The student section at WCHS should be so packed at sports events all you hear from miles away is cheering. However, our current student section isn’t loud enough for the players to get momentum from the cheers and play hard.

Senior varsity football player Kalen McKinney believes if WCHS sports teams won more games then students and the community would come watch and cheer for our athletes. He said he believes “people want to be a part of a winning team.” McKinney also suggested a strategy for getting more students involved and loud at games. He suggested that upperclassmen mentor underclassmen, showing them cheers we do in student sections and practicing with them to make them feel more comfortable at sports events. 

McKinney said “Every athlete plays better with a huge crowds.” The more people are in the stands, the more confident the team feels to play hard and play well. 

Senior Eli Petrey isn’t a student athlete at WCHS but said students may enjoy sports events more if WCHS had more activities for fans before games and if we hyped up the school on game days about the teams playing. Petrey said an example is most students come to the Pink Out game because that’s when WCHS offers the most activities before a game. If we do more stuff like that, we would have a bigger turn out at WCHS sports.

McKinney also mentioned this year the tailgates before home games have helped a lot to get students to show up and enjoy themselves for football games and thinks we should figure something out to make other sports events have enjoyable activities before watching the game. McKinney also wanted to encourage the student body to “Support all the sports. We all appreciate it.” 

The football team plays tonight at 7 p.m. at home. Come out and support your Pirates!