It’s no secret that our Rockville Inferno is known for its spiritedness, but some students have begun to notice an imbalance in support across all sports. While football games draw large and energetic crowds, other sports like field hockey and soccer often see little attendance. This raises questions about school spirit and the value we place on all our athletes.
The RHS Inferno is a student section platform that promotes and leads the student section at sporting events. They make posts for games and encourage people to attend them. However, not all sports are promoted equally on the page. The inferno should implement changes that allow them to encourage all sports equally to ensure every athlete feels valued and supported.
Although extremely supportive and good at getting people to attend games, the Inferno does not equally support all sports teams. This lack of equity impacts our athletes’ morale and event attendance.
It’s clear that athletes thrive on the support of their peers, which boosts morale and performance. However, the current trend of unbalanced support from the Inferno creates a disparity between the athletes and overall spirit or attendance at various sports events.
When athletes see their peers cheering them on from the stands, it gives them a sense of pride and motivation to perform their best. Unfortunately, the Inferno’s support is often skewed towards more popular sports like football and basketball, leaving other teams feeling undervalued.
“I believe it was our senior night last year and barely any people showed up. I put a lot of work into senior night and not seeing many people show up was very sad and many people couldn’t play their best,” senior soccer captain Amira Ayungo said.
Equity in supporting all sports teams is crucial for boosting attendance at games that see low turnout. When the student section only shows up for popular sports it creates an uneven playing field where some athletes feel unappreciated. By ensuring that all sports receive equal attention and support, we can encourage more students to attend games of every sport.
“The Inferno is doing a better job this year. They have been offering to repost our stuff and trying to come to our home games, but it isn’t really spreading to the public, so right now it’s only the leaders who actually end up coming out and not other people,” senior field hockey captain Erin Kelly said.
Although all sports aren’t being promoted equally, can we really blame the leaders of the Inferno? Organizing events, creating promotional material, and managing the social media account all require time and effort that may not be feasible for every sport. Although this shouldn’t be used as an excuse, it can be a valid reason as to why we aren’t seeing equal support throughout all the sports teams.
“I think right now Inferno is struggling because it’s our first time and we got very little instruction on what to do, so trying to balance out all of the timing for all of the sports teams is very difficult,” senior Inferno leader Amelie Auroux said. “But I think that we have some plan in mind moving forward to promote more of the sports teams in person.”
It’s important that we all come together as a school and show support to all sports teams as equally as we can. Showing some love on a team’s game day post and even reposting them are great ways to get involved and support. If you find yourself doing nothing, go out to a game and support a team, no matter the sport.
