[sgreco]

I want to start by saying that if people get varsity letters for doing FIRST that's great, and I really don't have a problem with that, but suppose I do question why people think it is an honor to receive a varsity letter for doing FIRST, or a dishonor for not receiving one (whichever way you choose to look at it).

I'd like to remind everyone what a varsity letter is. It is an award earned for participation in a sport. It's not a recognition for any extra-curricular activity. A general sentiment around Chief Delphi seems to be that FIRST is a sport. A sport is "An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others." People seem to think that it's "better" to be classified as a sport than as something else. FIRST is fantastic. In my opinion, it's the best extra-curricular activity one could get involved in during high school. It teaches kids so many things, and it's inspiring to so many individuals. But it's not a sport.

Respect FIRST for what it is. Don't try to lump it in a category with sports because you feel it legitimizes the activity. That doesn't need to be done. FIRST is good enough on it's own, and we all know that. I never felt the need to be recognized with sports teams. We participate in a different activity, and get recognized in our own way, and we should be proud of that.

I feel like it's a dishonor to the true value and uniqueness of FIRST to consider it just a sport. FIRST is great as it is, classifying it as a sport makes it no better or worse, but why classify in a category to which it does not fit by definition? The classification of 'sport' doesn't make FIRST better, it just makes it a little less unique.

For some reason this topic bothers me every time it comes up, so please disagree with me if you do, but I feel like voicing my opinion. I have this discussion a lot with friends I have on FIRST teams, and I seem to be in the very underrepresented minority with my beliefs on this topic. I don't really understand why, so I'd be curious to hear what other people think, and maybe even convince me that we should be getting varsity letters.