The varsity football team was on track to have a great season defeating their first opponent Warrenton High School on Aug. 19 with a score of 23-6. This game they had a great support from their student section. However, throughout the season the team’s support decrease drastically every game. It took the biggest hit after a heartbreaking 60-8 loss to an intown rival, Timberland High School. The momentum of the team was killed and they lost six following games after that.

I witnessed team after team having a bigger student section, even at our own home field. “I believe that you have more motivation and there is a more uplifting atmosphere, even if there is a big student section it doesn’t do much when they don’t chant a whole lot or make noise. I don’t know if it is just me but when I am on the field and the sidelines I hear almost no chants,” said senior Drew Schill, who is a varsity football player. “The team definitely performs better whenever they have the support and have someone chanting and putting out a positive atmosphere even when they team is losing.”

The varsity basketball team started off their season with a heartbreaking 61-52 loss to once again the cross town rival, Timberland High School. Liberty had a packed student section led by fellow varsity athletes Kenny Nowling, Drew Schill and many more. They know how much having a positive atmosphere helps carry a team so they figured they’d help out and cheer on the boys. Even after the close loss, the team continued on and I believe it just showed them that they needed to push themselves that much more in order to achieve what they wanted. Since the loss to Timberland, Liberty has won both of its home games against Zumwalt North and Zumwalt West. The students section never let up and they kept showing up at away games which helped carry the team forward with motivation and cheers. The fans showed the team that they were behind them every game.

This helps in my opinion show that a team can perform better when they have more support. It is hard to get back up coming out of halftime whenever your team is losing by 10 points. It gets easier whenever you have a crowd behind you cheering you on. You can’t just support boys varsity basketball. You can’t forget about other winter sports or other sports activities in general. Girls varsity basketball attendance is much lower than that of varsity boys even on the nights that they play just before the boys. Is it just the matter of what time they play? In my opinion, if the girls played after the boys they would still get about the same attendance and support as they would if they played before the boys.