When we graduated from high school, my friends and I swore we would never become those losers who go back to high school every time they come home from college. We just could not even fathom that anyone would go away to college and continue to think about, or dare I say it, miss high school. The first time I went home, I did go back to my high school, but only because I wanted to visit my old lacrosse coach and one of my favorite teachers. How people can really miss anything about high school other than a few friends or teachers was still beyond me…at least until this Winter Break.

One Friday night, my family and I went to the high school to see my little brother’s basketball game. The varsity team played right after him so we stayed until halftime. As a familiar voice announced the opposing team’s starting lineup, I realized that there is one thing that high school has that college-well, Wash. U-does not: school spirit.

And that’s when my high school nostalgia hit me. I began to recall those packed gymnasiums full of our school colors and obnoxious cheers. I remembered holding newspaper pages in front of my face and booing as they announced the starting lineup for the other team. And screaming “Who’s Your Dadi” at the top of our lungs every time one of our team’s Mundadi twins scored. The only time the gym was silent-dead silent-was when our team was taking foul shots.

One of my favorite high school basketball game memories was when we played Glenbrook North High School, which, for those of you who remember, was where that Powder Puff hazing incident took place that eventually ended up all over CNN. We got pretty creative and extra obnoxious at this game, shouting things like “Please don’t haze us” and “Powder Puff” over and over again, getting louder each time.

And when our football team made it to the playoffs, we all tailgated for several hours in the freezing cold, made brats and hot chocolate and covered our faces with blue and white face paint. My friends and I all sported T-shirts over our big, puffy jackets that spelled out ‘GO T-MAC” in support of our friend and wide receiver, Ted McKenzie.

There was just so much more excitement and enthusiasm in the hallways on game days in high school. Athletes were required to wear their team paraphernalia or to dress up in some crazy way on game days. There were pep rallies and announcements and blue and white everywhere. Here at Wash. U, it is rare if we even know who, when or where the Bears are playing.

By no means did I come to Wash. U expecting the gym to look at all like Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, or the fans to even remotely resemble the Cameron Crazies. I did not even expect the teams to be anything incredible. But I expected people to actually go to some of the sporting events and to possibly sport some Wash U attire at them. I even expected students, other than the athletes themselves, to care a little bit about the teams and how they’re doing. But what I found was a whole bunch of talented, incredible teams and individual athletes with little to no supporters. We are very possibly the worst fans in the world of college sports.

How many of you saw our women’s volleyball team play once? How many of you knew that they went to the NCAA Division III championship this year? Our women’s soccer team went to the NCAA Division III Sectional Finals, also known as the Elite Eight.

But I’m guilty of it too. If my roommate wasn’t one of the best players on the soccer team, I would have never seen them play or even cared that they were good at all. It is hard to have school spirit where you aren’t surrounded by it and can’t convince people to come with you to games. The fact that our teams are not only known, but feared by other schools and that few of us can say we have attended more than a few games or even any is really unfortunate.

Both the women’s and the men’s basketball teams have winning overall records and both teams are playing against NYU on Friday, Feb. 4. Let’s take this opportunity to redeem ourselves. Make it your New Year’s resolution to support Wash. U athletics. And if you can’t start going to games for yourselves or your friends or for the sake of your school, then do it for me-so I won’t have to be one of those losers who longs for high school basketball games and so I’m not the only one in the stands.

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