State Culture: The Effects On Jenks
By: Aiden Acebo
198. That’s how many state championships Jenks High School has won, ranging from football to baseball to swimming, all the way to tennis. For context: Union, BA, and Bixby combined have 192. As Jenks keeps racking up championships through the years, it has set a pretty high standard for our athletes. It can feel like “ordinary” is never enough–even coming in second place is a loss. I’m diving deep and talking with Jenks Varsity tennis players, Krishna Bhadjiru (9), and Varsity football player Jace Hager (10), to talk about the pressures of Jenks standards and “state culture.”
Jenks High School has been around for a while, staying near top schools in almost every sport. Tennis is one of the strongest, taking home around 32 girls’ and boys’ state championships since the school’s inception. The numbers that keep stacking are starting to affect at least one of our Jenks players. But is it in a bad way or a good way?
“Yeah, I definitely do get affected by the culture, but honestly in a good way,” says Bhadjiru. “It gives me extra motivation to work harder when I am expected to.”
Bhadjiru serving during a match
Bhadjiru participated in Varsity State coming up and believes that the culture is real. It affects how you compete and creates pressure around how you do it. Jenks tennis has shown it is a very successful sport throughout the years. Participating in State in front of hundreds of people can definitely affect how you play, but for Krishna, this affects him positively. It gives him the motivation to know there are thousands of people behind him and supporting him. He knows that it’s not just him on that court, it is the entire high school with him. Recently, He won state as a freshman. I realized when I was cheering for him, he got motivated. This pushed him forward. He was becoming unmotivated but when we got the fans to come by and cheer for him it boosted him. This took all the pressure away because he looked up at us cheering, which helped him bounce back.
It’s not just tennis that this culture has affected, it has also affected our Jenks High School football team. A team that is very well known for their state championships, and have won a total of eighteen. I talked with Hager, a Varsity sophomore on our football team, and discussed how Jenks's success in football affects him on the field. Hager’s been in this environment for around 2 years now so he’s definitely experienced it but he’s been able to overcome it and have an impactful role on the football team.
“Yeah, it definitely makes you wanna play your best out there on that field. All those people watching and you just don’t want to let them down,“ Hager says.
This is only taken into effect when two people think of how many other people could be affected. We’ve seen positive yet some negative effects from this standard that Jenks has set on their athletics. Of course, it’s not their fault, I mean you can’t stop this from happening, mainly only dealing with it. This is why I asked Bhadriraju how he deals with this sort of pressure that the High School state brings upon athletes.
“Man, I just listen to music and roll with the flow. I like the pressure. It helps me compete better. Also, my teammates are all more experienced than me so I can rely on them to guide me,” Bhadriraju said.
Bhadriraju is a freshman this year so this is a new feeling for him. He isn’t used to it but due to him being a high-level tennis player he definitely has dealt with pressure before. Tennis isn’t as easy as it sounds so being able to deal with the high pressure in today’s state at a young age is a great skill.
The culture is real. It works in both positive and negative ways from motivating players to work hard to making it difficult to overcome the pressure which holds you to a certain standard. Jenks athletics have been successful all around and our athletes are dealing with a hidden pressure not so noticeable, until now. If you would like to learn more about Jenks Tennis or Jenks Football and their road to state championships, check out @jenkstennis and @jenkstrojanfootball on Instagram!
