Underrepresented sports

Thursday, April 7th, 2022 Under appreciated athletes

Dylan Berman

Feature Editor

The Pepperbox covers sports like football, basketball, and soccer frequently, but what about the sports often left on the sidelines?

Many may not realize some of their fellow Arcata High School students are talented disc golfers, stilt walkers and mountain bikers.

Finn Sullivan, an AHS senior, is an extremely skilled disc golfer.

“I’m the highest rated junior amateur disc golfer in the world,” he said casually. This is confirmed by the Professional Disc Golf Association leader boards.

Sullivan has been around disc golf his entire life, with his dad being a disc golfer, but he only started trying to get good at the sport in 2019.

“I started playing during junior year…I was throwing discs in my backyard at lunch everyday,” he said, explaining that online school left him with tons of time to dedicate to the sport.

Sullivan won the National Amateur Disc Golf Championship last year.

“It’s definitely a mental sport. It’s helped me enjoy the outdoors and just have fun,” said Sullivan.

“Just watching the discs fly…being outside…I like to play disc golf a lot.”

Sullivan explained that over the past few years disc golf has really grown as a sport in Humboldt, but he still wishes the sport was recognized more.

“Nobody really knows too much about disc golf…I’m just hoping at some point it can be really huge,” he concluded.

Disc Golf isn’t the only sport that has lots of local participants but still lacks widespread recognition.

Cadence Brown, a junior, got into mountain biking two years ago through the Humboldt Composite Mountain Bike Club (HMCTB).

“I like the freedom that [biking] gives me…I can go wherever I want and you can also build whatever you want, you can build trails, you can build jumps…you can kinda take the sport anywhere you want,” said Brown.

He talked about the ways it can be difficult to start biking as a sport, explaining why the sport is less common.

“You have to live in a place where there’s nature near you where you can recreate safely, it’s also sort of an expensive sport… bikes are really expensive,” he said.

Brown is looking for a company sponsorship with his biking as a way to monetize the hobby.

He wants to keep biking into college.

“Whatever career I go into, I want to keep on mountain biking through that career,” he said.

Biking has helped Brown with his mental health over the challenging past few years.

“It’s really given me a way to keep my mind off things, I can use it as an escape to get away from things that are stressing me out,” he concluded.

Sullivan and Brown aren’t the only participants in obscure sports at the school.

Nyrie Broderick, an AHS freshman, has been stilt walking since third grade.

“I really like it because it’s something different, it’s just free styling,” she said.

She used to do stilts with the Arcata Playhouse, but currently, it’s just a personal hobby for her.

“It’s not very well covered…people probably think it’s really hard to do even though it’s pretty easy,” she said.

Broderick plans to start working at Camp Winnarainbow as a stilt walking teacher.

“I was able to make a lot of friends and it helped me become more sociable…it’s also helped me not really have super bad performing anxiety,” Broderick said, on how stilts have impacted her life.

“I think it’d be cool if more people did it and it was easier to start doing it,” she concluded.

Between disc golf, stilt walking, and mountain biking, the diversity of athletic talents amongst AHS students is impressive, and continuing to highlight these often under appreciated athletes could help bring their unique sports to the mainstream.

Ella Brown/AHS Arcata High Junior Cadence Brown flies off a jump in the Arcata Community Forest