When walking into a football game, you can’t miss the huge crowd with fans, loud music, a full student section, photographers lined up down the sidelines, an assortment of food vendors, and so much more. However, when you visit other games or matches such as wrestling, swimming and women’s basketball that same energy and atmosphere is almost completely gone.
Why it Matters: Everyone has their own passion, own values, and personal preferences on what brings them joy and happiness. All athletes invest their time into practice and preparing for a game. When they don’t have a student section in front of them, or at least a crowd of people cheering them on, it can make them feel as if their effort and behind the scene work is irrelevant.
- “When you’re on the court and you see fifty people come in for the boys game as we’re ending, it kind of sucks.” said senior Grace Kitchen (Center).
- “The girls basketball team needs people there at six o’ clock just as much as the boys need them at 7:30.” said head basketball coach Jesse Edwards.
Between the lines: Not only is it discouraging for these athletes in their specific sports not receiving the praise they all deserve, but it is also detrimental when it comes to the low number of athletes on the team. Students might not join teams that have low participation rates due to the fear of not winning, limited funding, little investment or the popularity of the sport. When you think about advertisements for a football or basketball game, they get posted everywhere. So much work goes into the social media side of it and they receive many more followers than the other accounts like swim, wrestling, and women’s basketball. Thus, creates limits on statistics, more pressure, an unequal workload, and the urge to give up because no one will be watching.
- “Last season we had a roster of fifty kids,” said junior wrestler Josh Connick. “We finished with eighteen.”
Zoom In: There are many sports stars that people look up to. Such as Caitlin Clark in Women’s basketball, Michael Phelps in Swim, and more. They are highly respected due to their obvious success. These professionals all started somewhere. They faced setbacks and felt undervalued in their journeys. Especially being in sports that don’t receive as much publicity as a Men’s basketball or football team. But, they made a new aspect of their sport. They changed the culture, set many records, and encouraged people to be a part of something bigger than themselves, pursuing their dreams in sports, even if it’s not considered “popular”.
- “At Lumberton High School, the men’s wrestling team probably only had eight or nine guys,” said Edwards. “But all of a sudden, one kid named Jackson Buck, changed the culture of wrestling and now the whole school wants to wrestle over there.”
What’s Next: There are many strategies to reach the community and get others involved. However, this starts with you and what change you want to be seen in your sport. You must be the one to change the pathway or destiny of where the sport is headed. You have to get outside of your comfort zone and get not only you, but get your team that big crowd we see at other games.
- “You have to be willing to be the one who changes the trajectory of where your sport is headed,” said Edwards. “It’s not an easy thing to walk around the school asking people to join the swim team, it’s not easy to get someone to play a sport that not many people know how difficult it is.”
- “As you lose those leading girls that are out there asking people to show up to the women’s basketball game, the crowd dies down.” said Kitchen.
