De Smet sports teams can gain a competitive advantage and win games not only by running or lifting weights, but also encouraging students to attend games and cheer on their classmates. Student sections have the ability to change the outcome of sporting events by cheering on their teams and, in some cases, discouraging the other teams.

Anyone who attended a soccer game this year can attest to a crowd’s ability to pump up a team. During the regular season, soccer games didn’t have nearly as much student support. They lost 2-0 to both CBC and SLUH then, but later defeated them when backed by the exuberant student body. The hundreds of people cheering and celebrating with the team after every goal motivated the team through every minute of the game.

In the basketball season, De Smet played SLUH at home. Coming into the game they were the underdogs, but student section came ready and rowdy. De Smet won 51-49. The next time they clashed with SLUH, at an away game, while lacking a student section, they lost 73-39.

Arizona State started using what they call the “Curtain of Distraction” which opens as the player at the free throw line is about to shoot. On average, opponents who play Arizona State at home shoot 8.7 % worse from the free throw line causing the team to save about 1.7 points a game. So when Dillon Gilkey came down the court with five seconds left and a tied game, due to hard defense and a rowdy student section.  It gave him the opportunity to make a clutch play and hit a jump shot as time expired.

Fans do make a difference in the outcome of some sporting events. Thus, our student body should always have large amounts of people packing the stands no matter what sport is being played. Not only to show our school spirit and support our classmates; but to also help the teams win.