In the past, girls water polo has not had a large student section at their home games. A freshman, Kathryn Dunn, has decided to change that by advertising it throughout the school. She is texting her friends and hanging up posters to get people to attend. There is a lack of clear consensus among students on why there isn’t a large student attendance at their games.
“A lot of it is awareness, like football games are posted everywhere and everyone knows to show up. But for sports like water polo, it's just nobody even knows there's a game unless it's talked about,” Dunn said.
It can be hard for sports that aren’t talked about often to have high attendance numbers since people don’t know the specifics of the game. Water polo is different from a traditional sport in that it is played in a pool and not on a field or court, bringing different complexities to the rules of the game.
“Its also just hard to find time to come to a sport that you don't really know much about. Since it's so unpopular, people don't really know how to play or what the rules are of the game and how the game really works,” Chloe Bolak (‘29) said.
Having less students watching games can be disappointing for some athletes, as they feel they aren’t seen in their sport. Athletes like Dunn, who have experience with their own sports being unwatched, are more motivated to go watch other sports.
“Water polo is one of the underappreciated sports at the high school and I've had [prior] experience with that, just being on JV teams and then being on cross country — which nobody knows about,” Dunn said.
Once athletes have experienced not having large audiences at their sporting events, it can make them sympathetic to other lesser-known sports. Many students feel this, but Dunn wants to do something about it for all of her peers.
“I'm gonna send Mr. Morris an email and ask if we can put a post on Minga. Then email the office ladies to add to the announcements for the week and share the word to my friends,” Dunn said.
Giving up part of Dunn’s free time to advertise and attend others games has stood out to other students and athletes. It can be a drastic change for the athletes who aren’t used to having much student support at their games.
“Its really cool that she’s doing [advertising]. It’s a little bit hard to have a student section sometimes because we’re not used to it as a team,” Abigail Barston (‘29) said.
Some people thrive on others watching them, while others can find it stressful to perform under more eyes. There are different opinions on how more people watching affects their team dynamic.
“The last game in our tournament when we saw a bunch of people there, and it was by far one of the better games we played,” Bolak said.
