Administration Needs to Give Student Section More Freedom at Games

I’ve been around Lancer basketball long enough to notice that there is an ever-declining enthusiasm for the season and the passion from its fans. In 2006, East basketball games were more than just a rendezvous point for a Friday night hang out–they were the can’t-miss, premiere event.

Most game nights, to get a seat in the gym, you had to arrive by the fourth quarter of the JV game, and that’s just for the parents and middle school kids. The student section regularly filled up their allotment of seating stretching into the north bleachers. With not an empty seat in the gym, the Lancers possessed an unfair home court advantage.

The reason for all of those packed bleachers? The administration gave the student body freedom, encouraging them to be actively involved in the game and allowed them to actually enjoy the experience. Each basketball game it was tradition for several seniors to dress up in costumes–the student section was led by Santa Claus, Big Bird, inflatable cows and other characters. With an unlimited arsenal of chants and cheers, the student section was in unison and entirely involved; even the middle school section contributed. Almost all of the cheers were aimed at the opponent and their student body. Although the old cheers may have been a little more “aggressive,” they brought together the student section in ways that today’s chants can’t match. And I can assure you, none of those “that’s on you” chants were anything a Raider basketball player or Rockhurst fan lost sleep over.

With the fan experience being one that didn’t include being hassled by the faculty, basketball games marked the best time of the year to be a Lancer.

But over the last few years, the administration has put a stranglehold on the student section and it is sucking the life out of it.

No longer can seniors dawn the front row representing Santa Clause, no longer can the students respond to the endless personal cheers from the Rockhurst students and hence no longer can the fans give their team a home court advantage. That is unless you want to get escorted out of the building. Doesn’t that sound fun freshmen?

Because of this radical censorship, the turnout has dwindled and the incentive to stay for the whole game has gone away, making the 4th quarter the popular time to get on with the rest of the students’ Friday night plans. Even with the football team on the brink of winning their first playoff game since 2001, the student section began to shrink well before the game was over.

Although the last couple basketball teams haven’t been what East has been used to, the dissipated support hasn’t helped.

With the basketball season opening just a week from tomorrow, the administration has the opportunity to bring back the culture and atmosphere that surrounded the basketball team just a few years ago. But to get there, the radical censorship must stop.

During the last couple basketball seasons, the muzzle has tightened only allowing “positive encouragement” from the student section, and the line between acceptable and not has become very gray.

With all cheers directed at the opposing team being outlawed, despite being non-malicious like “air-ball” and “you let the whole team down,” the student body has gotten monotonous with their cheers due to their small range of creative freedom given to them by the administration. Although the support was strong for the football season, the basketball season is entirely different with the close proximity to the players and the opposing fans.

A home court advantage is made by the fans’ ability to intimidate the opposing team, but how can that be done with a half empty student section that is only allowed to encourage their own team?

Sure, games against Rockhurst do and always will draw the full student section, but it used to be that during that game both student bodies would go blow-for-blow throughout the game with their cheers. But the last couple years, we haven’t been able to respond. From a fan standpoint, it has gotten almost entirely one-sided with the private Jesuit school left with no restrictions. Despite all of Rockhursts’ cheers being in good fun, I think I speak for the student body when I say it is embarrassing to be left so defenseless.

There is a line that needs to be drawn by the administration to prevent altercations after the game and public embarrassment, but that line is far from where it is now.

With the basketball team being poised to have a great season, the perfect time to bring back the passion and enthusiasm that used to surround East basketball games is now.

I understand that the administration wants to prevent any violent altercations while upholding the school’s image, but in no way should our sporting events be ran with a dictator’s mentality. It isn’t necessary, never in my four years of East sporting events have I seen a student from another section leave the stadium crying or shaken because of a chant, they know it’s not personal and just a facet of high school sporting events.

With the first game only about a week away, the administration owes it to the students and the basketball team to give the fans just a little more freedom.