This 2024 football season for Cathedral Catholic High School has been drastically different from any other season before. The student section’s energy has been the polar opposite of previous seasons. With the new dress code requirements, it seems as if students are refusing to go to the games. Is this an act of rebellion, or do students just not care about football anymore?
On the morning announcements before the “pink out” game, students were told that freshmen, sophomores, and juniors would earn an extra pajama day this year if 200 or more students showed up to the football game. Seniors were told that they would finally earn their right to wear college sweatshirts to school if at least 150 seniors attended the game.
In addition, Mr. Bobrinskoy told his College History students that they would receive extra credit on their quiz if they took a selfie with the scoreboard during the game. One of these students, Hannah Sperling 26’, explained, “The student body never comes to the football games and sometimes it feels more embarrassing to go than to not go. ” She ended up going to the pink game in hopes of there being more people, but she was disappointed to see that many people still decided to skip it and said: “I miss my freshman year when the stands were packed. It was such an amazing experience.”
Although bribing students to go to the game was ineffective, many freshmen and underclassmen still attend football games. Hannah’s sister, Grace Sperling ’28, explains that she likes going to the football games “because it’s a great way for me to socialize with people and support the football team.”
Mr. Montali explains that students need to show up to the football games because “it doesn’t matter if you come because it’s a fashion show or you like the food, or you want to hang out with your friends, come to the games, it’s Friday night lights and it’s part of our culture.” The team needs our support and the energy from the student section in order to keep up the Friday night lights tradition and support the team.
Montali highlights that “[the football team] might as well go and play at other schools because even their student section creates an atmosphere and it would be more fun for our kids to go out & beat them in front of their student section.” He goes on to explain that just a couple years ago, Cathedral was in the running for best student section in all of San Diego, “and now we’re getting beat by these public schools like Carlsbad who actually care about their team.”
Although the new dress code has heavily affected the turnout of our student section, it’s still important for students to come to games and show up for the football team. Having an energetic and full student section really does make a difference for the football team and it helps us to grow in school spirit and show our team that we care.
