The school parking lot is packed as I pull in. Walking into the gym for a Friday night basketball game, the bleachers are full to the top with supporting students and parents of the athletes showing out in black to match the theme. The student section throws up three’s as an athlete shoots a three-pointer and the gym erupts in cheers. In this case, school spirit seems to be at an all time high and fan support is at a max.
Just two weeks ago, however, a different home basketball game was taking place where the student section was dwindling and the number of parents majorly outweighed the number of students. So how come school spirit fluctuates so heavily, seemingly based on nothing? Is it due to a lack of effort and time or the fear of embarrassment?
Red out, black out and white out are all common, simple, reoccuring themes that are accessible for all students to carry out, which for the majority of students does happen. However, cheering and supporting the players on the court is a different story.
Senior class planning promotes the idea of the student section at sporting events being based on seniority – seniors in the front and freshman in the back. This tradition is meant to honor seniors and create a gentle hierarchy without any aggression. This tradition is often violated with juniors and even sophomores mixing in with the seniors in the front.
Seniors are meant to start the cheers in the front and have them cascade to the back. However, this disorderly arrangement of grades causes cheers to not make it past one group of seniors in the first two rows of the bleachers. The lack of support, even from their own grade, causes the cheers to die out quickly and rather embarrassingly.
Having been a freshman in the back, the uncertainty to follow and scream along to a chant often comes from the lack of energy from the people around you. If you are the only one in your grade section clapping along, it suddenly becomes embarrassing and the willpower to do so vanishes.
The reason for lack of participation among underclassmen remains a mystery. The point of attending a sporting event, besides to watch, is to show your support and your school pride. Showing up and choosing to stand in silence, nervous of being the only one in your grade to cheer, defeats the point of spending five precious dollars and two hours of your time.
Students tend to blame their weekly workload and lack of time as to why they aren’t able to attend school sponsored events and game attendance will naturally decrease when a game takes place midweek rather than on a Thursday or a Friday. It is not easy to make time when you have a busy schedule but allotting an hour or even 30 minutes of your day every once in a while to take a break and support your peers and their passions is an important endeavor. Not only for mental health but also for social connections and to create the fun events students want.
The lack of spirit applies beyond the gym. Spirit weeks and other school-sponsored events like Wootton’s Got Talent and the Black History Month program put on by BSU often lack attendance despite the effort spent on advertising. Posters are designed and put up, information is sent out in newsletters, reminders are posted on social media and broadcast on Patriot TV with little to no success in increasing attendance for the events and excitement for the spirit days.
The level to which students show up for school-sponsored events and support their peers can be accredited to laziness and fear of standing out among their peers. To this I say, there is nothing more embarrassing than leaving an event and regretting not having been louder or looking back on your time in high school and wishing that you had dressed up for the spirit days, and I promise you that that regret will linger. But, if you choose to be loud and proud, to support your team and to wear that USA themed tutu, you will leave having had a better experience and a drastically more memorable time.
