When seniors Brooke Adams and Landry Grover founded the Hockaday Hype Women this fall, they were excited to post on social media. The idea was based on and partnered with the St. Mark’s Super Fan Men, a sports hype account for the Lions, and Adams and Grover were motivated to create a similar account for their own community. Unfortunately, their actions were met with disrespect by a group of Lions.

One Lion commented “ratio,” urging more negative than positive responses to the Hype Women’s first post, mocking the difference in numbers of followers between the two hype accounts. The “ratio” comment garnered 200 likes from St. Mark’s students, turning the somewhat tame joke into a group mockery of the Hype Women.

Our expectations were modest. We wanted mutual support and respect for the Hype Women in return, but we were not met with that.

The Hockaday student body supports Super Fan Men in our school newspaper. We have a group of 30 girls who cheer on St. Mark’s at football and basketball games as well as pep rallies. The Hockaday student body encourages St. Mark’s sports in all of their athletic endeavors, whether they are winning or losing. Daisies deserve the same support in return.

We acknowledge the Remarker’s statements in the October issue about the diminishing connection between Hockaday and St. Mark’s. We agree that fostering this relationship would benefit both schools and we are in support of the solutions they provided.

We want to work toward more collaboration rather than competition with the St. Mark’s students. Instances like the “ratio” comment are not helping us reach this goal. We have realized attacking each other is not productive, which is why we are addressing this issue head on. None of us, especially seniors as it is our last year together, want this cycle to continue. This needs to be put to rest.

Both of our athletic programs work extremely hard and excel at what they do, one example being Hockaday soccer’s 2020 SPC championship win and their three year reign as North Zone champs. In addition, Hockaday lacrosse boasts a 2021 state win while St. Mark’s basketball and soccer racked up SPC wins in 2020.

Athletics has been one of Hockaday’s cornerstones since our founding, and it is an integral part of the St. Mark’s experience as well. So let’s bring back the mutual support the St. Mark’s and Hockaday communities both deserve. Go Daisies and go Lions!