Carmel’s Felipez fosters fairness
Most high school athletes I interview are busy, busy, busy.
They’ve got games, they’ve got practices. They’ve got school and homework. Some even try to squeeze in extra workouts with a personal trainer on the side.
When I ask these athletes if they have hobbies or activities that they like to do in their down time, many just chuckle politely. They say they don’t have much downtime, let alone time for hobbies.
So how then does Carmel senior guard Madeline Felipez have time for a cause? You know, a real cause, as in a movement for social change or action.
My guess is that her intense passion for it forces her to make time.
Felipez is bound and determined to change habits and mindsets, and her cause is her team, the Carmel girls basketball team … not to mention the girls volleyball team, the girls softball team and all the other girls teams on the Carmel campus.
She is trying, with as much enthusiasm and vigor as one person can, to drum up more fan support for girls sports, to the point where it becomes as routine to attend a girls game as it is to attend a boys game.
“We don’t get very many fans, and sometimes it just feels really awful to see that,” Felipez said of the girls basketball team. “I don’t think it affects how we play necessarily, because we play to win and we play for us. But it would be nice to have the intensity of our games built up with fans, like the boys games are. And it would be nice to see our friends out supporting us, like they do for the boys.”
Last weekend, Felipez saw some of her tireless efforts come to fruition when Carmel hosted a Friday night girls basketball game for what is believed to be the first time in school history.
The game was turned into a doubleheader, with a boys varsity game played after the girls game. Both teams from Carmel faced St. Viator, and the event, which Felipez helped organize, was dubbed “Pack the Place.”
“We got a lot more fans out to our game than we usually do,” Felipez said. “We were really, really excited about that.”
Felipez, who first approached her coach and athletic director Andy Bitto last spring with the idea of playing a girls game on a more fan-friendly Friday night, spear-headed the publicity efforts for “Pack the Place.”
She designed home-made flyers and got her friends and teammates to help her hang them all over school. She also got a notice placed on the school’s video boards, which run important announcements and information on a continuous loop.
Plus, Felipez chatted up anyone who would listen about “Pack the Place.”
“A ton of work went into it, and everyone on the team kept talking it up,” Felipez said. “We tried really hard with the publicity.”
Felipez didn’t stop there.
When she heard that the band, cheerleaders and poms weren’t scheduled to be at the girls portion of “Pack the Place,” Felipez sought them out, too, so that she could plead her case.
“We ended up getting a few members of the band to come, and we had some cheerleaders come, too. It was really great,” Felipez said. “It still wasn’t the full band, or all of the cheerleaders, like the boys get, but we were really happy that we got some to come out and support us.”
Felipez has been stuck on the idea of support for girls sports ever since she got to Carmel. In fact, she wrote her junior research paper on the subject.
“I was really disappointed when I saw the disparity of how people supported girls sports versus boys sports,” Felipez said. “My paper focused on high school sports because it’s relevant to me, but it kind of touched on the other levels, too, and how it starts in grade school and no one knows a lot of the time that the girls are even playing.
“It’s just about support and people taking it seriously. Even with some of my good friends, I’ll be like, ‘Come support us at the game.’ And they’ll be like, ‘Well, we’re going to the boys game.’”
Felipez doesn’t want to take fans away from the boys. But she doesn’t buy the argument that boys games are somehow a better fan experience, and more worthy of fan support. She believes that girls games can be just as entertaining.
“I think the boys play on the fly and people like seeing all of their great individual skills on the court,” Felipez said. “But with the girls game, we’re a little bit more focused on running plays for each other and using chemistry and teamwork. I think the way girls work together can be really fun to watch, too.”
And let’s be honest here: not every fan, particularly not every student fan, goes to a game simply to watch. Some are there also to be seen. And they could do that at a girls game, too.
“For a lot of people, going to a game is as much about the social experience. That’s why a lot of my friends go to boys games. It’s a social event, and a fun place to hang out with all your friends and show your school spirit,” Felipez said. “I think going to girls games could be just as fun because the whole friends aspect and school spirit thing can be a part of the girls game, too.
“It just takes a few people to have the mentality of, ‘Yes, I’m going to go have a fun time watching the girls game. If that person brings a few people and those people bring some, pretty soon it’s a social event and people are having fun at our games, too.”
Felipez is hoping a big crowd comes out for some fun on Saturday. The 12-8 Corsairs, who are riding a three-game winning streak, will be hosting Nazareth at 6 p.m. for senior night.
“It’s a special night for us, especially for the seniors, so we hope a lot of people come out,” Felipez said. “We’ve been talking up this game, too.”
Felipez will keep the chatter going, right into the spring.
She plays softball and is hoping to increase fan support at both softball and baseball games.
“I hope I can start something (with the Pack the Place events) at Carmel that will continue after I leave,” Felipez said. “My little sister (Hannah) is coming here next year and I really hope for her that the girls will start to get even more recognition and support.”
pbabcock@dailyherald.com