Surprise, surprise – it’s another sports-related article!
When you attend a sporting event at a large school (i.e. Rutgers, LSU, UDel) there’s a large likelihood that a good portion of the spectator population was attracted by things other than the love of the game. T-shirt cannons, scantily clad cheerleaders, free merchandise at the entrance – there are countless outliers that draw in crowds at games. However, that fact almost guarantees the absence of actual attention paid to the competition at hand. The fact of the matter is, larger schools draw in less athletic fans and more merchandise fans.
Stockton University’s men’s soccer team has accomplished great things so far this season. They have worked with determination at every practice and game. However, we are a small school, void of confetti machines and t-shirt cannons at every game. Therefore, the stands are rarely filled during game days. One particular evening, the men’s team played a game in the frigid rain. The game went as any other soccer game would. The boys played hard, and they acted as if the rain and slowly dropping temperature were no different than a sunny 65 degree day. The fans, however, are what caught my eye.
As I sat in the front row of the fan section, which was sparse enough for me to turn around and see most of the bleachers, the cheers and screeches rose from behind me. When the temperature dropped, no one moved. When it started drizzling, Stockton spectators only budged to pull up their hoods and continue cheering. We cheered loudly for the boys, and up rose the occasional hiss at the opposing team.
This particular crowd is one I’ll never forget. I knew almost none of their names, but I knew they were present out of love – for the game or for the school, I couldn’t tell. Their unwavering support was true, unmotivated by bribery with merchandise or shivering dancers on the field. We spectators sat in the frigid rain, on a Wednesday night, without music or shiny trinkets as a reward, just purely out of support for the boys. Now, this is in no way surpassing the effort the boys put forth to actually play in the rain rather than sit through it, but it was pretty beautiful to watch a bond form between forty some-odd strangers who really loved Stockton.