A couple hundred teenage boys, most of them shirtless, all clad in blue paint, yelling and cheering. The raucous nature of the crowd for the annual “Braveheart” football game is emblematic of what has long been a staple of Hawklets sports: a ruthless and passionate student section. But anyone who attended a varsity home game other than the one against Aquinas on Oct. 11 might walk away with a different impression.
The Rockhurst community is passionate about Hawklet sports, none more so than football. Led by senior yell leaders, the student section is often the heartbeat of the Rockhurst portion of the crowd. This year, however, once halftime hit, the student section dwindled significantly.
It’s something student leaders noticed. Junior class president Brendan Ortbals, for instance, advocated for students to show up and stay for the entirety of the football games–even going so far as to shame the junior class for their lack of spirit.
“High school is only four years,” Ortbals said. “You can spend this short time staying home and not going to football games and doing other stuff, or you can have fun with your friends and classmates at Friday Night Lights.”
SGA tried different things to get students to the games–everything from fun, engaging themes to awarding spirit points to the classes that were the most well-represented. None of it stopped the attrition that happened at the midway point of the game. Even a senior class that was more fervent in taking the shoes of underclassmen to prevent them from leaving could stem the tide.
“We have a culture problem,” senior Mathew LaSala told Prep News before the season ended. “All these juniors and underclassmen think leaving during the football games is okay. Some of these guys haven’t even sung the alma mater with the players at the end of the game.”
Some of those underclassmen think Rockhurst’s historic dominance on the field does the talking for them.
“People usually leave early from football games, because they get bored of our football team beating them so badly,” sophomore Eli Merga said.
While Merga admitted to not attending a single football game this year, his classmate, Collin Devereux, who did, feels similarly.
“I think students are leaving early, because Rockhurst is the best, and it gets boring watching teams get destroyed every Friday night. That’s it, plain and simple.”
The players on the field do notice when the student section is depleted. Some say it tarnishes, at least a little, what should be a thrilling moment when the team emerges victorious.
“It makes our wins feel less of an accomplishment cause we want our brothers’ support,” junior linebacker Brennan Murphy said.
The football team is now to the win-or-go-home portion of the season, when every moment of every game can matter. Rockhurst students will likely have to travel to support their team for at least the next two games, as the Hawklets are the 3-seed in their district. It remains to be seen if those students will get another chance to redeem themselves for a season when some questioned their commitment to their team, at least in situations when blue body paint was not involved.
