Last year, COVID sparked the idea of switching the girls’ and boys’ basketball games around in order to maintain a low gym capacity. This meant that the girls and boys JV would switch between the elementary and high school gym on game days, and where the JV played changed the time the varsity played, whether it would be 6:00 or 8:00. With those restrictions disappearing this year, there are many debates about whether we should go back to the usual—girls first, boys second—or make the change permanent. However, I say there’s a simple solution: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

We can only make assumptions on why girls historically play first since there is no known real reason. I think that one of the main reasons the games are set up this way is because boy sports are more popular and draw in a larger crowd. Having the boys play later allows more parents and students to come to the game since they might have work earlier. Also, it brings in more of a crowd for the girls’ game since the boys have to wait for their game to finish in order to start. If we switched the order of the games, many fans would leave after the boys’ game and leave the girls’ gym empty.

Another reason for the early girls’ game is that girls who are on the cheer team are able to cheer for the entirety of the boys’ game. If girls were to play last, the basketball players who also cheer would have to leave the game at halftime in order to get ready for their own game. This isn’t a problem for the boys since no boys partake in cheer.

Finally, boys’ games are typically more exciting, and the later the game, the more amped up the games tend to be. This can be from the fact that everyone has been waiting all day and their adrenaline is high. As fans, we want the more intense game to finish off the day. Having the girls play first adds hype to the boys’ game and gets the momentum of the gym going on the right track. If the girls played after, the crowd would leave, along with that momentum.

However, playing a later game limits the amount of time the boys basketball players get to do the essentials like sleep, eat and of course, do homework. Basketball games are played during the week, meaning after a late night players have to get up the next day, go to school and have all their things prepared the night before. This can be quite difficult for the boys since most of them don’t get home until 9:30 at the earliest, whereas the girls are able to leave earlier and therefore, get home at an earlier time. But, part of being a student-athlete is being responsible and planning for things ahead of time.