Freshman year can be daunting: a bigger school, harder classes, and perhaps most daunting of all, social interactions. For people coming into high school looking to expand their social circle, it can be a struggle, but that’s where high school sports can come in. 

Sports offer a great opportunity to connect with the community around you and create new friendships as well. In fact, a current freshman at Wilsonville, Lucy Heu-Weller, stated, “Playing a fall sport has definitely helped me cause it’s like an automatic group of friends.”

Another freshman, Madden Fee, brought to light another aspect of how sports can help create new friendships. He said that “the team bonding has been really fun,” later stating, “it has definitely helped.” This came up while discussing how team bonding has helped him connect with people without having to organize meetups outside of activities or school. 

As well as asking individual students their thoughts on sports and socializing, there was also a survey sent out to the freshmen of Wilsonville. Of the people who answered, 90% of people said that the sports they participated in had helped them connect with new people, and 100% stated that they enjoyed the community that their sports had to offer. 

All in all, it appears that sports can help create new friendships and connect you better with your community, so next time you might be struggling with making new friends, go out for a sports team; the facts don’t lie: it will not disappoint.