It’s Friday night, and everyone gathers in the bleachers. The enthusiastic ones go to the Tiger Cage, and everyone else gets their spot. The game starts and the chants get louder and louder as the Tigers get to the end goal, but that’s football. 

If you’ve spent any time around at OHS, you might have heard about our other teams such as girls’ softball, golf and field hockey but it’s possible that you’ve never attended one of their games or matches.

“It’s (attending sports) a social outing, whether I’m there to support my friend, whether I’m there to just hang out or because I don’t want to go home. So I think the fall sports typically have a better following over the spring because there’s still that ‘start of the year energy’ happening,” OHS activity director Becky Czuppon said. “So I just think it’s more from a social perspective…” 

Whether it’s a social outing or ‘just another game,’ some of the players see a difference between the games and their respective crowd sizes.

“[The crowd is] not that big. I feel like it’s mostly parents. Every once in a while, we’ll get a couple of guys and a couple of actual friends there,” Mia Endermuhle (10), an outfielder for Oakville’s varsity softball team, said. “But the only time we have big crowds is when the football team is running past and just stops to watch the game.”

Other female-focused sports share similar opinions about the support they are getting for their games.

“I mean, it feels like no one really comes, honestly. Girls I know from soccer come, too. That’s not that often, but a lot of people go to soccer,” Rylee Rafferty (12), a midfielder for Oakville’s field hockey team said.

With some people going to one sport over another, it leaves many players questioning the lack of support for their games.

“For the most part, I see when fans are there, the students seem more interested in the game…I just think getting more awareness around the school [would be good], like we have for a lot of clubs and other sports,” JV softball coach Tyler Picha said.

Some changes could be made to increase spectator attendance like introducing cheer to more less-mainstream games.

“Cheer and dance perform at boy sports and not so much for girls, and basketball kind of makes them because there’s the space to do it and it provides a schedule fill for them as well,” Czuppon said. “But so now not only do you have the spectator for the kid in the game, you now have the spectator for the cheerleader involved, so by nature of numbers, I do think that that is higher.”

Even though most of the girl’s teams don’t see a lot of support on the sidelines or in their bleachers, they still find ways to support and connect with each other. 

“It’s kind of like a community,” Endermuhle said. “It’s really like, not like sisters, but we’re really close friends and we can always go to each other if we ever need anything. And it’s just a really good way to find joy in coming to school.”