With the start of the school year, Wellesley College has begun to promote school spirit through various methods. The college as a whole recently had a tailgate for the basketball and soccer games that were held on campus against Babson College. The dining services prepared tailgate themed food for the students to enjoy. School spirit has also been promoted by student run organizations at the college such as The Schneider Board of Governors (SBOG).
On Oct. 20, SBOG hosted a tailgate for that evening’s volleyball and soccer games. The turnout was much larger than expected, according to members of the varsity basketball team. Students from all over campus enjoyed hot dogs, pretzels and other various tailgate foods before walking over to the Keohane Sports Center (KSC) for the volleyball game that evening. Many of Wellesley’s other sports teams, such as soccer, lacrosse and swimming/diving attended the game as a team. Advertising of the night as a “tailgate” helped promote attendance to the sporting event. Co-ed schools in the area, such as Babson, tend to have higher attendance at sporting events since they tend to have more students who might be interested in watching a game or a match. However, Wellesley’s game attendance is beginning to grow due to increased advertisement. Many parents and siblings of volleyball players were also in attendance at the big night.
With the fall sports season coming to an end, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournaments are beginning to start up and Wellesley’s volleyball team received a bid. The school is doing a good job with promoting school spirit and student attendance to these tournament games by providing free transportation, removing a large obstacle for students.
Even though Wellesley has been improving its methods of promoting athletics, there is still much more that can be done. Students are often unaware of home games or meets. Another issue is just that a lot of students are not involved in athletics, so they might have little interest in spending their night at a sporting event. Promoting Wellesley Athletics as a whole could be a great way to improve game attendance and public knowledge about the sports teams at Wellesley, especially since a large number of the teams here have winning records and are doing very well within their leagues.
Looking forward, there will be a lot going on around Wellesley between now and the end of the semester. Students are greatly encouraged to show their school spirit both on campus and at home games.