Over break someone asked me, “If you could change one thing about Dartmouth, what would that be?” I thought about the various possibilities: get rid of x-hours, put air conditioning in the dorms, renovate West Gym, et cetera. But ultimately, I realized that if I could change one thing, I would want to improve the lackluster student sections at sporting events. In my opinion (this is an opinion piece after all), support at sporting events, especially at games against other Ivy League schools, indicates school spirit, and whenever I sat in the silent, practically empty stands at basketball games this winter, I was thoroughly unimpressed.
Sure, there are other barometers to measure school spirit, but sporting events are one fun and exciting way to represent our school. Don’t get me wrong — there is no college or university that I would rather attend, but I still long for rowdy, lively fan sections. Besides hockey, our sports games generally lack enthusiastic student support on the sidelines or in the bleachers.
Maybe it comes as a result of the fact that Dartmouth is a relatively small school in a small town. Maybe it is not a realistic goal for a small school to have animated student sections, because we simply cannot draw crowds like big schools do. Yet even so, we have the potential to attract fervently animated crowds. I went to a small high school that regularly had vivacious student sections for most sporting events, and I played against plenty of other small high schools that had equally spirited, fan-filled bleachers. Maybe everyone here at Dartmouth is too busy studying. Maybe we’re too busy on BuzzFeed and Bored at Baker. Or maybe everyone just does not enjoy sports as much as I do and therefore has different priorities. That’s fine — to each their own. But organized and dynamic student sections would add another dimension to social life here at Dartmouth for both the students in attendance and the student-athletes.
Many of my friends at other schools in bigger sports conferences across the country attend a variety of sports games regularly. They even must pay to go to games, whereas sporting events are free here at Dartmouth. Yet they pack the stands with their fellow students and support their classmates, even if they do not know them personally. The fans get decked out in their school colors. They cheer in unison and heckle the opposing teams’ players. At one school, thousands of students bring newspapers to the games, and they sit in the student section and pretend to read while the other team’s starting lineup is being announced — just one example of all the crazy, interesting things we could do at our own sporting events.
Just because we are not in the Big Ten or the Big East does not mean that we also can’t have large groups of students packing the gym, wearing body paint, making posters and heckling other teams’ players. Yes, this is a time commitment, but it is a fun one. Game day could be a big deal here, too. Tailgating and sports games could replace — or complement — a night out at the frats. We could have just as much, if not more, fun as a unified fan section than we might have on a Friday night on Webster Avenue. Packing the stands would still be something new and different, especially for those less involved in Greek life.
And I’m not just talking about sports like basketball and football. Nor am I just talking about men’s sports. We should support all of our peers in their athletic endeavors, because they represent Dartmouth on the fields, courts, slopes. Most people don’t understand how much time and effort student-athletes put into their respective sports, and the least we can do is give them a great environment in which to play. And if we could make bigger, more exciting crowds that are fun for everyone involved, we all win — and who doesn’t like winning?
