There are currently 46 recognized sports that compete in the Summer and Winter Olympics, but we don’t pay attention to all of them. In fact, most people have probably never heard of skeleton or canoe slalom.

People in America seem to have a fascination with only certain kinds of sports. Certain types of sports are more idolized depending on the geographic regions. For example, the South seems to fascinate baseball and football more than other sports. However, the northern states tend to look forward to the winter season as well for hockey.

I was born and raised in the South, and it seems that nobody pays any attention to the sport of hockey here in Texarkana. There are the select few who brave the crowd and follow a different path. Most people around here probably aren’t even sure of what goes on in hockey.

All they really like to see are the fights and goals, which, don’t get me wrong, are pretty exciting to watch, but that’s not the whole point of hockey.

Texarkana used to have a hockey team, the Bandits, but they fell apart because not many people would go see the games. Not many people supporting the team meant not much money coming in.

Granted Texarkana is a smaller city than places like Dallas, Detroit or Phoenix. These cities have more money and people to support sports other than just football and baseball. People at Texas High and in Texarkana still need to expand their knowledge and try to watch other sports instead of just the norm.

Even I fall victim to the hypnotizing aura of football, but I still enjoy finding a different game on a Tuesday or Thursday night. If you do anything at all, just flip back and forth between programs. Who wants to watch commercials anyway?

This doesn’t just apply to hockey. People don’t seem to attend basketball, tennis or soccer games either, especially at this school. Perhaps these problems stem from the lack of publicity.

Without quality publicity, students never know how different sports or athletes are performing. Teams like cross country and powerlifting have star athletes who even make it to the state level, and yet, people are surprised when they hear there is a powerlifting team.

Publicity seems to be the main problem because we are all fixated on Friday nights and we don’t even care to mention what is happening all the other nights, including Saturdays.

People should at least try to watch or go to other games instead of just baseball and football because these other sports can be just as exciting. I’m pretty sure that the athletes who are competing will like to see more people show up and support their team. Our school needs to start supporting different sports instead of just the ones that receive the spotlight all the time.