How To Be A Good Sports Fan
August 16, 2017 at 3:49 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
We enjoyed one of the nicest, quietest summers in recent memory, didn’t we? We fished, we boated, we water skied, we went to the beach, we sat under shade trees and had a cold drink with family and close friends. We celebrated with young couples who tied the knot, and with even younger people who graduated.
Now, it’s time to get back to work.
Back to cheering for our favorite school’s teams as another high school sports season has commenced.
For 26 years as a broadcaster, and for many more as a participant and spectator, I have witnessed many positive and negative fan behaviors – which I chronical often on these pages each week.
So, as a public service to you, the sports-watching fan, I would like to offer you some tips on how to improve your cheering experience.
Consider it a “Fan’s Guide to Watching Local Sports.”
We must first make a very important distinction: Who am I talking about when I am talking about “fans.”
The answer is pretty simple: a “fan” is anyone who is not directly connected to the team you are following. That includes all family members (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles), people who live in your community, people connected to your school but who don’t live in your community and everyone else. Every non-player, non-coach, non-media member, is a fan.
In sports, everyone has a role to play, and fans certainly have an important role to play from many different angles. A fan’s primary job is to support their team. Now, that’s a pretty vague concept. So how should fans be supportive?
It starts by attending the games. Your attendance at sporting events supports in several ways. Your being there shows validation to the hard work that each player and coach and the team collectively have put forth in preparation for that game and their season. We all want validation and to be thought of as valuable. You do that when you give up your time and money to pay to watch a sporting event.
It also supports the athletic department of the school hosting the event. Despite the rantings of some of the uninformed, admission and sponsorships foot the bill for high school sporting events. When you attend the games you help the teams be properly and safely equipped and uniformed, and for the facilities. It also helps pay for coaches, who in most cases are paid well-below a fair hourly rate considering the amount of time they put into their team.
Support also comes in the form of actually cheering for your team and the players and coaches on it. This we can split into two aspects: in-game cheering and off-field cheering.
In-game cheering is an easy concept to understand. While the team is playing, fans are in the stands encouraging their team to play harder and better in a positive manner.
Off the field is a little tougher to grasp. The importance of supporting the team in your everyday walk is critical to the success of the team as a whole.
Why?
Because many teams with the potential for greatness have been torpedoed by their own fan bases. Disagreeing with a coach’s decision or game plan, criticizing a player in front of others and over-analyzation casts a dark cloud over the team and its members.
But it’s easy, right?
Dads (and now moms too) and uncles who once played on a sports team can be very helpful, but also very dangerous. They “played the game” so, yes, they probably have a better sense of the finer details of it than those who didn’t. But it’s also important to remember that the game those people played is very different than the way it’s played now. I have to remind myself of that when I watch soccer sometimes. It’s not 1985 when we played with four forwards, three in midfield and three in the back. Formations are different, the expectations for each position are different and roles are different.
Imagine what happens when Uncle Joe, who played on the conference championship team in 1979, sees things on the field or court that don’t match up and he lets everyone around him know about it.
It’s not always for the best.
Then, of course, there is the “family factor.” Sometimes in a well-meaning effort to encourage a youngster, a family member will offer “you would have won if you would have played more” or “I just don’t see why you aren’t (fill in the blank here).”
That just doesn’t help at all.
And for those who can’t wait to get home to voice their opinions on how things are going, I have some things for you to consider.
When you stand up to scream at the play-caller, his wife is sitting three rows in front of you and five seats to your right. She heard every word you said – and so did everyone else on your side of the field.
When you howl in disbelief at the defender who got beat for that last-minute goal, that’s his mom and sister sitting right behind you.
Those people live in your neighborhood, they shop at your grocery store, their kids go to school with your kids.
Go to the game. Enjoy it … sports are fun!
But when you do, support your team – and do it the right way.
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We enjoyed one of the nicest, quietest summers in recent memory, didn’t we? We fished, we boated, we water skied, we went to the beach, we sat under shade trees and had a cold drink with family and close friends. We celebrated with young couples who tied the knot, and with even younger people who graduated.
Now, it’s time to get back to work.
Back to cheering for our favorite school’s teams as another high school sports season has commenced.
For 26 years as a broadcaster, and for many more as a participant and spectator, I have witnessed many positive and negative fan behaviors – which I chronical often on these pages each week.
So, as a public service to you, the sports-watching fan, I would like to offer you some tips on how to improve your cheering experience.
Consider it a “Fan’s Guide to Watching Local Sports.”
We must first make a very important distinction: Who am I talking about when I am talking about “fans.”
The answer is pretty simple: a “fan” is anyone who is not directly connected to the team you are following. That includes all family members (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles), people who live in your community, people connected to your school but who don’t live in your community and everyone else. Every non-player, non-coach, non-media member, is a fan.
In sports, everyone has a role to play, and fans certainly have an important role to play from many different angles. A fan’s primary job is to support their team. Now, that’s a pretty vague concept. So how should fans be supportive?
It starts by attending the games. Your attendance at sporting events supports in several ways. Your being there shows validation to the hard work that each player and coach and the team collectively have put forth in preparation for that game and their season. We all want validation and to be thought of as valuable. You do that when you give up your time and money to pay to watch a sporting event.
It also supports the athletic department of the school hosting the event. Despite the rantings of some of the uninformed, admission and sponsorships foot the bill for high school sporting events. When you attend the games you help the teams be properly and safely equipped and uniformed, and for the facilities. It also helps pay for coaches, who in most cases are paid well-below a fair hourly rate considering the amount of time they put into their team.
Support also comes in the form of actually cheering for your team and the players and coaches on it. This we can split into two aspects: in-game cheering and off-field cheering.
In-game cheering is an easy concept to understand. While the team is playing, fans are in the stands encouraging their team to play harder and better in a positive manner.
Off the field is a little tougher to grasp. The importance of supporting the team in your everyday walk is critical to the success of the team as a whole.
Why?
Because many teams with the potential for greatness have been torpedoed by their own fan bases. Disagreeing with a coach’s decision or game plan, criticizing a player in front of others and over-analyzation casts a dark cloud over the team and its members.
But it’s easy, right?
Dads (and now moms too) and uncles who once played on a sports team can be very helpful, but also very dangerous. They “played the game” so, yes, they probably have a better sense of the finer details of it than those who didn’t. But it’s also important to remember that the game those people played is very different than the way it’s played now. I have to remind myself of that when I watch soccer sometimes. It’s not 1985 when we played with four forwards, three in midfield and three in the back. Formations are different, the expectations for each position are different and roles are different.
Imagine what happens when Uncle Joe, who played on the conference championship team in 1979, sees things on the field or court that don’t match up and he lets everyone around him know about it.
It’s not always for the best.
Then, of course, there is the “family factor.” Sometimes in a well-meaning effort to encourage a youngster, a family member will offer “you would have won if you would have played more” or “I just don’t see why you aren’t (fill in the blank here).”
That just doesn’t help at all.
And for those who can’t wait to get home to voice their opinions on how things are going, I have some things for you to consider.
When you stand up to scream at the play-caller, his wife is sitting three rows in front of you and five seats to your right. She heard every word you said – and so did everyone else on your side of the field.
When you howl in disbelief at the defender who got beat for that last-minute goal, that’s his mom and sister sitting right behind you.
Those people live in your neighborhood, they shop at your grocery store, their kids go to school with your kids.
Go to the game. Enjoy it … sports are fun!
But when you do, support your team – and do it the right way.
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