Carnegie has been known to be an academic-oriented school and one that doesn’t partake in many traditional high school sports. But junior Esha Patel is determined to change that. Patel is the founder of the first girl’s basketball club/team at Carnegie. For several years Carnegie has had a boys basketball club that has played against other HISD high schools and has made it to the championship games, and the girls wanted in on the action. 

“We’re known as a nerd school and nerds are not exactly associated with athletics and sports,” says co-founder Esha Patel. 

This is something that many Carnegie students can attest to, being academically driven, sports are not our main focus.

Attending Carnegie is unlike attending any other high school, in the sense that grades are more important than games and keeping your GPA high is what matters. While Carnegie students do receive homework, it can be manageable and many students participate in extracurricular activities outside of school. 

Founder Esha Patel said how she has played basketball for fun her whole life and was affiliated with her middle school team. Upon arrival at Carnegie, Esha, along with many other girls, was sad, but not surprised to see that there was no girl’s basketball team or club, but some events are held schoolwide to showcase one’s athletic ability. 

“Last year there was the 3 v 3 March Madness event going on, and my friends and I were the first team to sign up,” said co-founder Esha Patel. And she advanced to the second round of competitions.

With the annual March Madness, students are able to form teams, showcase skills, and possibly advance to a championship round. Even with this, there are not many other opportunities for girls to play organized games at school which led to the formation of the girl’s basketball club. But with formation comes continuation, and the only way that girls basketball at Carnegie will last is if there is interest from all grade levels. 

“I’m hoping that enough underclassmen will be like interested in it, and hopefully they’ll be able to continue it when we leave,” said co-founder and sophomore Isabella Hsu.

Even with the creation of this team, it is not yet determined whether it will be for enjoyment or for competition and games against other schools, as the boys club team has done in the past. 

“I want to improve my skills, sure, but I’m also doing it for fun and to play with my friends,” says co-founder Esha Patel. 

In her perspective, it is important to both bond with friends and improves skills, but in these first few years, she is working on building up a sustainable team that will be able to continue the club when she and her founding members graduate.

The start of a girls basketball team at Carnegie is the first of many steps in beginning to improve more than our grades. While we strive to get high test scores, we are beginning to find the importance of our physical health and well being and how exercise can improve our attitude and averages.