By: Krissy Hetherington
Why is it that teams who are just as good, even better, suffer from lower attendance rates than football? How can we as a student body draw more attention towards this subject of matter?
The reason for this is simple. The long lasting tradition and overall environment for football games results in more time and effort towards the sport than any other on campus. This isn’t a bad thing but wouldn’t it be nice to see new ideas or more spirit towards a big soccer or water polo game?
Matt Sozinho, Redwood Athletic Director, said, “We have a lot of teams, doing a lot of great things and you’re right, attendance isn’t high but that’s definitely something I would like to see changed, all our student athletes are doing great things but aren’t getting the attention they deserve for big rivalries or challenging matches.”
Another problem for Redwood specifically, and after conducting research, it makes sense, students don’t want to sit and watch a game for an hour to watch a blowout win. Yes, there are a lot of close games that students wouldn’t know about if they don’t go but most of league games for almost all sports tend to be big leads. This has allowed many Redwood teams as to come out of Division II or in Division I for playoffs in high seeds or go very far into the postseason.
Zack Salazar, ’20, shares his thoughts on the topic by pointing out that football only plays once a week so it’s easier to go and show support in contrast to other teams who sometimes play up to three times a week. He’s basically saying that since there are way less games to have the opportunity to attend. If there was a greater attendance, Zack says, “I think we would play a lot better and feed off the energy of the crowd every time we step onto the court.”
Also, a lot of students don’t like to sit and watch a game or meet for longer than average of an hour and a half so why are they willing to make the exception for football? Teenagers tend to lose interest faster so football, being an “all-american” appeals to more kids since they’ve grown up watching it with their families.
Mr. Orosco, history teacher on campus, football coach, and girls wrestling coach, made his own statement about the matter, “When it comes to football, there is a concentrated focus campus wide compared to other parts of campus…us teachers try to get more people involved but when it comes down to it, it’s your school, campus, culture.” With this, he promotes the idea of a student led organization in charge of putting together events focusing on all sports school wide and highly supports it by finishing the interview with, “it can and should be done.”
Friday Night Lights is not only a whole school event but it’s the whole atmosphere in general that attracts students. It provides students with the opportunities to interact with kids from Redwood, neighboring schools, and the opponent they face. It also gives ASB, cheerleaders, flag runners, etc. the ability to engage with the crowd while also focusing on the football game.
Kaleb Wright, ’20, was a first year member of the Varsity Football team so this previous season was his first exposure to what playing for that large and hyped of a crowd was like. He said, “I feel like more people like to go because whether they are there for the game or not, or just there to hang out they can enjoy every other aspect that the game has to offer, including music being back.”
When it comes to high school sports, “home court advantage” truly is a big deal. Athletes feels supported and loved by those in the stands and it leads to emotional/ psychological effects during their high energy games. It’s also true that we tend to see better performances when athletes are able to play with this higher intensity. But people don’t notice this because they aren’t willing to show up and go all out for any other sports game.
On the other hand though, more people at sporting events could also cause distraction and lower performance from the athletes. Or the crowd could become insensitive towards the rules of the game or act disrespectful towards referees and the other team because they get so caught up in the atmosphere.
ASB is in charge of spirit and social events on campus but maybe the bigger solution to this problem is a new student council centered around hyping up sporting events or big games on campus. They could also recognize players and teams when something big happens so the pressure doesn’t fall directly on members of ASB who also put a lot of focus towards school wide events, dress up weeks, and activities on campus.
Some more ideas for promoting school events and the higher attendance include: Alumni Nights, schedules on social media, posters, promotion for “rivalry games,” free items for first amount of students, etc. This appeals to more students because they are naturally attracted to new, “shiny” ideas. And now players also benefit because they have more people to play for.