DGN offers many opportunities to become involved with sports. However, there is some divergence with participation. Athena’s dance, cheerleading, football, badminton, and wrestling are all sports teams that have a specific commonality: distinct separation of gender.

Senior Chris Stucker is a member of the tennis team and has expressed interest in playing boys’ badminton, but such a team does not exist.

“I think that anybody who wants to participate in any sort of sport should be able to. There is no girls football team, so if a female student were interested in playing football, I don’t think it should be a problem to allow them to go for it. The same thing goes for boys and badminton,” Stucker said.

Other sports have unique situations also, like Athena’s dance. In past years, male participation on the team has been limited. Aside from an annual event where female Athenas choose an Atheno to perform in an assembly, members of the Athenas team are primarily female.

In recent years, males have joined the predominantly female cheerleading team. Nathan Kerr participates on the team and struggles with being one of the few males on varsity.

“When I started cheer, I did feel sort of out of place, and it was kind of awkward because I didn’t really know any of the girls on the team, so I had to deal with that. I do sometimes feel like I am [treated differently], and it’s not their fault, they don’t know me as well as the rest of the team, but I feel that shouldn’t be a factor as to how they act towards me.” Kerr said.

In the past, females have only been on the football team in the kicker position, but a female can be any position.

“Football and wrestling have interesting dynamics where there’s not a specific gender attached to it, it’s just stereotypically assumed that its a boys only team,” varsity football head coach Joesph Horeni said.

2019 graduate Cheyenne Melton participated as the only female on the wrestling team.

“When I first joined most people didn’t think I was serious, they thought that I would be a manager for the team. When I showed up to practice everyday and did what I needed to, people came to respect me,” Melton said.

However, her spot on the team didn’t come without obstacles: Melton faced social backlash for joining the team.

“I choose to block out the judgement towards me. No one said anything to my face, but I know that people talked about me,” Melton said.

According to the IHSA, there are 16 sports offered to females and 15 offered to males in Illinois.