Bruin athletes dominated this year, with girls basketball bringing home the state title and four other teams placing second. Because of these impressive championships, high school sports coverage site maxpreps.com recently named RBHS athletics No. 6 in the nation through their MaxPreps Cup ranking. RBHS principal Jennifer Mast said the site tracks athletics nationwide, adding up first and second place state championships to create a comprehensive ranking. The various first and second place titles helped push RBHS toward the top of the list, she said.
“They have a kind of a committee ranking and then they have a computer ranking,” Mast said. “They do this all on their own, they keep track of what’s going on in every state with sports and the scoring system has to do pretty much completely with state championships and second places. The fact that we have four second places at this point and one state championship puts us in a really good position coming into the spring.”
Mast said the ranking is satisfying for the dedicated athletes who work hard to bring home championships. Though the school tries to emphasize all students’ hard work and involvement, she said, the athletic department deserves attention for their impressive accomplishments.
“I think it’s great recognition for the kids. The athletes do work really hard and so do all of our kids,” Mast said. “We try hard not to overemphasize athletics, but we do have an outstanding athletic program and we have for quite sometime, so it’s cool to get that recognition.”
Sophomore cross country and track runner Brendan Fish said he is grateful for the ability to participate in such a renowned and competitive athletic program. He said that although the ranking seems impressive, it is well deserved among student athletes.
“Being a Rock Bridge athlete, it’s kind of different from being an athlete anywhere else,” Fish said. “It’s just a whole new level and it’s a great experience, I’ve learned a lot from it and I enjoy it and everyone else enjoys it, especially the competition within it. That plays a big role in why we were ranked sixth in the nation, which is crazy but it makes sense because Rock Bridge is just so competitive in their athletics in every way and every sport.
This year’s ranking may be prestigious, but it does not reflect the maximum ability of our school’s athletic teams, Fish said. It would be feasible for RBHS to rank even higher in the future.
“I think we can do better, even,” Fish said. “A lot of our teams this year didn’t even do as well as they wish they could have– soccer, cross country, just a couple of them– and I think we can do much better. We can work harder, our programs still have far to go, they can be built up even more.”
The positive cycle of hard work and proceeding recognition allow for constant improvement within the school’s athletic teams, Mast said. Though the school is supportive rather than pressuring when it comes to success in sports, students take the initiative to carry on the RBHS athletic legacy.
“I think the more recognition we get, it kind of brings on a sense of pride but it also brings on a sense of responsibility for athletes that ‘hey, we’re an outstanding program, we need to stay at the top,’ those kinds of things,” Mast said. We’re not really putting that pressure on anybody but it just kind of happens.”
by Anna Wright
