While I was certainly not shooting the winning baskets at the game against Northwestern State, I feel as if I cheered the Kats onto victory with my mere presence. As usual, Johnson Coliseum had a sparse population, even with the opportunity to win such a glorious prize as a brand new car!
What appalled me even more was that when nobody soared their paper airplane to the winning spot, all the students bolted. I didn’t even throw an airplane. While the prize was tempting, I came to support my team. It was my first night off of work in a couple of days and I could finally come out and view a sport I actually understand and enjoy. I wanted to be there regardless.
I grew disgruntled with the lack of students and the availability of open seats. Doesn’t anyone care about our school? Doesn’t anyone want to support our team? Sam Houston’s Athletic Department has tried a variety of ways to encourage SHSU students to attend games, but nothing seems to work. Even a chance to win a free car! Although they certainly lack the expertise of their demographic and advertising, I think it all comes down to one thing: we have no school spirit.
Every day, I see students walking to class wearing another university’s spirit wear and many times I am tempted to pause them on their journey to their next class, tap them on the shoulder and ask, “Why are you here?” It seems to me that if you like Texas A&M University so much, you should be there instead.
I understand that most students have hectic schedules that don’t allow for much free time other than sleep, but I think it’s a real shame when I hear people say that the reason they don’t come to SHSU games is because they feel as if they are attending high school events. It seems like once one person decides that something is “lame” or “uncool” it catches on like a wild fire and then people decide they dislike something when they’ve never even tried it. With all of this negativity floating around campus, I can’t help but wonder if anyone has ever paused to think that maybe if more people started attending the games the university would pick up on it and make the games more exciting? Suddenly, there’d be more members of the SHSU band to play our favorite songs. There’d be even bigger and better prizes at half-time and maybe, just maybe we could make it a little fun.
I’m sure there will be an outcry of excuses like they don’t live in town, they don’t have time, or that they just don’t care. Despite all this, I hope I can continue to make a difference. Maybe my rant, while appearing utterly futile, will convince someone out there to give Sam Houston’s sports a chance and that’s all that really matters.