The Last Word: Spirit

from Case Alumnus Spring 2017

In Memoriam

By Edward Kerekes

A junior chemical engineering student, who also serves as the sports editor for the campus newspaper

If you were to ask a random Case Western Reserve University student about the school’s athletics programs, they would probably be confused. “We have varsity sports?” they might ask, giving you the facial expression of anyone trying to take an organic chemistry exam.

Yes, Case Western Reserve does have varsity teams, 17 in fact. Almost 500 student-athletes are on rosters for those teams, around 10 percent of the undergraduate population.

Another student response might be to question how good the teams really are. A relatively small university known for making geek chic cannot possibly have good sports teams. Can it?

Yet the opposite is true. Did you know the football team started the 2016 season with nine straight victories? Or both the men’s and women’s tennis teams are consistently ranked in the top 20 in the country? Or the baseball team earned a trip to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship at the end of the 2016 season? Or that cross-country runner Sam Merriman (CWRU ’18) finished 21st at the NCAA championships, earning All-American status? Or even that thrower Cassandra Laios (CWRU ’18) and sprinter Nathaniel Wahner (CWRU ’17) both won multiple University Athletic Association titles this year?

Probably not.

Small home crowds are the reason behind the ignorance. For the eight sports that tabulate attendance, the average number of people at a Spartans’ home game is 352. Excluding football (1,706 spectators per home game), that average plummets to 159. It is also safe to assume that a sizeable percentage of those home crowds are parents or alumni. And, since many of the universities the Spartans face are located close to Cleveland, parents of opponents attend as well. Thus, the average number of Case Western Reserve students at games is probably in the low double digits. The sports that do not count attendance are more than likely the least popular among students. Those include tennis, swimming and diving, track and field, cross-country and wrestling. However, it is in those sports, particularly tennis and track, that Spartans shine the most.

A lack of school spirit has been a problem for Case Western Reserve for a while now. I don’t blame students for not attending games that last multiple hours when, they have other, more important commitments like research, jobs or exams.

However, I do blame them for not being aware of what is going on.

Case Western Reserve sports teams actually do really well. Every year since 1998, the school has produced at least one All-American. Since the federation, the school has claimed 18 national champions as well. And when Spartan athletes do well, the whole university does well, even alumni. There is a reason “CWRU” is on all of the team’s jerseys: the athletes are competing for the school.

One of these days, Case Western Reserve is going to win another national championship. Perhaps then, the student body will begin to recognize that the university teams do indeed exist and are good at what they do. And maybe, just maybe, more students will respond with pride instead of confusion.

What say you, Spartans fans?

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