It’s the dying months of the school year and just as the spring season brings a lack of motivation to do any form of schoolwork, something else has notably tuned down: school sprit. Now before anyone gets all defensive and says that there isn’t a moment when they don’t bleed purple, just let me finish.

In the fall, everyone funnels into the football field and “goes bananas” for the Lancers nearly every other Friday lead by the dynamic duo of Spencer Beyer and Riley Hoffman. Spirit seems to peak during this time, with each football game consistently packing the stands.

When winter rolls around, basketball is the sport of choice. However, when it’s not an ASB themed “something-out” it seems like substantially less people bother showing up.

Then there’s spring. Where does everyone go to to flex their spirit in spring? Lacrosse games? Tennis matches? Volleyball? Softball?  Golf? Maybe baseball when there’s a game during school, but outside of that spring tremendously features a decline in attendance of a major sport.

So what better a time to look at the real importance of school spirit than during the low point of the school year? As a member of the tennis team, I can honestly say that we’ve never had a crowd of over probably fifteen at the most. About thirteen parents and grandparents, and maybe two students on a good day.

The infamous CHSTV interviews always put such an emphasis on the importance of how much teams need “crowd support” in order to win. Just based on personal experience, I know our tennis team will win or lose based on the way we play against the other team, not how many fans we have applauding in the stands.

Same goes for a bigger sport like basketball. I’ve seen our team easily win with around twenty students in the stands, and lose with the stands packed full. While it obviously does energize a  team to see so many kids in the stands, it really just comes down to how well the team plays.

School spirit truly is more for the benefit of the students attending than it is for the teams. It brings students of all cliques and social divisions together and gives them the common goal of cheering their team to victory.

While every day in school you hang out with the same kids, at these sporting events everyone is crammed into the stands and begin to bond with each other over trash talking the opposing team and cheering on our Lancers.

So while it seems like we go for a full season at the end of the year without any of this, we feel the effects of these sporting events. We hang out with the kids we got to know at the basketball games and football games and while our cheering may not have actually led to those victories, they led to a much stronger school community.