This weekend the men's basketball team takes to the road for its two last NESCAC games to finish their regular season. Much like the majority of the past half-dozen years, the Jumbos have been an entertaining team to watch. However, this season something has been missing from Cousens Gym, something in which many students and athletes would love to take part.
Noise. Crowd volume. Spirit.
I write this Viewpoint as someone who once was part of the obnoxiously proud and loud Trample Zone, a group of Tufts students that filled the stands at games to scream and holler as a section. It was fun, appreciated by the athletes, and proved that Division III athletics can be a microcosmic version of what is presented Saturdays on television in Division I. While the stands have continued to fill this season with curious Tufts students, the unity and confidence to be loud and enjoy the festivities have been lost. Attending games can be boring. Taking an active role is a blast. It is now up to a group of underclassman and the athletics department to organize and recognize the potential that lies within the student body.
This fall, many of you thoroughly enjoyed the women's soccer team as it marched its way to the NCAA championship game. Despite misconceptions that circulate through the student body, the majority of Tufts teams win consistently. Unfortunately, athletic spirit has often been soured on campus by lackluster Homecoming football games. The real problem, however, lies in our lacking an adequate student booster club and advertising.
The Spirit Coalition does a fantastic job orchestrating fireworks and Homecoming handouts, but fails to serve as a booster organization for seasonal sports. Tufts needs a group that will utilize extensive membership lists to announce when games will be played. This group should actively seek to spread the word, while the Spirit Coalition should make those little plastic megaphones available.
Why not designate the Amherst or Williams basketball game as "senior night" where invitations are sent out and t-shirts made available from the senior council? We need the equivalent of a winter homecoming at the start of second semester. No one has work to do, so why not come together as a school after the long month break!
A few years back, posters lined Cousens gym as the Jumbos fought Williams in a second semester game in front of an estimated thousand Tufts students. The seats were filled and people lined the pathways above the far-end basket two to three rows deep. Shocked? The event was advertised, pushed on the student body, and the result was that all of us there had fun akin to what many of you experienced with women's soccer at the championship game.
One person yelling at a game is obnoxious. Fifty people yelling is applauded. A second concern with the current situation is the lack of a designated and reserved student section at games. The athletics department should rope off a prime area and encourage Tufts students to utilize the space. Why? Due to Tufts' Boston location, many other schools use our athletic events to hold Boston-area alumni functions, filling our stands with adults. Students show up as the game begins, those from further away arrive early. With students separated in the stands, it becomes very hard to feel part of a unit, minimizing cheering by maximizing isolation. Games become a lot more fun when spectators take an active role and interest instead of sitting on their hands.
The second aforementioned issue needing to be addressed is advertising. If a cappella groups and student organizations can take the time to poster and chalk around campus, so can athletics. With so many groups on campus and activities in Boston, teams cannot expect students to investigate the schedule for themselves. Likewise, the Daily should not be relied upon to preview every game. The responsibility falls on the teams and spirit organizations. It's a long walk down to the gym - students need to be encouraged to overcome their natural apathy and tendency to simply call an order in to Espresso's.
The timeliness of this article is rather poor. Despite the prior success of many spring sports at Tufts, the crowds are never drawn like they are to basketball, football, or soccer. However, this spring remains the perfect time for the Senate, Athletics Department, Spirit Coalition, and underclassman that read this article to get together and create a Trample Zone of your own. Basketball games are held at 7 p.m. on Fridays, 3 p.m. on Saturdays. What else are you doing with your time? Think about how much fun it could be to gain back the spirit we once had. It IS within the Tufts culture, as can be seen every time you attend a Beelzebub concert. E-mail Athletic Director Bill Gehling or Senate President David Moon if this article speaks to you. I think the majority of campus agrees Tufts would be a better place if we worked on creating an athletic atmosphere that was more fun for the spectators. We have the athletes, we have the interest, we just need the organization.
Douglas Burns, a '00 graduate with a political science major, is a former Daily columnist.
