“Be there, be loud.” The slogan is catchy and heard almost every week, but people just don’t seem to be listening to it.
The bleachers at home football games are pretty full, but the other sports don’t even get half that audience.
“I get it, cross country isn’t exactly the most fun thing to watch because we are just running for a long time,” junior runner Jenna Polking said. “And our meets aren’t at the school.”
While that may be true, other sports such as football are not as the school, but student turnout is usually very high. It shouldn’t be a big deal to ask people to come to other sports’ games. In fact, North Howler social media manager senior Chelsea Mahloch published an article about low student turnout last spring. The article temporarily increased student turnout, but it seems that people have once again forgotten about the importance of being there and being loud.
Even as The Pack gives incentives and encourages students to go to all sports’ games, student participation seems minimal. Pack Nights, Wolf Pack Week, and spirit days have all prompted people to go to certain games and concerts, but, after the spirit day is over, participation drops. Seniors should not have to constantly urge the student body to come to meets, tournaments, or games.
“I mean, you can’t force people to watch,” head tennis coach Lance Kush says.
He’s right, you can’t force people to watch. But imagine putting in hard work every day and not even being recognized for it.
You might think “who cares?” The answer to that is: a lot of people.
“Audiences definitely motivate athletes. They can actually distract the other team as well,” Activities Director Luke Ford said. “Crowds really impact games.”
For example, at the Pink-Out football game versus Skutt, the student section’s cheers were drowning out Skutt’s cheers. In fact, it got to the point where Skutt didn’t even respond to “we got spirit how about you?” While that was an embarrassing moment for Skutt, it also probably messed with the Skutt players’ heads.
“The crowd’s energy really transferred to the sidelines. It definitely hyped up the players,” senior Sam Steffen, a varsity offensive and defensive lineman, said.
Now imagine if every game had that much student excitement. Elkhorn North would be unstoppable. We would defeat all our opps just by supporting our school. Also important to note: it is our duty as friends, fellow athletes and peers to cheer on our sports teams because it is disheartening to the athletes to have no one come to their games, even though it is free.
“We don’t get the same amount of recognition for winning at state as football does for winning a game,” senior varsity tennis player Sophia Jones said.
This is the unfortunate reality for many athletes at Elkhorn North… but hopefully now, we can have a conscious effort by the student section of Elkhorn North to show up and appreciate all athletes (and also beat Skutt, Bennington, Elkhorn High, etc.).
