Teams deserve better support from fans

By Chris McFadden

mcfaddenc@thejohnsonian.com

The basketball team is one of the many WU teams with championships under their belt. Johnsonian file photoDid you know, at press time, Winthrop’s volleyball team had a 5-1 home record versus conference opponents?

Did you attend any of those winning games?

Looking at the attendance figures for those games, probably not.

During the home winning streak, Winthrop’s game against High Point University had the highest attendance, with a grand total of 560 people.

The Winthrop Coliseum has a capacity of 6,000.

While, admittedly, volleyball is not a mainstream sport, the lack of fan participation was also evident in basketball, which is a mainstream sport, and arguably Winthrop’s most popular sport.

The total attendance at a home game versus Liberty University last year: 2,204. Not even a half-full coliseum.

Winthrop has a winning tradition many schools across the country would envy.

After all, the school’s nickname is the “Campus of Champions.”

Johnsonian file photoIf an outsider attended just about any of Winthrop’s sporting events, they would probably think the school had one of the worst athletic programs in America.

This could not be further from the truth.

Winthrop has Big South Conference Championships in men and women’s tennis, men’s basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, men’s cross country and men’s soccer.

Still year after year the attendance at games is consistently low.

The athletic department tries several ways to get students involved in campus sports.

There are incentive programs where prizes are given to students for simply attending home games.

Coaches are fairly accessible, and even spend some of their time meeting students to in order to encourage fan participation.

As any sports follower knows, home court advantage is a crucial part of a team’s success. 

Opponents should be intimidated as soon as they get off their team busses because they know the Winthrop fans are going to be loud, rowdy and full of enthusiasm.

 The players on Winthrop’s teams also give fans a reason to want to attend sporting events.

For the most part, the athletes stay out of trouble and are approachable. They do not act as if they are above the rules and regulations regular students have to follow.

They act, which is not the case on other campuses, like they are one of us. Like fellow classmates who are here to get an education like the rest of us, but just-so-happen to play sports. 

These are athletes represent Winthrop and the student population well.

Walking around campus or sitting in classrooms, a common complaint among students is a lack of things for students to do.

One thing that can alleviate some of the boredom is attending a sporting event. The atmosphere is fun, teams give it their all and the players are one of you.

Do yourself a favor and take a chance, attend a game and see what you have been missing.