UTM athletics is an important part of UTM­­­. Many promotions have been made to encourage attendance at athletic events. These include: throwing ice cream into the stands and competitions for prizes between games. Raffles, concessions, and competitions take place at nearly every sporting event at UTM yet many seats stay empty.

I would like to suggest a change that could help attendance, crowd participation and enthusiasm at games. A Student Section. Sounds ridiculous and unnecessary but I believe that this change could make a huge difference.

I am a volleyball player at UTM so I will use volleyball matches as an example. When I scan the crowd, I see segregated groups rather than one cheering section. The football team tends to sit by themselves on the opponent’s side. The fraternities sit alone in one corner, while the basketball team sits in the opposite corner. There are the soccer, softball and baseball teams that take up the majority of “The Cage.” Finally the parents, faculty and community members as well as the opposing team’s fans sit together.

The seating at the volleyball matches mirrors the trend at every sporting event: everyone sits separately. We are the “student body” not the “student groups.” We should sit and cheer together.

Some of you think that sitting together is not a big deal and won’t make a difference. I will use another example from my experience. I was at one of our men’s basketball games. Once again, there was no unified section to sit, so I sat by some friends and former professor of mine and some little kids. When the cheerleaders came out with the usual, “Whoever is the loudest will get this t-shirt,” I was quiet. I was not about to jump and get loud when I was close to the kids and a teacher. I looked around and hardly anyone would either. No one was able to get excited.

I also noticed that a constant stream of people came and went from the game. If the students sat together and enjoyed themselves, people would be less likely to leave in the middle of the game.

I am suggesting that each arena should have a marked student section. Then ALL the students could get wild and enthusiastic. Also, the cheerleaders would have an audience to get pumped up and involved. There could also be specific competitions within the student section to encourage involvement.

More involvement is what we want. Better crowds make teams better and the better we play, the more money the school makes. So, why don’t we make a change to help out UTM? Let’s make a student section. We’re more likely to get rowdy if we weren’t next to our teacher or the lady from church.