All student athletes need support on and off the field, from friends, family and even teachers. At our school however, without a winning record, teams aren’t given the support they need to get to that point.

If you’ve ever attended one of our school football games, you can feel the energy and excitement that comes from our fans, especially our student section. Football has gained popularity from a winning record and the support of the Cougar Crazies.

Nevertheless, the morale of other sports that may not have that winning record could be boosted with that same attendance.

If the Cougar Crazies would commit to attending all sports, instead of solely football, all athletes could feel that sense of support, not just coming from their loved ones.

As a soccer player, I personally feel we don’t have the necessary support we need to improve and grow as a program.

A team isn’t a team without its fans.

With many sports playing multiple games in a week, and football only playing one, it shouldn’t be expected for supporters to come to all games. But, I do feel that supporters should commit to a few games, especially the most important ones against school rivals.

There are different things the Cougar Crazies leaders can bring forth to achieve this all-round sport support. At the beginning of each sports season, it may be a good idea to create a calendar with the games schedule for each sport, and commit to a few games for supporters to go to. Social media can be used to get this information out there and to draw people to the different events.

Our JROTC program has done an outstanding job at this on many occasions. I have seen numerous cadets come to basketball games, wrestling matches and other events. They create their own student section, and use it as a social get together. They seem to have a great time.

Athletics could also take part in this movement. To draw more students to other sports, we could sell discounted tickets to those students without a student pass. I feel as a whole we can all work to boost the morale of athletics at our school, other than our phenomenal football program.

There are many advantages to supporting all athletes. Friends have more opportunity to get together, team confidence and drive is boosted, which leads to better results, and makes our program as a whole look even better.