“That’s not fair,” “That was a cheap call,” “Why do they get to do that and we don’t?” These questions frequently circle through the minds of athletes both on and off the field.  Every athlete can relate to a time where he or she felt cheated by a rule that gives an unfair advantage to their opponent.  The Rhode Island Interscholastic League, RIIL, has been making steps towards fixing these problems for student athletes who want to play a fair game.

Several students from NKHS attended RIIL’s New England Leadership Conference over the summer  at Stonehill College.  At this camp they learned about the new program being developed to solve problems with unfair rules in high school sports.  A student advisory board has been created for athletes to go to with their problems.  Each school sends representatives for the board; NKHS’s representative is Dean Kareemo.

Athletes have the opportunity to bring a rule that they don’t agree with to the board, and possibly have the board alter the rule for them. An issue in Rhode Island is athletes are unaware this program even exists.  One of RIIL’s goals is to raise awareness of the student board.  NKHS knows more about it than other schools do because it has a representative and students who attended the camp, where other schools don’t have students who attended or are representatives.

Senior Emily Auger attended the camp this summer and said, “We learned about the role of leadership in sports and of captains and coaches.  I helped out with the Special Olympics through  it and it had a lot of really cool volunteer opportunities.”

The new student advisory board was introduced to the attendants of the conference.  Auger said, “I think it’s good and they’re making a difference and getting the student perspective in sports.”

RIIL’s new advisory board has also been involved more recently in the community.  They were responsible for creating Burger King’s High School Team of the Week, where every week a sports team in Rhode Island is selected who has made an accomplishment in the world of sports. This team is announced over the radio on stations such as 92 Pro FM.