I am going to start by saying that school spirit at this school is lacking. To a certain degree, school spirit at this school is downright awful. Part of this problem can be blamed on the students. It is a fact that not enough students on this campus attend sporting events. Whether it is basketball or hockey, swimming or squash, you rarely see students packing the stands. Save for the big games against Deerfield, or the heavily promoted night games, you are hard pressed to see students flocking to the basketball court, hockey rink, or swimming pool on any given Wednesday or Saturday. Yes, students at this school are busy. Everyone here has a lot of work. Everyone here is involved in activities outside of the classroom. But so are the athletes who go out every game and play their hearts out. The athletes are willing to sacrifice their time to compete on a team and represent this school. We as fans should be willing to sacrifice our time to cheer them on, to encourage them, and to make them feel like they are playing for something more than just wins. Yes we have our weak spots, but us Wild Boar fans can make as much noise as anyone. As varsity hockey player Max Mastrella ’09 says, “Our fans are crazy and crazy fans make us want to work that much harder.” Ask anyone who was in the Remsen Arena on Saturday night. The atmosphere was electric, as hundreds of student fans watched the boy’s hockey team skate to a memorable 3-2 victory over Deerfield.
I believe the main problem with school spirit lies within the administration. I feel the administration does not sufficiently support and encourage school spirit as much as it could. In addition, I think that changes could be made. The “school” has been taken out of “school spirit” and I want it put back in.
It is unfair for student fans, who care so much for each other, to be restricted in the ways that they support our teams and fellow classmates. Choate students aren’t stupid. We fans are usually quite modest in our cheers towards other players. Yes, there are certainly points where cheering can get inappropriate, but Choate fans usually stay away from those points. The administration doesn’t really seem to understand this.
It was actually back in the fall term where the thought of the school’s role in school spirit came into our heads. It was Deerfield Week, and students around campus started to become aware of some changes that had been made in the annual Pep Rally. This timeless tradition had become so censored that most teams were only able to announce their players and then walk off. It was so bad that, in reflection, Nolan Stewart ’09 posed the question, “Was there even a Pep Rally?” In response, Ben Loveman ’09 bluntly stated, “I know that I wasn’t ‘pepped’.” As Wikipedia says, “The purpose of such a gathering is to encourage school spirit and to support members of the team for which the rally is being thrown.” I know that the Pep Rally did not accomplish this goal whatsoever, and many of our fellow students share the same believes. “The Pep Rally was awful this year,” says football captain, Dan Thomas ’08. “No one seemed energized or excited at all after the event.” Why did the administration have to go to such lengths to censor what was supposed a fun and exciting event? Do they not understand that the students at this school are creative enough to come up with funny and appropriate skits that attempt to get students energized and excited for the athletic contests against our rival schools? There isn’t a more blatant example of the suppression of school spirit than this year’s Pep Rally.
Moving on, I’d like to know what the problem with air horns are. Are they banned at hockey games because they are too loud? Do they create too much noise? Isn’t the point of cheering on a team to make as much noise as possible? Why then, are air horns not permitted at sporting events? Everyone heard what the administration said about the banning of air horns, and other artificial noisemakers at the beginning of the winter term. But no one knew or understood the reasoning. The fact that a student cannot bring an artificial noisemaker, whether it is an air horn or cowbell, to a sporting event is absurd. The days of using your hands to cheer on a team have passed. We are in an age where music and noisemakers are intended to aid the fans when cheering. If you’re going to ban air horns, you might as well ban loud music, considering that creates just as much noise as a simple air horn or cowbell does. I recall that after the administration had made their “regulations” for cheering clear, that some fans were considering starting a protest. What is the goal of banning artificial noisemakers? What does this accomplish? What message does this send to the student fans? Well, if you were to ask the most dedicated Wild Boar supporters, they would say it sends a negative message and there is no need for it. Is this not an example of suppressing school spirit? Banning a device that is used to support our teams? Where is the spirit in that?
We have hit a rough spot in terms of school spirit at Choate. I believe it is evident that the administration is not doing enough to promote and encourage school spirit. Take this past weekend’s hockey game as an example. The students were the ones who made all the flyers promoting the game. The students were the ones who made t-shirts and rally towels intended to support the hockey team. The students were the ones who had to ask the administration to send out school wide emails promoting the game. The students were the ones who had to ask the deans to make announcements at meetings. The efforts of the students in promoting the game were admirable, but what if they hadn’t gone to such lengths. I would venture to guess that not as many people would have been aware that such an important game was taking place. Yes, the students should be the driving force behind promoting athletic contests. But it is school spirit correct? The term school embodies the entire community: students and faculty alike. Why does the administration go to such lengths to censor the behavior at athletic contests but does not go to the same lengths to promote awareness about games? This is such a wonderful place and it is hard to believe that the topic of school spirit would be an issue amongst this community. But, unfortunately, it is. We need to work together, students and faculty members alike, to bring back the “school” into “school spirit.”
Choate students, behind Dean John Ford and Headmaster Shanahan, fill up the stands. PHOTO/Ian Morris
