Supporting Your School

by Carla Hoppe

  One word describes Platteville High School’s fall sports season: Wow! There are several reasons why Platteville teams had such great seasons: hard work, dedication, great coaches, and amazing people to be around. There’s a long list of great accomplishments from this fall, including boy’s soccer winning our conference, girl’s swimming having a state qualifier, football going to state, fall play getting to sectionals, girl’s cross country qualifying eighth at sectionals, and boy’s cross country placing sixth overall at state. These are all AMAZING accomplishments, and we should be proud of all of these groups.

  But what if there weren’t any fans at these events, or any support for these participants? Would they have gotten as far as they did? As Psychology Today puts it, on an article related to school pride and its effects on a school, “School spirit appears to be a surprisingly powerful phenomenon.”

  Let’s pose another question: What if the crowds that came to the football games toward the end of the season came to every event at our school? Now, as football is the American pastime, the crowd of supporters that came to the state game would realistically not show up at all of the events in our school, but the encouragement could be just as strong.  

  All of the send-offs, encouragements, announcements, signs, and support from Platteville community and schools contribute to the success of our activities. Every single one of the events previously listed made it to their goals because of a member of our school or community supporting them.

  Be an athlete, a competitor, or a supporter. There are so many activities to choose from! At the very least, let’s gain more respect for all school events and more knowledge of each event. Platteville is an amazing community with countless opportunities and records of success, so  become a part of that success.