The crowd goes wild! Students pack the stands, struggling to find a seat. Laughter and cheers fill the atmosphere, as parents and fellow classmates root for their team. A high school football game could look just like this – but spring sports have a different story.

Spring sports don’t draw a large crowd, which has caused students to question their importance. Logan Detweiler ’23 is a member of the varsity track and field team. As a spring athlete, he feels as though his sport doesn’t get enough attention due to its popularity.

“We’re not as popular of a sport and I feel like track is something that is more niche,” Detweiler said. “Running, whether it be distance running or sprinting, isn’t as fun as picking up a basketball or going to play football.”

Detweiler explained how the audience at his track meets are tame and lack a student body. Detweiler believes that a change in audience would positively impact the team’s performance.

“It’s good to feed off the energy of an audience in order to improve,” Detweiler said. “I’d like a change in audience and I’d want more people to care about track because I would want more people to come to the meets.”

Donavan Moody ’23 is an athlete with a different experience. Moody is on the varsity basketball and football team, and is used to the energetic crowd.

“I would say everybody is pretty alive and attentive to the game,” Moody said. “It’s a really nice feeling coming out on a Friday night, seeing them screaming, cheering and supporting you.”

Moody believes the turnout in the audience is due to the game’s atmosphere, the popularity of the sport and how the school promotes it.

“I think the atmosphere and the specific sport play a big role since football and basketball are more mainstream,” Moody said. ​​“(The school) also promotes the winter or fall sports more, so if we did that with spring sports, I think we could get a bigger audience at (spring) games.”

Devil’s Den, the school student section, makes up the majority of the audience at school sports. According to Den representative Claire Blake ‘22, they base their schedule on what sports students want to attend, and focus primarily on boys lacrosse in the spring.

“People like watching boys’ lacrosse, because they like the more fast-paced and aggressive sports,” Blake said. “Girls’ sports tend to be less aggressive, and there’s usually more restrictive rules against aggression.”

Devils’ Den also believes that timing plays a large factor with the difference in audience at fall and spring sports.

“At the beginning of the year, people are more excited about going to sporting events and at the end of the year, people are tired,” Blake said. “There’s always other commitments going on, and (we) feel people are more into sports at the beginning since students are really excited to get involved in the school and doing the fun aspects of it.”