Although the local rivalry between Gunn and Paly doesn’t quite bring this level of drama — barring incidents like September 2022’s football game, which was canceled due to student misbehavior — Gunn athletes find that it has its own intensity and competitive spirit.

When it comes to basketball, boys varsity team co-captain senior Ethan Fu feels that the larger crowds that rivalry games attract create an immense pressure to win.

“The crowd is always huge (when we play) Paly, and it’s disorienting at first,” he said. “But the pressure from the crowd isn’t just pressure to represent my school, but also pressure to show (up) for my friends and family who are there watching me.”

Varsity point guard junior Sam Little also highlighted the benefits of playing to an audience.

“The fan turnout definitely makes our team play better,” he said. “It keeps us alert and more in touch.”

Although Little acknowledges the idea of home-court advantage, he believes his wins and losses mean more when they happen at Paly.

“Especially when we play Paly at their home court, there’s this feeling of, ‘I want to crush this team in front of their own support, on their own home turf,’” Little said. “Above all, the game just feels more competitive.”

Both Fu and Little also emphasized how being the underdogs — Gunn is usually projected to lose matchups against Paly — imbues a game with extra emotional charge. While Paly has to defend their previous wins, Gunn is able to fight from the bottom up.

“When we win, it’s especially gratifying,” Fu said. “(It) feels like we’ve beaten the odds.”

Girls varsity lacrosse team member junior Sophia Howell finds an opposite dynamic to be true for her team, which has won every game against Paly since the 2021 season.

“Most of the pressure the team faces when it comes to playing Paly is around maintaining our winning streak,” she said. “But at the same time, having wins behind us alleviates pressure while playing.”

According to Howell, there isn’t much of a difference in crowd size when their team plays against Paly, so spectators don’t play a role in raising the stakes. However, similar to the competitiveness the Gunn boys basketball team brings as the underdogs, Paly girls varsity lacrosse brings its own spirit, fighting to break Gunn’s winning streak.

“We play a pretty clean game and tend to keep our cool (as a team), but when Paly is down (on the score-board), the game gets more physical and they sometimes commit petty fouls,” she said.

Fu sees a similar pattern in basketball.

“Both our team and Paly’s are pretty well disciplined, so I don’t think a fight or anything would ever break out, but it gets chippy out there sometimes,” he said. “It gets more physical, harder fouls, harder defense, but it’s all part of the game. That’s what makes it fun.”

For girls varsity track-and-field member senior Avery Adelman, the Gunn-Paly rivalry manifests itself differently due to the nature of her sport. Adelman competes in the 400-meter dash and 300-meter hurdles — both non-contact, individual events — which present a new kind of competition.

“For track, it’s less about racing your opponents and more about racing for time,” Adelman said.

Even so, she found that competing against Paly with the rest of the varsity girls team brought them together in a special way.

“In the last season, varsity girls beat Paly and we were all so excited on the way home,” Adelman said. “It definitely would’ve been a different feeling if we beat (another high school) or something, but we beat our cross-town rivals, so it felt like a big deal.”

However, the cross-town rivalry runs deeper. Last season, Paly runner Hillary Studdert — who is the sister of this article’s author — was one of Adelman’s biggest competitors.

“In the 400(-meter dash), Hillary had times that were similar to mine, so I was always really nervous before we (met) with Paly,” she said. “I was also just really excited to race because I knew she would push me to run a fast time whether she beat me or not. It was all good energy and she was a great competitor.”

Adelman feels that the local aspect of the rivalry makes the competition more personal.

“The girls who I run against from Paly, I’ve mainly ran against before,” she said. “We get to talk here and there, so there’s always a kind of sense that I know who I’m running against, which makes me want to compete harder.”

Fu also finds a sense of familiarity among his Paly opponents.

“A lot of the kids that I grew up playing club basketball with now play for Paly, so I’m friends with basically the whole team,” he said. “It adds a mix of intensity and fun, which you can’t find really with any other team.”

Currently, the Middle College and College Now! programs — in which juniors and seniors take classes at Foothill — are outsourced to the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District.

Since the 2019-20 school year, Middle College has enabled students to attend high school English and history classes taught by certified MVLA teachers at Foothill College. Students attend classes in one of two 50-student cohorts during the two-year program. They can take up to 11 credits of college classes per quarter, pursuing in-person or asynchronous Foothill courses that fulfill their remaining MVLA graduation requirements and suit their interests, according to Lead Counselor David Leftwich.

To ensure a smooth transition to the new program, current Middle College juniors will remain with MVLA for their senior year, according to Leftwich. PAUSD’s Middle College program will enroll only juniors next year and expand to include seniors in the 2025-26 school year. Sophomores may also be included in the near future.

PAUSD Middle College senior Isaac Wang appreciates Middle College’s capacity to facilitate genuine connections and unique opportunities.

“It opens your horizons because it exposes you to a lot of different people from different places and of different ages,” Wang said. “I think where Foothill shines more compared to a high school is (in) its ability to connect you with your professors and a lot of real-world opportunities and referrals, like internships.”

