Here at Norwood High School we take a lot of pride in our sports teams and are always rooting for each other whether it's shown through a fan base at games or just in our hearts. However, there is a big difference in the face-to -face appearances rooting on our boy's teams compared to our girl's teams. 

A boy's hockey tournament game turns out a much larger crowd than a similarly scheduled girl's hockey game.

 Sophomore Evann Oneil, a member of the Norwood girl's ice hockey team, reflecting on last year's season said:

“In our hockey season of 2021, there was a girl's playoff hockey game at the same time as a boy's hockey game. The girl's game was about 5 minutes away from our town while the boy's game was an hour away. All of the fans went to the boy's game and made the hour drive instead of coming to our game.”

This is the sad truth of gender norms and if you ask your average Norwood high schooler, they will most likely tell you that boy's hockey is more fun to watch because checking is allowed and the aggressiveness is more fun to watch.

Having a large fan section usually comes down to the success of the team and how exciting the games are going to be. Based on this, you cannot always expect people to show up to your games, but if you're on the boy's hockey or baseball team it's a different story. Everybody’s going to go. This causes frustration for many female athletes who put a lot of work into their practices, games, and overall seasons. Although our girl's teams have learned to rely on their teammates on the bench for support and encouragement, it would still be nice to have some student body coming out to support. 

Sophomore Morgan Naumann, an athlete on the girl's field hockey, ice hockey, and lacrosse teams argued that “the boys promote their games even less than the girls do because they just know that everyone will show up.”

Any hard-working female athlete could tell you the same thing and express the effort that they continuously put into trying to promote their games. 

“Even when the game doesn't come out how fans wanted, everyone still supports them throughout the season,"  Naumann said.

Many adults, such as Caitlin Nottebart, assistant field hockey coach here at Norwood, can back up this disparity of fan support between boys' and girls' sporting events.

 “I've been a little disappointed in my years of coaching here that our fan sections haven't been bigger. Usually, we have just our parents and occasionally extended family but we really get very little student body to come to the games," said Nottebart.

 This is true and we can see the picture evidence above based on the outcome of fans on senior night. Girl's field hockey won 2-0 against Holliston this night. They battled it out on the field and would've loved to have some school support show up, but they've adapted and learned to play great with just a few first-hand student-body supporters. 

The outcome of fans that come to support teams can make a huge difference in performances. 

Sophomore TJ Martin, who plays on the boy's varsity hockey team, said that “student sections have a huge impact on how we play. They give us an extra boost when we need it and keep us going.” 

Whether you're on the ice, field, or court, knowing that there are so many people rooting for you and cheering you on is huge and will reflect on the performance of games. Hearing the crowd roar gets players going and helps a great deal to come out on top at the end of a game. 

As a former collegiate athlete, Nottebart agrees. 

“Everyone says to play for yourself and it doesn’t matter who’s in the stands, but I think it's fun to play for a big crowd and when you get to that point in the tournament or you get to that point in the season where you're expecting a big crowd and you don't have one, it can affect you mentally and also the way you play physically.”

It’s evident that fans impact the players in a positive way and create an exciting atmosphere for competitive competition. Let's change the narrative here at Norwood High and show equal support for boys' and girls' sports teams.