High School Football Fans

High School football games are one of the most exciting events of the year. Games like the homecoming games or rivalry games are always packed. The student section is very lively. The cheerleaders will be chanting louder than ever. When the team scores a touchdown the chants grow louder, players as well as fans screaming in joy. It is such a great atmosphere. There is so much energy at their games. If only this were true for other sports basketball excluded, because this is also seen at basketball games. Other sports like soccer, tennis, baseball, etc don’t get this type of atmosphere at their games. As a two year varsity athlete for both soccer and baseball I have experienced this problem. The atmosphere is very dull and unexciting. The game will start with little to no people in the stands. There are no cheerleaders

even at home games to cheer the team on.

There was a time when I played a game were a group of students, about ten of them came to support us but the other team had a whole section packed. Their chanting was louder and it affected our whole team mentally. In short there were a lot more against us than for us. The importance of fans at a game has only mattered for sports like football and basketball but fans need to show support to all sports equally.

The importance of fans is vital because in addition to skill talent and hardwork, fans greatly affect how a team performs in their games. They affect the way a player plays because fans have a way of getting into their players heads and the opponent's head, even the referees are affected by the fans and we rarely notice the importance. In 2001 a Sports Ethics article “ The Ideal Fan” by Myles Dichter he explains the importance of fans and connection between fans

and their teams. He writes this article referencing the 2001 Journal of Applied Philosophy “The Ethics of Supporting Sports Teams,” article by Nicholas Dixon an ethics professor. In pro sports we see these effects even on the best of team in every sport. According to the article “ The ideal fan” by Myles Ditcher “Professional sports teams thrive on fan support. According to a Sports Illustrated report from 2011, each of the five major sports league see the home team win more than 50% of the time” ( Ditcher). The idea that fans see their team win at home at that percentage is mainly because at home, teams tend to draw more fans and this gives them an edge over the over team. Fans give their team the home advantage, this why they call it home field advantage because at your home field you draw in more fans and therefor you are more likely to win. Fans have a greater effect on teams than people realize. In 2010 Maria Hopwood wrote a book called “Sport Public Relations and Communication”. In the book she quotes Andrew Freddie talking about a cricket game he had just witnessed where Andrew freddie described the fans as the “Twelfth man”(hopwood). He says the are also players because he understood how important the fans were in the success of the team and acknowledged it.
Fans also give players the encouragement that they need when they are playing. Dichter explains that “ What makes being a fan of a team so special is that it is a community of people who come together for one purpose”(Ditcher). This depicts the idea of community between fans and players and this is very important because give an atmosphere of hope and togetherness which help the team perform better. Dichter also explains “The energy had been sucked out of Maple Leafs Square. Eventually the Leafs lost and as fans filtered out, I swear I could have heard a pin drop. The atmosphere was desolate, yet I didn’t feel lonely” (Dichter). The atmosphere Dichter described is one that shows a real community. One in which fans and teams are one whether they win or lose.
The idea that fans are only spectators is the problem with our high school sports community. A real fan is not only a spectator. The difference is that spectator just view and are not affiliated to the team but fans have a connection to the team. According to Maria Hopwood “The die hard sports fan will follow their team through the good times and the bad”(Hopwood). The importance of fans can be seen through a lot ways. Fans get to experience all the good and bad times of a team but a true fan's loyalty does not change because of it. It is also important to know that fans have needs. Hopwood says “Treatment of supporter groups is a key element in the relational approach to sports public relations and communication”(Hopwood).The fans to team relationship works both ways. The team need to satisfy their fans in order to keep them engaged. Players also have a responsibility to their fans. They need to give fans a reason to come to their games. They need to believe in themselves before fans can believe in them

Bob Heere and Jeffrey D. james are both professors of sports management and they have taught sports management for many years working with sports teams. This shows that they have an idea on the way the community responds to its teams.The author highlight in their writing that fans are not only supporters of a team but are members of that organization. The fans of a sports team are deeply connected to their teams but what happens when the fans are not so connected to the teams. They highlight that sports teams have different ways of connecting with their community. He highlights that the community (fans) also have a way in which they connect with the team they are affiliated with. Fans and sports team are a community so the support and performance works both ways because they are one body.
Some may have the idea that a team needs to win games to get fans and that's the only way they can get or should get fans. This idea I can understand but if we say that teams can't get fans without winning games then in the high school community most football and basketball teams should not get any fans at all. In high school students support their school teams because they feel as if it is responsibility or an issue of pride because of their friends that go to other schools. This is only true when it comes to football and basketball for other sports they simply just don't care. True fans of a school would support all sports because they want to be able to be proud of their school in all sporting areas and events.
Another argument some may have is that a team should be able to win a game no matter the situation but that's like saying a students are supposed to pass a test whether they are missing a vital part of the information needed to pass the test. According to Andrew Freddie Flint, fans are the “twelfth man”(hopwood). He says so because at a cricket match he realized that the fans loud cheering and vigorous behavior at the match was what helped the team win their match. The fans are part of a team vital arsenal that it cans use to improve itself and its community as a whole.
In our high school system fans only provide this advantages to specific sport (basketball and football) but neglect other sports. We wonder why sports other than basketball and football sometimes don't perform as well as the football team would. It's because they lack the advantage which fans provide at a sporting events. This is like having four players rather than five on the basketball court. If we provide this for other sports, although it won't be instant, we will see a drastic change in their performance. I would suggest that the high school student experiment and try going to other sporting event throughout the school year to help boost the confidence of their fellow students who participate in these sports. In my school there is a group of students that are called the rebellion who try to attend one game for every team (although they the majority of the games they go to are football or basketball), this could be an idea that every student could endeavour to accomplish. If every student tries to at least attend one or two games of every sport it would bring more interest to other sports and will help all the teams in the school. I believe that a if the community between the teams of the school and the fans becomes stronger, high school sports will change for the better. It will give athletes like me the energy and will to play and give our all on the field and therefore make improve ourselves as a team and community.