Chris Gabriel, a member of the varsity men’s soccer team as well as the Hoosier FC 07 boy’s team and junior, said he feels as though he is at a disadvantage because of his physical appearance.

“Although people don’t expect our team to lose as a whole, a lot of people don’t expect me to be good at the sport I do,” Gabriel said. “I am a relatively short person-5 feet, 5 inches-and I would probably say the good height for soccer would be 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches. That’s already a disadvantage which makes it harder for me to make teams since people’s first impressions are that I won’t be an amazing player who can be fast and physical.”

In a similar view, senior Alia Karim, who is interested in the legal field, said they see the same disadvantages due to their physical appearance when being judged for mock trials.

“Not even just in sports, but in mock trials, one of the biggest challenges on what you are judged on is physical appearance,” Karim said. “I appear very feminine and that appears first and is the first thing that comes to people’s mind. Like even the pitch in my voice which isn’t considered on the rubric or anything, I can still be judged for, which creates bias and misconceptions.”

Karim said these issues with perceptions due to appearance affects their self esteem.

“As a female in this industry, it is very very male-dominant, and being an attorney in a mock trial trying to argue on the floor, I get that already embarrassed kind of unconfident feeling,” Karim said. “Being a woman and doing so is an entirely different experience as compared to being a man because, one, the percentage of female lawyers is so tiny in comparison to other corporate jobs and the ability to move up in the roster and hierarchies is a lot harder, so much is determined on age and connections and the tie with generational wealth.”

While physical appearance can pose a disadvantage, Kenneth Browner, men’s track coach, said he looks for a strong positive mentality in his team to combat insecurities. 

“I look for a positive attitude, people that want to be there and students that want to work hard,” Browner said. “We try to develop a family type of environment and build each other’s confidence when we can tell some aren’t sure in themselves. We’ll also do some activities just to bond a little more, namely through the process of working out and being together daily that they depend on each other and develop that sense of brotherhood.”

Jack Cao, member of the Indy Junior Fuel hockey team and freshman, said, like Browner, the ability to have a good attitude is valuable.

“I started hockey in third grade and sometimes I feel a little behind, but it’s all based on my mindset,” Cao said. “I used to compare myself to other people my age based on our performances, but my mindset changed and now I choose to focus on myself and just try to improve.”

Browner said a benefit of track is the measurable progress and his biggest piece of advice for students is focusing on your own improvement.

“The great thing about track and field is that it’s measurable. You can always measure your progress whether your time gets better or your distance gets better in a field event so that’s the great thing about our sport,” Browner said. “In all honesty, it’s a competition against yourself and my biggest piece of advice is to just focus on improving yourself even if you end up placing last. A strong mentality is always important and giving up shouldn’t have to be the option.”

Cao also said although losing matters, his team focuses on their performance and how they can improve together rather than on physical perceptions.

“Losing does matter to me and I would say for the rest of the team as well, but sometimes winning doesn’t feel all that good either,” Cao said. “This happens because our team just knows we didn’t really try our best and we could have performed much better so it makes us think about our performance.”

Like Cao, Gabriel said his team bonding benefits the loss in his games.

“With both of my soccer teams, we bond really well,” Gabriel said. “I think it is so important to bond with your teammates because when you’re on the field, if you don’t like somebody, you’re going to be yelling at someone when they make a mistake and that’s just not something that is good for your team when you play a soccer match and after a loss, my team lifts each other up.”