Dear Editor,

I am not much of a baseball fan, but I have enjoyed the “Peanuts & Crackerjacks” column in the sports section. And for the first time I am somewhat interested in the progress of the playoffs. I still have no idea what any of the stats mean, but I think I’m getting a general idea of what’s going on.

I think a similar approach should be taken to the world’s, and my personal, all-time favorite sport: football. I am not referring to the Monday night variety (a sport which, in my humble opinion, hardly deserves the name). No, I am talking about the sport that is known throughout the world, except for some reason in this country, as the beautiful game: soccer. With the many NFL fans on this campus, I realize that what I am writing amounts to blasphemy. And yet, it is not the NBA World Championships or the MLB World Series that the majority of this planet’s population means when they talk about the world title. Soccer is the number one youth sport in the country and, to bring it closer to home, is currently one of the most successful sports on this campus. Tritons are constantly lamenting the fact that no football team exists but I beg to differ. We’ve got a great one that deserves our support. I applaud the Guardian’s coverage of our UCSD matches but I think one way to arouse more interest from the student body (a tough task for anyone, I know) is to take a similar approach to the one that has succeeded in getting someone like me to read about baseball.

Why not a regular soccer column in the Guardian? I may not fully understand the ins and outs of baseball or football but I completely understand the great passion and excitement that rooting for your team evokes (go Arsenal FC!). What better way for students to open up to the world than through sport? Maybe some of that spirit will carry over to our fellow Tritons out on the pitch.

— Jessica Vargas
Eleanor Roosevelt College junior