Created in 2018, College Now! immerses students who may have “outgrown” high school in college-level work at Foothill, allowing participants to accrue 15 college credits each quarter.

The program, which will be renamed to Foothill Now! to reflect the new in-house program, is ideal for independent and self driven students, according to PAUSD College Now! junior Sophia Howell.

“There is some independence required to succeed, because a lot of the steps that you’re taking in terms of applying for the program is very self-driven,” she said. “There’s not a lot of guidance, apart from that of (College Now! advisor Gary) McHenry. His involvement is intentionally less hands-on than it would be with the Middle College program. Ultimately, as long as you possess those qualities, or you’re looking to develop those qualities, the program is suitable for pretty much anyone that would like to apply.”

According to Leftwich, the new model, in which PAUSD hosts both programs under PAUSD graduation requirements, will allow the district to better address individual students’ needs.

“Through our model and our planning, we can offer more direct and robust services than are currently available to PAUSD students in the MVLA model,” he said. These services include guidance and mental health resources.

Principal Wendy Stratton explained that PAUSD’s Middle College and Foothill Now! programs align with the district’s initiatives to give students alternative paths to college.

“(These programs can serve) as a pathway for students who may not fit the bill for a comprehensive high school experience,” she said. “It was kind of a no-brainer to bring it here, especially when we’re trying to support that pathway to college here in our district.”

Along with Foothill’s fully staffed tutoring center, students will have access to six new PAUSD classrooms on Foothill’s campus, according to Superintendent Don Austin.

Citing other students’ support for the program, Howell called on its potential to expand educational prospects for Gunn students.

“I would love to see more Gunn students at Foothill because I always give people a wave if I recognize them,” she said. “If it means getting more PAUSD students, opportunities, and involvement in the College Now! and Middle College programs, I think it’s a great move.”

In addition to these two programs, Gunn has proposed launching an English dual-enrollment program for seniors who are interested in taking English for college credit. According to English Instructional Lead Kate Weymouth, the current plan is to merge Gunn’s Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum class and Foothill’s English 1A and English 1B courses into one class at Gunn next year, taken during a normal class period. The class will be included in this spring’s course catalog.

“We have had ERWC for many years, but we’ve never run it as a dual-enrollment class with Foothill before,” Weymouth said. “This is the first time you will be able to take the class and get credit with Foothill, so students will receive weighted grades and college credit for their coursework.” Weymouth also emphasized dual-enrollment programs’ inclusive approach to higher-level learning.

“Not all students are Advanced Placement students, but that doesn’t mean not all students want rigor and exposure to college-level work,” she said. “So, we offer college-level work to a broader range of students with different interests or learning styles.”

Cassel, who researched dual enrollment and taught dual-enrollment courses at San Joaquin Delta College before coming to Gunn, the program provides an opportunity for students to try out a college English class in the safety of a high school environment.

“Early college opportunities can be transformative experiences for students who are looking for a chance to try out college and gain important exposure to college-level academic experiences,” she said.

Diversity Commissioner sophomore Sophia Howell helped organize the event. “The purpose of the event was to look at mental health intersectionality and the barriers many BIPOC faces in accessing mental health,” she said. “Having panels like this and having these discussions really helps to lessen these barriers and increase knowledge on how to go about accessing mental health care and what that entails.”

After the panel was almost canceled due to complications with Flexisched, Howell is glad the event occurred. “I’m glad that so many people came to be informed on this topic, whether or not it relates to them personally, or through a community,” she said.

This month, Diversity Commissioner junior Chania Rene-Corail and the other Wellness and Diversity Commissioners have focused on highlighting mental health in communities of color. They also aimed to bring attention to the resources students have access to when seeking help in a system of disparity. “I think a really important thing about diversity is inclusivity and intersectionality,” Rene-Corail said. “I thought it would be very interesting to have some sort of campaign or education to talk to the student body about that type of intersectionality and how being a person of color affects that [mental health] aspect of your life.”

Sophomore Aarya Bhushan enjoyed that the event addressed the stigma surrounding mental health throughout different cultures. “Every culture has its own stigma and even though a lot of the panelists come from different cultures and backgrounds, they were still able to relate to the fact that there is a barrier between asking for help,” she said. “I think that will help us as students overcome that with our families and our cultures.” Bhushan also found the event helpful in supplying resources for students’ mental health. “I got to know about resources that are offered at Gunn that I didn’t know about before and I think [the panelists] presented themselves as people that I can go up to if I need any help with anything,” she said.

When women first started competing in women’s sports, many were concerned that women would undermine the conventional “masculinity” of sports. According a “Washington Post” article titled, “The troubling paradox facing women Olympians: Sex sells. but with serious costs,” “[sport] leaders and the press highlighted female Olympians’ appearances and heterosexuality to reassure the U.S. public that women would neither overrun sport nor upend conventional gender relations.” Oftentimes, they designed uniforms for women that were feminine and aesthetically pleasing without offering any particular technical advantage.

