Is it possible for the Pirates to be losing their passion? In the past, St. Charles High School has had many students bursting with excitement and pride to be a Pirate. However, in more recent years, students have noticed a steady decline in school spirit during sports.
“I feel like there’s less people attending games and there’s less spirit. I feel like people used to always be on theme my freshman year, like if it were pink out everyone would be wearing pink. Not everyone does that anymore,” senior Lauren Redlawsk said.
Redlawsk has attended St. Charles High School all four years of her high school career, and had the opportunity to really see and understand the community and energy around her.
“I find it interesting especially because in general I feel like our school spirit has declined in participation,” Redlawsk said.
However, there are other students who believe that this isn’t necessarily the case. Senior Colleen Ney, one of the drum majors in the school’s band, believes that there is still a spark in the student sections at certain times of the year.
“I think that we did a good job showing up at football games, but then when basketball games happened, the crowd wasn’t there…I think we could definitely do a better job, but overall the crowd did get hype. ESPN desk was a wonderful highlight, and we definitely loved the pink out game,” Ney said.
Just like Redlawsk, Ney has attended SCHS for all four years and has seen a decline in student sections through her high school career. She reminisces on times during her freshman year, where she felt the energy was at its highest.
“I think, personally, freshman year was the best student section I’ve ever been a part of and ever helped chant and stuff,” Ney said,”We were just so proud to be a Pirate. As the years go on, we get more scared to yell for our team, I think.”
At SCHS, many members of our staff are also alumni at our school and have seen how the community has changed over the years. For example, our Activities Director Ben Owens graduated from SCHS in the year 1994. He was an athlete, and was never really a part of the student sections during games. But as a member of the staff, he has still seen some changes over the years.
“Obviously kids nowadays have more to do,” Owens said, “back then we didn’t have cell phones or anything else, so we just kind of hung out more together and it was more face-to-face. For pride, it was a little more well attended, but it’s pretty close.”
According to Owens, he believes that as technology has progressed, the participation at games has slightly declined. However, he also believes that this year we did have good moments at the games with good turnout in the student sections. Owens didn’t see too much of a difference in pride throughout the years, however there are other members of the staff who have a different view of things.
Substitute teacher and basketball coach Reid Bayliss was also a student at SCHS, and graduated during the year of 2017. Bayliss had a lot of experience in sports and student sections during his time, and thought back to how games used to be during his time at SCHS. To him, the games were a time to have fun and show off his school spirit. However, now that he is a coach and is able to not only watch the game, but the student section as well, he feels that the energy has been low in comparison to other years.
“It was like an obligation to go. Something that, you know, everyone really looked forward to. Especially during basketball season, for girls and boys games, there was great support from the student body,” Bayliss said.
