When was the last time you attended a cross country meet, a water polo game, a tennis match or even stopped by a wrestling meet? These are some examples of sports here at Ladue that have a disproportionately low student attendance rate. This fact needs to change.
With over 25 different sports at Ladue High School, having a large student attendance at every game or competition is not easy. Some of these games may be less covered on social media or less of a social event than others, but that doesn’t mean they should be less attended. Instead of attending games solely for the social setting, think of the impact your presence could have had on the athletes performing on the team. Showing up to one of your friend’s games can influence their performance heavily, making them strive to perform better. On the flip side, being an athlete and seeing little to no support aside from a couple of parents can lower self-esteem and possibly remove athletes’ drive for success.
Student support during games has numerous benefits for an athlete. According to sports science writer and researcher Andrew Hamilton, the results of a verbal encouragement test during physical activity tends to increase a person’s maximal effort in a treadmill test. This study shows that support while doing physical activity or playing a sport can have a tangible impact on the way athletes play.
In this day and age, students’ main channel of communication is through social media, so advertisement on social media for teams is imperative to get students to attend the games. This job is mainly done by Ladue’s Blue Crew via Instagram. Blue Crew does an amazing job of covering some of the bigger sports here at Ladue. Despite the fact that the football and men’s soccer teams should be posted about, Blue Crew also needs to post more about some of the less popular sports. Another way teams can increase turnout for their own games or events is to create a team social media account, so students have another place to find out when and where events will take place.
However, this responsibility is not solely on Blue Crew or the sports teams’ shoulders. They can only do so much to up the attendance of these games. At the end of the day, the responsibility falls upon the students here at Ladue. Students should be out supporting their peers more often than they are. Sports games are more than just places to hang out with friends. Students need to be attending a wide variety of Ladue sporting events, not just football and soccer games because their attendance can have a tremendous effect on the performance, confidence and happiness of the athletes participating.
This story was originally published in the September 2022 issue of Panorama. Panorama welcomes Letters to the Editor.
Panorama is a monthly newsmagazine that strives to inform and entertain students, staff and community members and to uphold professional standards of accuracy and fairness. The publication hopes to engage the student body by eliciting dialogue among students. It aims to reflect the diversity of the population it serves and to observe the journalistic principle of doing no harm. All surveys are completely anonymous unless otherwise stated and the results cannot be used against respondents.
Panorama is produced by the newspaper class of Ladue Horton Watkins High School at 1201 S. Warson Rd., St. Louis, MO 63124. The publication lab is located in room 1311, (314)-993-6447 ext. 5844.
