Hey-Hey Ho-Ho School Spirit at Bates Totally Blows
While checking my phone on a rainy Thursday in commons, I came across a story about a student at the University of Utah who threatened to set off a nuclear reactor on campus if the football team lost their game to San Diego State University.
Let me clear the air and say that I do NOT condone the detonation of nuclear weapons in response to sports games.
That said, there was a sliver of admiration I felt when I saw this headline. It’s clear that there is an elevated level of team spirit at the University of Utah. On this thought, I reflected and compared this story to my experience at Bates. Today’s social scene on campus is different than it was before I arrived at Bates in the fall of 2019 (wow I feel old saying that). The rise in popularity of anonymous apps and increasingly separated social groups has disconnected us as a student body from our united sense of community.
People point out the negatives of our shared experience too frequently, and I have seen it particularly prevalent with regard to Bates athletic events. Rarely does our whole school get behind a team’s season, and it seems we only give credit or attention when a team makes the national headlines. One could blame the pandemic for this lack of atmosphere– when was the last time they held a tailgate before the football games?
As a student and as an athlete myself, I hope to see a day when the promise of competition excites the student body, rather than the anticipation of failure and embarrassment that I believe has become all too common on our campus.
To quote the Green Goblin in Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman (how corny is that), “The one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail.” I hope that as we progress through the fall season and as seasons on the horizon approach, the Bates Bobcats will have a supportive crowd filling the bleachers eager to see their classmates compete.
Giancarlo Carlucci • Sep 29, 2022 at 7:47 PM
You’re right! It might not be obvious to a lot of people, especially those who dominate the social sphere and define the ethos of this liberal arts school — insofar as these comprise over 60% of the student body –, that a community is formed through at least some degree of shared interest, support.
I suppose it makes sense to assume that the essence of this school’s community revolves around these same people and fabricated shared interests. I suppose, as well, that by proxy of attending this school it is almost demanded of me to support the athletics department and give them even more attention.
I am at fault here (the guilty Catholic boy within me shrieks). I could be doing more to contribute to what this article is proposing I ought to do — as my personal endeavors with music and poetry already get too much attention and support (my incredible friends, and the great people I’ve met through this are certainly not enough in making me feel at home, or hindering my feeling that there is such a thing as school spirit, support).
And as I see I am at fault, perhaps it is also within my realm to acknowledge the greater faults involved in this attempt of ours at a compromise. I might ask, for instance, how often students who are also athletes attend events that have no relation to sports.
That said, I do NOT condone the assumption that all students that are also athletes behave this way — as a matter of fact, some of the loveliest people I’ve met here fit into that category.
Back to my point, nonetheless, I’ll ask if people attended the wonderful presentation a friend of mine offered the entire student body last Friday — which was thoroughly advertised on every Bates platform.
(I will admit, the turnout at Pause last night surprised me — many people attended; after all, I told many people about it.)
You’re right, though, it’s unfair of people to just poke fun at how competent the athletics here are, or to base that on whether or not they should attend such an event.
You are not altogether right, however, in your assumption that people do not attend the things that they attend because they expect some amazing spectacle. I’m no performer. I can’t really sing, I can’t really play. Maybe people came to my performance because maybe they just wanted to hear their friend play, wanted a space to sit down and be calm for a half hour, or were just curious and had the time. But maybe there are other essential factors involved.
Oliver Todreas • Sep 29, 2022 at 1:01 PM
When I put on music shows with my friends, we never expect the whole school to come, because not everyone likes going to concerts (also we care more about the music than the turnout). And not everyone likes going to football games either. They’re cold, long, and most of the time you lose.
I take it that Bates invests a lot more into its sports than into pretty much any other student activities, and that because football gets the most money of them all, they have the biggest stand, and therefore expect it to fill up for every game. But just because someone decided that they should build a giant stand at Garcelon doesn’t suddenly mean that the rest of the student body now owes it to the football team to show up.
And the football team losing all the time definitely doesn’t oblige the students to come watch and support either.
There’s no reason to be upset that not everyone loves one specific activity. Some of us want to play music, some want to go into nature, some want to read, and some of us want to watch our classmates play sports. Not everyone has to love Bates athletics.