By Alex Nicoll

Editor-in-Chief

@NicollMac

As part of the varsity Coppell Cowboys basketball team, I have experienced tight competition within our districts. One of the most important games of the season was against the Colleyville Heritage Panthers. It was a pivotal game that had playoff implications, with us being one game behind them in the district standings.

Now one would think that the importance of this game would not be lost in the student body but that throngs of students would show up in support. However, when we looked out to see what kind of crowd we drew, we were sorely disappointed. Besides the usually family and close friends/loved ones of the team, there was no student section cheering us on.

We looked to the visitors side and to our surprise they had a student section of at least 20 people, cheering and yelling their team on. This was on a Tuesday night during the school week.

And it was an away game for them.

Coppell High School has seen great success in many sports over the years. Two Class 5A state champions in volleyball (2011, 2012), Class 5A state champion in boys soccer (2013), Class 5A state champion in girls soccer (2009) and plenty more are just a few of the accomplishments that consecrate Coppell’s success over the years.

CHS students pride themselves on their student section at football games. They are the prime example of what one should be like: loud when the opposing team is on offense, silent when we have the ball but rowdy throughout the whole game.

While the football games represent the epitome of school spirit, that same spirit is not translated to other sports like it should.

A few other sports at Coppell High School have had glimpses of this energy. Volleyball draws a crowd, boys soccer always has a small group supporting them and baseball, more times than not, never is without some fans.

However multiple sports at CHS struggle to attract a student section when there is not a legitimate reason not to have one.

I understand that getting to some sporting events are difficult. Tuesday and Thursday nights during the school week is a challenge to balance homework and supporting a team and sometimes teams such as the CHS boys and girls golf teams play during the day when we are at school.

But let’s recall the Cowboys playoff game vs the DeSoto Eagles this year. The game, held at AT&T Stadium, was on a Thursday night. Teachers and administrators alike planned for this and kept homework and work the following day to a minimum and still attendance was down greatly for the game.

In this situation, the game was during the week but the consequences for going to the game were trivial at best, but people still did not show up.

However, in the instances that teams do play on a night at a time that is reasonable, they still fail to attract a crowd. Except the people that have personal ties to players, there are usually little to no student section at these games.

If we want to be considered one of the best student sections in Texas, as many students want to be, we need to have that loud, raucous student section to as many games as possible.

Support should not be based solely on popularity or performance, yet these sometimes are the true reasons behind going to these games. The football had an average year going 6-5 and they had a packed stadium at every game. Coppell hockey went 16-5 this season and were granted a first round bye in the Class 6A playoffs all without a student section.

This does not seem quite fair.

Athletes have gone on record saying how much they feed off the student section’s energy during games and that playing for them is an impetus to win. Student section’s have the ability to affect the morale of the game, to rattle the other team and to make the atmosphere fun.

Every athlete should be able to experience that during the high school career. Let’s be proud of our Cowboys no matter the record or how popular the players on the team are or how difficult it might be to attend the games.

If we’re going to wear shirts that state ‘Best in Texas’ then we need to start acting like one.