By: Scarlett O’Comartun and Jude Harvey

Baltimore School for the Arts is known for, you guessed it, the arts. But recently, a few students have been advocating for sports to be incorporated into the community. The opinions on sports integration differs between students. Yes, students have movement class with Maria Broom and Fitness with Erica Tolentino—but what if sports became a larger part of the BSA lifestyle?

Henry Schmid-James and Fadzi Tran-Johnson are two film sophomores looking to bring sports to the BSA community. They are currently trying to bring a volleyball club to school. 

“We already approached Principal Roz and Ms. Tolentino about bringing Spire to the school,” says Schmid-James. 

“Spire”, Schmid-James and Tran-Johnson’s Volleyball group, was started over the summer. The pair hope to bring the group into school and recrute other other BSA students to play.

The members of Spire will only play against each other once the club is formed. It’s very hard to enroll the school into actual tournaments, seeing that throughout its whole lifespan, BSA has never had any sports clubs to enlist. 

Schmid-James and Tran-Johnson think a sports club at BSA is a great idea, and think it would even improve the school environment. 

“The reason why volleyball could work so well is because it is an art school. Students will jump at any chance to play a sport. I mean volleyball, or any sports group, is no different than any other club,” says Schmid-James. 

And they seem to be proven (relatively) right. The almost-club already has about 25 people who have signed up, which is a lot for a club at BSA. The only thing holding Spire back from officially starting is a practice space. The group has had trouble finding an accessible place to hold their meetings and games. Although BSA has a fitness gym, it’s far too small to hold 25 students spiking and throwing around a volleyball.

“I think the only problem we are really dealing with right now is space. We have everything we need except for a good place to practice,” said Tran-Johnson.

Schmid-James and Tran-Johnson went on to speak positively about Spire’s effect on the school, and how it’s important for art students to also have the chance to experience other hobbies. They even wish it was part of the school day. 

Some students at BSA disagree with the fact that a sports club would be fun and exciting for a school which has pretty much never heard of one. 

“I think sports take away from the general culture that our school started as,” says Brayden Hamilton, a senior clarinetist and Vice President of the school’s student government. She is not against the idea, though.

“However, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to incorporate sports to create a more ‘high school’ experience.” Hamilton elaborated by saying that she knows a lot of BSA students who want a “normal” high school experience, with pep rallies every Friday, Homecoming, and after school football games. But she also expressed that BSA is not like that, and people should not expect it to be. 

  “Our Homecoming is Expressions, our after school activities are music performances, and I feel like if you don’t want that, you shouldn’t be auditioning to get in,” Hamilton said. 

With a new sports club in the making, how will it affect BSA? Many students’ opinions differ, for some it will bring more fun and excitement to school life, while others think it will distract from BSA culture and tradition. 

So who knows? Could the new volleyball club inSPIRE the students at BSA?

To contact these writers email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Photograph taken by Faith Spicer for the BSA Muse.