Broncos need more support
By Ryan Purdy
Whatever happened to school spirit? In the old days, Santa Clara was exploding with school spirit. Everyone dropped everything to attend sporting events. It didn't matter if you had a midterm or if it cut into your drinking time, supporting your school was the way of life. Back then, the university did not have Ruff Riders -- a club with a record high 3,200 members -- yet people were organized to head to the game.
As vice president of Ruff Riders, my job is to excite and enlist our school to support our team and show our pride, but I am failing. This seemingly simple task has become an ordeal.
Last Thursday, our women's soccer team faced the Portland Pilots, one of the nation's best teams. After an amazing game and an important win, I looked into the crowd with utter disappointment in our school, fans and city. When we play Stanford, the stadium is packed with, well, Stanford fans. Why, when we play the No. 4 team in the nation, are the stands so empty and quiet? What's worse is that when the game went past nine o'clock, 50 people got up and left to make sure they watched Grey's Anatomy.
It was worse last Friday when a handful of students showed up to watch the men's soccer team play the University of San Francisco. Although Santa Clara and USF are the top two teams in the West Coast Conference, with each team being ranked in the top 20 in the nation, a mere 40 students showed up to support them. As Amechi Igwe scored in the 73rd minute, he jumped into a crowd of three people. It disheartened me to see such little pride for such an accomplished team.
Our school has become complacent with success. We expect our fall sports teams to win. Excuses will be made for missing games -- our lives are too busy, we need to study, Grey's Anatomy is on -- but go to a Pac-10 game at Berkeley anytime during the day or week for any sports team, and you will see seats filled with fans constantly heckling the other team.
Although sportsmanship is a requirement, other teams should be afraid to come to Santa Clara instead of relishing the opportunity to play at a neutral site. Our sports teams complain and say that when they travel, fans at the other sites are unruly, but when they play at home, it feels like they're still away.
During sporting games, our school should shut down to support our accomplished teams. I challenge everyone including staff, faculty and students to pack our stands, heckle the visitors, support our teams and make Santa Clara the most feared school to play at in the WCC. It should not be difficult to take off work, take a study break or delay drinking for two hours to show some bucking Bronco pride.
Ryan Purdy is a senior management major and is the vice president of the Ruff Riders.