Male sports at Madison have been making headlines even with the take over of women’s sports as there are less write ups about the females’ achievements and more about the males.
A couple of news sources cover Madison High School sports which helps the community get its news in many different ways. As different athletes and sports start to blossom, there is a shift in which sports get to make headlines. It makes it challenging for people to get unbiased news and truthful information when little to no information is made public.
This past week, both the MHS girls basketball team and boys basketball team won their sectional final. The boys basketball team won on a final second bucket by senior captain Michael Liddy. The girls team defeated Caldwell 55-37 in a physical and competitive match up. TAPinto Madison, one of Madison’s local news sources, wrote articles about both events yet the boys article was more in depth than the girls. As the public read the boys article, they were able to feel like they were there, as it was an in depth write up with quotes from coaches and players, about the game. If the public read the girls’ article, you would expect to feel the same way right? Well, in this case, this feeling was not projected as the article was a three sentence overview of the game.
This is not the only TAPInto Madison article that has done this to Madison girls sports teams. In the fall of 2024, MHS had two girls sports teams win sectionals and one team win the Morris County championship. Both the volleyball team and soccer team had very successful seasons by winning sectionals and making history. This news should be public in the community yet because coverage of these sports was low, it was hard to get a full story of what took place other than the team’s winning. Alongside them was the field hockey team who won the Morris County Tournament and were sectional finalists. These achievements were worth knowing yet due to the media coverage of women’s sports, it is unlikely the Madison community knows about them.
Another source Madison residents get their news from is the Madison Eagle. The job of this source is to report on news in the surrounding area and not just Madison which helps residents get more news than just their local news. Unless the sports team has won something big or made a statement in a competitive matchup, it is unlikely that they make the headline or cover story. Now, since this source covers sports, entertainments, local news, and more, it is hard to decide who or what gets the cover. They try to make sure they include all the sports, yet there are times where the girls teams in all areas get one paragraph while the boys teams have a whole story.
Many of the female sports at Madison are not getting the recognition they deserve. There are a total of 13 varsity sports for female athletes. Some of these teams get overlooked, especially those that do not have articles or news reported about them. The fall was a very successful season for the female sports teams, the winter was just as successful and is still in progress, and the spring season looks bright for our female athletes. The local news sources are failing the Madison community as female sports should be reported, but due to the lack of coverage, these female sports are thriving in the unknown.