Here at LHS we are blessed to have a great athletic program and fantastic athletic facilities. However, there are many sports that LHS does not have that other high schools have. Here's a look at some serious and not-so-serious sports that LHS should consider adding.
Sports other high schools have:
Rowing: Local schools such as New Trier and Loyola Academy have rowing teams.
Badminton: Many local schools like ZIon-Benton, Stevenson, Palatine and Rolling Meadows have girls badminton teams.
Field Hockey: High schools like Stevenson, New Trier and Lake Forest have girls field hockey teams. There are no male teams.
Team Handball: No local schools have this sport, but it is popular in the state of New York at the high school level.
Curling: Like handball curling hasn’t reached the state of Illinois. However, high schools in Wisconsin have it.
Fencing: Like most of the other sports Stevenson and New Trier have Fencing. Deerfield is another local high school with fencing.
Sports no high schools have:
Rugby: Living in the United States, we have the privilege of American football. On the other hand, the rest of the world has rugby, a real man’s sport. No bogus pads to stand in the way of contact and no helmets to protect from crushing blows. Rugby is one of the most popular sports in the world even though, like soccer, it hasn’t caught on in the States.
Competitive Eating: Who doesn’t have a little Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut in them? Competitive eating has been gaining some major following and has even started their own organization, the International Federation of Competitive Eating. They set up the world-famous Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest on the fourth of July to the pleasure of thousands who pack Coney Island in New York City. We love watching people eat in gluttony so much that people watch shows like “Man vs. Food” on the Travel Chanel for pure enjoyment.
Extreme Ironing: Because who wouldn’t want to iron on the top of a mountain? Seriously though, people actually participate in extreme ironing. The purpose of this sport is to go out and iron your clothing at an extreme place. Some places where the event has taken place includes: mountain sides, forests and even underwater (how does that work out?). Even more extreme ways to iron your clothing are doing it while canoeing, skiing or snowboarding. Can you imagine if we had a team and our home court was the Cook Mansion, or having away games against Chicago teams on top of the Willis (Sears) Tower?
Jousting: What could be better than riding a horse, having a sweet helmet, and using one of those cool long pols called a lance? Jousting is picking up across the United States. The state of Maryland has a jousting tournament association, and every year since 1950 they have been competing. Other states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia have annual jousting tournaments, and there is even a National Jousting Association and Hall of Fame.
Photos courtesy of wikipedia.org