Women’s athletics doesn’t receive equal attention compared to men’s athletics programs. It’s a fact — pure and simple. However, the reasons behind that fact differ.

On the Missouri Southern campus, KGCS doesn’t cover certain sports such as volleyball because of under staffing.

“We used to cover volleyball a few years ago,” said Judy Stiles, general manager of KGCS.

After the students who did cover volleyball graduated, nobody was there to pick up the ball and run with it. Without a KGCS student to pursue coverage, volleyball was no longer televised.

Stiles said the station would like to give those sports that don’t get media time coverage. The problem is there aren’t enough students enrolled in the KGCS practicum to cover all of the sporting events.

As it is, KGCS tries to give men’s and women’s basketball equal air time.

“There are logistics to covering some sports, such as not a convenient way to set up cameras,” Stiles said.

However, a student could take a field camera and do voice-over video, highlights, and voice-over sound bites on these forgotten sports.

“We want to show people what else is happening on campus,” said A.D. Hoyt, sophomore mass communications major who works extensively in the television station.

People already get their stats for football and basketball from the major networks. Programming other sporting events would set KGCS apart from KOAM, KODE or KSNF.

“No matter what your major, you can find something to do here that will benefit your future career,” said Gabe Mankin, senior mass communications major.

Business majors should take advantage of such an opportunity in order to gain voice control and master communication skills. Such skills are beneficial for giving presentations.

Composure and confidence in front of a group is essential in today’s highly competitive job market.

“We are one of the few colleges that lets you work with the equipment as a freshman,” Hoyt said. “Most require you to be at least a junior.”

“The soccer field doesn’t have any way to shield the equipment,” said Brian Harter, senior mass communications major.

“But, it wouldn’t take much to take a couple of cameras and mics out and film for highlights,” Mankin added.

There is hope, however.

Two students have proposed ideas for doing half-hour sports shows that would touch on more than just the big two — football and basketball.

I hope both get their projects approved. With any luck, intramurals may get coverage, too. Other colleges and universities cover intramurals.

It would be nice if the College television station could cover theatre and other events on campus. There’s more to college than sports, and there is more to sports than football and basketball.