Gleaming gold shirts, vociferous vuvuzelas, and enthusiastic fans fill Postell Stadium for an exciting soccer match. This is an unusual sight for soccer, for the sport has never been much of an attention grabber for students and fans. Football is the sport that usually tends to draw the largest crowds of any Jesuit sporting event. But the question is: “why?”
“For students, it’s all about getting something in return” junior Jason Joy explains. “We don’t really go for the sport all the time, something else has to draw us in.”
For football games, there are friends, food, girls, and time to hangout with everybody on a stress-free Friday night. Soccer wanted to find its own way to convince fans they’d have a good time. Other than the beautiful sport itself, there was nothing else to pull in fans, and so a big turnout was rare.
This year would prove to be different for Jesuit Soccer. New ideas and events were crafted to attract fans of all kinds. For this certain event, Goal (Gold) Out night, Pam Murad of the Jesuit athletic administration office and Jesuit soccer parents attempted to mirror basketball’s and football’s successful idea of giving students free shirts in exchange for attending the game.
When this was done during playoffs and district games for basketball and football, games were almost always sold out. The strategy also proved to be a success for soccer as students poured in to get their gold out shirts, tamales, and other “freebies.”
Jack Hazzard 15′ says that “having more fans in the stands was exciting and a change from games before.” Jesuit soccer games this season have been much more lively than any other years, with more fans, events, fun, and excitement. The plan was a success, as gold shirt wearing fans filled the stands little by little to watch the JV and Varsity matches.
The Jesuit Varsity team extended the excitement of the night on February 18 against Richardson High School, bringing home a close 2-1 win over their opponents. Close matches are always more thrilling to watch, especially when good soccer is played. Jesuit fans definitely got their money’s worth.
After the enormous success of the night, Jesuit has continued to implement other attractions such as food, vuvuzelas, half time contests, and cheerleaders at games. Soccer matches will continue to become more intriguing as Jesuit ventures into playoffs in hopes of advancing further than last year.
Come out and support your Jesuit Rangers in the last couple District games and playoff matches as they try to make it all the way in 2014!
