Students fall short at attending athletic Events

Being a division one school has its perks and comes with a lot, but if it’s one thing the student athletes really do appreciate, it is the fan base. Here at Coastal Carolina, the students seem to fall short at supporting the student athletes.

On Oct. 4, 2018, social media sensation Brother Nature came to Conway and tweeted to the students of Coastal: “Coastal Carolina University, meet me at Turtle bridge on campus at 6 PM so we can feed all the turtles together.” That tweet alone did numbers and the turn-out was incredible.

Unfortunately, that kind of turn-out does not happen for our athletic teams.

When the football team is home, they encourage all students to come out and see the team compete, but on Saturday night when it is time to show support and school pride, the students are nowhere to be found—and if they are found, it is at a tailgate for the game but they never make it to the actual game.

Many students don’t go to the games or leave well before it’s over.

Freshman Tavian Matthews explained why he isn’t very interested in the games.

“Sometimes the games are just boring,” said Matthews. “If we are losing by 14+, I do not see the point in staying because to me, I can watch a blowout on my television at home. When I go to the games, the sidelines aren’t hype at all, so it just makes everything dull. If the team was more engaged early on, and actually put in work from the start, I might start staying longer.”

Junior Sabrina Satchell has a slightly different opinion.

“Going to the games is always fun for me but it does suck to see them lose or get blown out week after week,” said Satchell. “When they lose one game, it’s like ‘ok, maybe next week’ but when the next week comes and it happens again, it starts to get old.”

Aside from football, other sports teams like volleyball, men and women’s soccer, and both men and women’s basketball team don’t get the recognition they all deserve.

With this, comes irritation from the student athletes as well. To prevent irritation from anybody, both parties should do their part and it will all come together. Athletes continue to put in the work and students continue to come to the games and support no matter the outcome because if you do that, the outcome the next time around could be drastically different.