Editor’s note: Here is your chance to tell your story about your team, your school or your favorite player. If you’d like to join The Gazette’s growing list of high school contributors, contact J.R. Ogden at jr.ogden@thegazette.com

By Kylie Werbach, Lone Tree freshman

Speech is a sport. I am an athlete.

Writing requires work. We strategize. We spend countless hours trying to perfect our minds, trying to find a way to make what we want to say come out perfectly. We love what we do. And we are committed to everything we write.

So are we not athletes?

I submit to you that we are some of the best athletes because we want to better ourselves and we want to build our entire lives on our work. There are … what, few thousand pro athletes in the United State?

There are so many more writers. Whether they spend their time in their homes, writing novels, or they work every day to bring you the news you are reading.

So … are we not athletes?