Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 11/12/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Chris Vivero

The Brookhaven College Lady Bears volleyball team has won their fourth straight Metro Athletic Conference championship. They are now on their way to Minnesota to play for the national championship.

The Lady Bears won back-to-back national championships in 2004 and 2005 and finished fourth last year. Whenever I've peeked into one of their games, it looks like a ghost town in the gym.

Athletics are a big part of most colleges, especially when there is a powerhouse like Brookhaven's volleyball team.

It seems on our fair campus, students do not like to be involved with what's happening, unless of course there's food available or a chance to throw pies at an administrator.

During the recent MAC tournament, it seemed there were more fans from the other Dallas County Community College District teams than Brookhaven fans, and we killed the competition.

I normally don't like to ask our readers to do anything, but come on guys. How well do our sports teams have to do before you'll show up and support them?

It doesn't stop with sports either. One of my first semesters here, there was a speaker from Southern Methodist University who spoke on immigration. I could count on two hands how many people showed up, and half of those were faculty and staff.

Maybe the sports teams need to take a page from Student Programs and Resources and offer incentives for students to show up, like lemonade or a free Brookhaven T-shirt to the first 100 fans who show up. Hell, while we're at it why not offer an A in one of their classes.

That might be pushing it, but something has to be done.

We've had discussions at the Courier on what we could do to get more fans in the stands, but we always arrive at the same conclusion.

We cover the sports, we have good and exciting pictures of them and when something big happens like the Lady Bears winning their fourth MAC championship, we put it on the front page.

We do everything short of writing a column urging people to show up. We don't want to be cheerleaders because that is not our job, but we are disappointed in the amount of support for our teams.

I don't know what the solution is for this problem. I don't even know if there is a solution out there; maybe Brookhaven students are just apathetic to sports on campus.

Maybe community college sports just don't keep students as interested as big-time schools.

I don't even know if people read my columns. I like to think they do because I'm self consumed that way, but if there are students out there who do read them, please show some support.

It's too late for volleyball, but we can start with basketball.

The Bear's basketball team, according to the NJCAA Web site, is ranked sixth in the preseason polls. They have played two games and are 2-1.

There's no better time than now to jump on the Brookhaven bandwagon, all aboard.

At least give these women and men a chance. Just go to one basketball game and see if it piques an interest, then next year, go to a volleyball game.

Do this and I promise to keep my big mouth shut about sports' attendance.

Let's turn the tide on our sorry excuse for fandom.

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