Today, in lacrosse, male athletes are typically seen wearing a helmet, a loose-fitting jersey with padding underneath and shorts, while female athletes are seen wearing a tight shirt or a penny—a long athletic tank—on the top with either a skirt or shorts on the bottom. According to varsity lacrosse player freshman Sophia Howell, the Gunn girl’s lacrosse uniform features a penny and an uncomfortable skirt. “It’s not my favorite,” she said. “My skirt slips down quite a bit. While it’s not restrictive, it feels weird running in it.”

Since the skirts are mandatory for the team, Howell finds herself sacrificing her comfort to adhere to the dress code. “I think shorts are easier to run in, so I’d prefer wearing shorts over a skirt,” Howell said. “But because the skirt is part of our uniform, we have to wear them.”

In contrast, junior Julián Santos, who plays for the boys lacrosse team, enjoys the uniforms he wears and notes how the uniform’s padding is essential to how boys play the sport. “I think we look pretty fresh in [our uniforms],” he said. “My teammates and I are comfortable in them. The reason we have padding is due to differences in how we play the sport. Girls cannot hit each other with the stick or the ball, but in boys lacrosse, that is legal.”

While Santos notes that the differences in padding arise from technical disparities, he acknowledges that the uniforms are unnecessarily gendered. “The reason they are different is fully because of the masculine and feminine view of clothing on people in this century,” he said. “The hypersexualization of women has led to them [wearing] clothing with less fabric and more skin revealed.”

Design disparities in sports uniforms are present in other sports, including track and field, gymnastics, indoor volleyball and beach volleyball. In track and beach volleyball, professional female athletes are expected to wear athletic bikini bottoms and tops, while men wear longer and occasionally looser shorts. In gymnastics, women wear a skintight leotard that cuts off high up an athlete’s leg while mens unitards feature full-length pants or looser shorts. While some women may opt to wear shorts instead, the societal norm has evolved so that women are expected to wear less fabric without any functional benefit.

Indoor volleyball player sophomore Sophia Yen believes that the uniforms for girls volleyball are unnecessarily revealing. “We’re required to wear jerseys and spandex, which are basically very small, very tight shorts,” Yen said. “It’s one thing for [our uniforms] to be short, but it’s another thing for them to be short and tight.”

Due to their revealing nature, Yen often finds herself adjusting the length of her shorts to cover up. “I’m constantly pulling [my shorts] up or down,” she said. “It’s another thing for me to be thinking about on the court playing. I already have a lot of other things to be thinking about. I think it’s distracting.”

During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Norwegian beach handball team wore shorts instead of the expected bikini bottom in an attempt to protest the oversexualization of women’s bodies in their sport, in doing so, they defied the International Handball Federation’s rules that require women to wear tight bikini bottoms with a maximum length of 10 centimeters. The team was fined 150 Euros each.

Even today, viewers often follow womens’ sports for the sexual appeal of the competitors rather than their athletic prowess. Junior Hailey Yuan, who plays both indoor and beach volleyball, often observes these trivializing sentiments in the comment sections of her favorite athletes’ highlight videos. “If you watch [professional beach volleyball players] and read the comments under the videos, they can be kind of upsetting,” she said. “Kerri Walsh Jennings has attended five Olympic games and won gold in three, but these viewers focus on her body rather than her excellence at the sport.”

Due to personal preference, Yuan does not wear a bikini when she plays beach volleyball, but she finds herself in the minority. “In Northern California, the issue isn’t as bad,” she said. “But in Southern California, you go to tournaments and pretty much everyone’s wearing a bikini.”

In fact, wearing bikinis to beach tournaments, even for younger athletes, is encouraged. “My younger sister has started wearing them,” Yuan said. “You can see how it trickles down to the younger players. They’re even starting to have tournaments here for girls beach volleyball where you can win bikinis as prizes.”

Yuan believes that being around fellow athletes who are dressed in the same way makes the uniforms less daunting. “Honestly, I don’t think about outfits when I play because I’m in an environment where everyone else looks the same,” she said. “You feel a bit safer. I wouldn’t walk around in my uniform. But in the context of a tournament, it’s not as bad.”

Yen agrees that in an athletic setting, the uniforms are normal. However, around unknown audience, the uniforms feel overly revealing. “I have two women as coaches, so they’re used to seeing girls wearing [revealing uniforms],” she said. “But I think sometimes either at school or in tournaments where there are other spectators watching who don’t play volleyball, they’re not used to our uniforms. It can make me conscious of it.”

Howell explains that the uniforms have consequences beyond sexualizing their wearers. “They create a discrepancy in how we view male and female athletes and the emphasis that we place on them,” she said. “If you see comments on social media, they’ll say, ‘male athletes are so strong and so hard working,’ whereas they’ll say that female athletes are very pretty. Creating a uniform solely to highlight a feminine aesthetic makes it so that women’s sports are taken less seriously in general.”