania Perez is a student athlete and member on the basketball team. She shares her thoughts on the sports at Middle College.
“I like playing the sports offered but I feel like there are very few competitive games, just like everyone else I would like to get more out of games at school,” said Perez.
Although the road to bring CIF to school is uncertain, there are efforts and support to still make it a possibility. Middle College still provides many opportunities for its students.
“I wish we had more ‘real’ sports teams here, but I do understand why we don’t. I think this is still a great school even though we don’t have the same level of athletics, and appreciate we do at least have the small school tournament. I think the benefit of getting college credits is definitely worth still attending MCHS even though we don’t have CIF sports,” Curtis said.
