Home field advantage is not a new concept. According to The Chicago Booth, it’s regarded as the most well-known theory in sports. Many factors are involved in giving the home team an advantage such as referee bias, scheduling difficulty, but most importantly — the home team fans. As the student body we believe that there is a “joy of athletic competition” and that the first Westminster athletic pillar is first for a reason, it’s the most important. However, over the years we haven’t seen eye to eye about how to effectively use a student section and capitalize on that advantage.
We believe that overall, our cheering isn’t reflecting poorly on our Christian character or compromising our promise to honor Christ in all things we do. Our cheering for our team bolsters their performance at home and on the road to fulfill our fifth pillar promise of running the race to win. We believe there is a general understanding to keep cheers respectful but there is clearly a sliding scale on what respectful means.
Keeping our cheers un-profane and untargeted keeps them in the students’ eyes allowable. Yet, it seems that at sporting events we are scrutinized for common cheers or bantering with the other student section. When we are winning a game and the other student section chants at us, we see no problem saying “scoreboard.” We understand that at Westminster we are held to a higher standard but again, we don’t feel that scoreboard or bantering compromises our Christian character.
When bringing students of other schools to Westminster sporting events they tend to comment on the student section being weak. Quieting down the student section by putting constraints that the students feel are unnecesary with drives fans away and hurts our performance. Playing in front of your home crowd creates a desire to perform but more importantly, it distracts the opposing team and adds pressure especially when there is cheering.
Walking into MICDS for a baseball game one of the students called us the “pussycats.” I didn’t throw a fit about it, I actually kind of laughed because it was clever but it made me think, why would we be called the “pussycats.” We all know what they were really trying to call us.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) guidelines for cheering are vague. They leave the authority to the referees and give them the liberty to remove players and fans if they demonstrate “unsportsmanlike” behavior. Going beyond the cookie cutter rules given by MSHSAA, schools should give students real boundaries and rules for cheering, which we want to do.
With that being said, we know the student section needs to play fair. When cheering, our first rule should be to bolster the Wildcats and if that happens to pressure the other team, then so be it. We also need to cheer with a purpose, stupid chants do nothing for the wildcats and put zero pressure on the other team, they just make us look dumb. If we cheer with purpose, with respect, and with class we can bolster the wildcats and pressure the other team while following our first pillar promise. Keeping cheers un-profane and un-targeted at opposing players but allowing friendly banter with other student sections I believe, is the perfect place to start. We would like to build a common ground on what is allowed and what isn’t at sporting events and let the students keep others in check.
