By Hunter Cisiewski ’17
THE ROUNDUP

While one person might see empty seats in the football stands as a sign that school spirit could be better, others take a more holistic approach to what defines a community’s spirit.

School spirit allows all students to stay involved with their high school. Even if they do not participate in any sports or clubs themselves, students can always provide encouragement to their classmates and cheer them on, according to patch.com.

Brophy has a tradition of high levels of athletic school spirit, but when it comes to game attendance some say they noticed a decline.

“I think spirit has declined since I got here for sure. Most home games don’t have nearly as many people as they used to,” said Dylan Lawless ’15.

The past football season had some football players feeling a bit disappointed about the attendance of both home and away games.

“I think it is a lack of personal spirit,” said Max Fees ’17. “Collectively we do a great job of rallying, but there might be a disconnect between individual and collective spirit.”

Fees said that he believes that Brophy does do a good job of being supportive when they are there, but the problem is getting people to come out.

Non-football athletes also said school spirit is important to their confidence and drive.

“It is important because we need to respect all the hard work everyone does here and cheer them on,” said Blake Tawney ’16. “ We talk about being men for others but when we have a lacrosse game and not a lot of people show up, that concept seems forgotten.”

Student Council worked to promote attendance at events like football games during the first semester.

“I think the biggest factor is that people seem afraid to show spirit, especially underclassmen,” said Brendan Burg ’17, a Student Council member.

However, not all students feel the same.

“I don’t think school spirit has declined at all since my freshman year,” said Charlie Kamps ’15.

Kamps said that multiple recent events have had more students then ever.

“Sure I think football game attendance has declined a bit, but if you look at various other areas, I think, if anything, it has gotten better,” Kamps said.

Kamps added that when it comes to football games, students always come out when Brophy has a big game or a rivalry.

Some of Brophy’s faculty see school spirit as high as ever.

“Its not that kids aren’t going to X,Y,Z, it is that they are going to A,B,C. We have so many different things now compared to 10 years ago that you can’t judge school spirit by just game attendance,” said Mr. Tony Oldani, director of student activities.

Mr. Oldani said that it’s not the fact that there is a lack of school spirit, it is that there is actually so much that students are participating in different things now.

“When I leave at the third quarter to go set up Friday night lights, there are already 100 kids by the time I get there,” Mr. Oldani said.

Students have branched out and the number of clubs, both school-orientated and semi- competitive, is at an all-time high.

Students have also become more involved in more clubs and extracurricular activities like Brophy Student Theatre or the Fine Arts Extravaganza.

“I think that over my four years school spirit hasn’t gone anywhere but up,” Kamps said.