By Caleb Peckham

The realization hit this month as I was preparing for the state track meet that this is my last article for De Equitibus. In addition to the editing and writing that I’ve completed over the past several years, I have also covered many of our sports events. With just one last chance to write, I wanted to stick with what is familiar, what I know best, namely the high school sports that surround me.

So my question is, why do we put so much focus on sports at Tempe Prep? It’s clear that not all schools of our academic caliber emphasize this pursuit. And yet at our school many of our brightest students are sacrificing their time and putting their limbs and ligaments at risk to cross the finish line first and put the football in the end zone, the ball in the hoop, or the soccer ball in the back of the net. While I know that not all students are involved, such a significant percentage of the enrollment does play Tempe Prep sports that it is a phenomenon worth noting.

Despite this sacrifice of time and sleep across a broad spectrum of students, our grades and overall academic performance continue to keep pace with other schools. Why is this? My opinion is that students learn from the fundamental core of sports: competition. Competition is occasionally criticized as a divisive force that splits friends and unnecessarily pits people against each other, but I think the benefits clearly outweigh the drawbacks. In fact, competition draws teammates closer together, and a community forms that supports teamwork and loyalty.

The fact is that students have more fun when winning. The athletes like their teammates more, their friends are more likely to watch their games, and they have pride in their accomplishments. A good sports program is dedicated to winning, and this winning has a beneficial ripple effect across Tempe Prep’s tiny campus. In order to achieve these victories, competition and the drive to improve are both necessary.

That is why the 2012-13 year may just have been Tempe Prep’s best series of sports seasons ever. Most recently, during the spring sports, both the softball and baseball teams won playoff games and are moving up the ranks of small-school programs. Meanwhile the track team improved immensely and made TPA proud at the state meet, with the women placing second overall.

As for me, I am sure I would never have had the opportunity to attend the college of my dreams unless I had success in Tempe Prep sports. It’s not so much that my skills earned me a place at the university level, but instead that the dedication and competitive effort that I’ve put in over the years has shown me to be a well-rounded senior capable of handling collegiate rigors. My application, and many of those of my peers, would have been incomplete and paltry without Tempe Prep sports.

The reason that we seek to be champions in every sport, as opposed to just getting by, is that the Tempe Prep community knows that we individually and as a school can accomplish more if we dedicate ourselves to working hard and giving it our all. In the classroom, there is no clear way to “put everything on the line.” But on the cross country trail or the court, that is where people display superior effort and Knights are made.

And so while I won’t be around to see the future of TPA sports, as long as a competitive fire continues to drive each team, the school as a whole should be set. Though I’ve worked hard at school and on exams, it’s the efforts in the freezing winter soccer games and on Mesa Community College’s burning track that have taught me what Tempe Prep is all about.