The Friday night lights shone brightly on the players. The gym filled with the squeak of high tops on hardwood and the pop of precise passes. A few fans cheered, but the energy felt low for what should have been an exciting game. There were a handful of fans in the stands, but not as many as there should have been, and it was clear that the turnout didn’t reflect the pride we should have for our school.
Although student attendance has increased the past five years, it hasn’t kept up with the growing numbers of students enrolled.
During Lightridge’s opening year, participation among the school’s 958 students was low, primarily because of COVID-19. In 2025, with 2,050 students, there is still not enough school spirit at games. With the increase in population, there has been a rise in the turnout of people at Lightridge sporting events, but on a per capita basis, student attendance and spirit in general isn’t keeping up.
It is a little disappointing how there seems to be no excitement or promotion around Lightridge sports among the student body. As our senior year comes down to the wire, we want to be able to share our last moments cheering on our school with a big community.
Current seniors used to go to so many games our freshman and sophomore year, but that excitement has gone down because of the lack of support from other students. It’s significantly more fun to go to games when there are more people there.
Underclassmen have the power to tip the scales at games.
“The classes of 2028 and 2027, with more numbers, are helping, but they’re not very spirited,” senior Kyle Heavener said.
“When I was a freshman I was, like, really scared to go full out,” sophomore Gabby Rozzoni said. “With time, I think you get more spirited.”
“We need to have a hype squad,” Heavener said, which he described as about a dozen upperclassmen that everyone will follow to games. “Have that designated group that picks one game for every sport. This ‘Bolt Squad’ shows up and everyone follows.”
Sophie Lash, a freshman, believes that having more upperclassmen attend the games and an increase in advertisement about the game details will increase the number of underclassmen at games.
Lash is correct. There should be more advertisement for away games to support peers from afar, but they’re also needs to be an increase of advertisement just for our games at home.
The obvious medium for these advertisements is social media, but not everyone is on social media. It’s hard for kids and adults not on social media to know the spirit theme for each game or to even know about the game in general.
A solution would be adding events to the morning announcements.
Bringing attention to students the day or the day before a scheduled event is to take place could gather more participation at games. It brings the awareness that an event is happening and will facilitate planning by students to attend an event that happens after school hours.
Participation may ultimately be determined based on the success of the team.
“I hate to say it, but it also depends on how the teams are doing,” said Assistant Athletic Director Brian Schmidt. “Winning brings more people.”
For example, girls basketball has tended to have more spectators than boys because of their success in the past couple years.
But that shouldn’t be the reason to show up to games. Games are about more than just the final score; they’re opportunities to come together and support our classmates.
Spring sports are about to start with boys/girls lacrosse, boys/girls soccer, boys/girls tennis, boys/girls track, softball, and baseball and no matter the reason, every student should try to make an effort to come to sporting events.
