(May 16, 2000) — As the second annual basketball intramural competition ended and the winners were selected, everyone was left with one question: where are the trophies and plaques for the winners from the girls’ tournament? The explanation for that is, Clark PE teacher Judy Thomsen says, the school’s low budget for sports and the small number of students participating in the girls’ portion of the tournament. The boys’ division of the tournament consisted of more than 200 people and the girls only had 25. When winners were awarded trophies and plaques at the end, the winning team got trophies and the runners-up got plaques. Since the girls had a smaller number of participants, if different trophies were awarded to the top two teams, a smaller number of participants would have received praise, making the other half feel less confident for not winning. Besides the awards received at the end, there were other factors that made the finalists in the girls’ division think their games were not as important. “When we played our final game, there was a smaller crowd than the boys’, no pictures were taken and no one took us out to lunch,” said one of the members in the second place team for the girls. Also, since Clark does not have sports teams, there is no budget for the intramural competitions and the money comes out of the PE department. However, Thompsen said she is proposing a budget for the intramural competitions from the school board so that the school will be able to spend more money, giving the winners the praise they deserve. Still, after hearing about the cut from the PE department, some of the players in the girls’ division were not convinced it was fair. They thought if there was not enough money to spend on the tournament, then so much of it should not be spent on the boys’ teams. Of course, another solution for this is to have more girls participate in the tournaments! (Hint, Hint.)