During a typical Wednesday assembly, representatives of Upper School sports teams request that their fellow classmates come out to support them in their upcoming sports game. Despite having a strong student turnout for most games, many students feel that there are certain sporting events that DCDS students prefer to attend over other sporting events. Granted, certain sports are seen as more entertaining than others and therefore have larger groups of fans at sporting events.
“I understand that field hockey may not be the most entertaining sport for most people, and if I didn’t play it, it probably wouldn’t want to watch it either,” senior Erin VanCleave said. “I was impressed with the amount of people willing to go to the [state final] game without knowing anything about the sport. We had a Barnyard present there, and I felt a lot of support going into that game. Hopefully, by having fansat that game, we sparked some interest [in the game] and will have more fans in the future.”
It is evident that because of the success of the women’s field hockey team this past fall season, field hockey is gradually gaining a wider fan base.
“I think there is generally a bigger fan a fan base for men’s sports then there will be one for women’s sports too,” junior Kiana Sadri said. “I think sports like football, a men’s sport, are more publicized on media and therefore attract larger fan bases.”
Other DCDS students feel that some sports have smaller fan bases because of the environment of the sporting events themselves. Both football and lacrosse have home games right on the Upper School Campus, and the environment is more familiar to the students. On the other hand, swimming meets and sailing regattas are both held off campus and students are more reluctant to venture out to support their peers.
“Sailing regattas are often far away and last whole weekends,” junior captain of the Varsity Sailing team Liz Obermaier said. “It is also not very obvious how the sailing race works or who is winning, which can be confusing.”
Having a strong student turnout can boost team morale and result in a better performance for the team.
All of DCDS’s sports teams spend rigorous seasons hard at work in their athletic endeavors. With the amount of passion and skill students puts into their sports, each team deserves a large, supportive group of fans to rally around them. Bigger fan bases can lead to big impacts on the teams themselves and show our school’s One Country Day spirit.
