Large student sections make or break the athlete experience
Sports like football and basketball tend to draw in a big crowd, but some sports such as golf and tennis are better off without as many people there to watch.
Soobin Park, a junior, is a part of the girls tennis team and the dance team. While comparing the atmosphere of the audience for the dance team, to the audience for the tennis team, Park states that “for tennis I feel like there is a very small audience because not a lot of people are that interested in tennis so I feel like it’s very different (than dance).” Park explains more on how for dance they usually perform at assemblies, so there are typically a lot more people there compared to tennis, whereas it’s just not as much of a popular sport.
As for preference on weather or not she rather have a big or small student section, Park explains that “I feel like it depends on the sport, if it was dance I’d be like yes (for a big student section) because I feel like dance is like a hype sport so for doing hip hop we would obviously want people to be cheering and stuff, but like for tennis I feel like it’s just a quiet sport so I feel like we need more focus, so having a quieter atmosphere would be better for that one.”
Malia Kaleikelio, a sophmore, does girls golf and was on the cheer team last year. Kaleikelio also compares the different atmospheres between the cheer team and the golf team stating that “golf is a very independent sport and it is against the rules to to have any contact with any of the watchers so when your playing golf it’s really just you and your own thoughts because you can’t really talk to the other players that much either.” She also explains that “cheer was all about the student section and you had to interact with them– like it was basically your job– so it’s very two completely different atmospheres.”
As for the question on whether or not she rather have a big student section or a small student section, Kaleikelio says that “with golf I definitely don’t want anyone watching because sometimes family comes and watches and it actually just stresses me out.”
Sometimes players actually prefer the smaller student section for their sport but other times they like it when there is more people to cheer them on, it really just all depends on the sport their playing.