Football can seem like the seed for all school spirit. Tailgating and students painting their faces with school colors are often associated with the typical college experience. At Pepperdine, a school with no football program, only about half of students have attended a sporting event during their time on campus, according to a recent Pepp Post poll.
Attendance at college athletic events, including football games, is on the decline nationwide, according to a report by the Washington Post. In that same poll of 51 students, only 27% said they had attended four to six games during their time at Pepperdine.
“We’re such a small school. If there’s no school spirit, then that means … we’re not getting the overall support we need,” said Colbey Ross, a junior Sports Administration major and a guard for the Pepperdine men’s basketball team. “If the whole school is not bought in, then it’s hard to win games because I think school spirit is evident in a team’s success.”
Impact on athletes
With this lack of school spirit, Pepperdine athletes said they notice the impact it has on them and their teams.
“When you have someone that’s getting hyped with you and cheering you on, even as a cheerleader, it makes it more exciting and fun and interactive,” said Katie Garretson, a senior Psychology major and the captain of Pepperdine’s cheerleading team. “When you’re yelling into a crowd of emptiness or if no one is responding, … it can be really quiet at games and it can cause people to not give as much effort. If someone’s not yelling back with you, then why yell louder?”
Traveling on the road for away games, Brooke Zenner, a junior Liberal Arts major and a defender/forward for Pepperdine’s women’s soccer team, said she has witnessed school spirit at other schools and has been able to notice a difference between the competing school’s student body spirit and Pepperdine’s own.
“Specifically in soccer, we are competing with a lot of other bigger schools; we’re in the West Coast Conference and we compete against some schools that get crazy attendance,” Zenner said. “Their school spirit is insane. … I can honestly say that games are affected by the crowd and the crowd participation, and sometimes that can be the difference between winning and losing a game.”
The cause of the lack of school spirit
This lack of school spirit could possibly be linked to the fact that Pepperdine University is smaller than the normal college university. The 2018 fall enrollment for Pepperdine University is 3,627 undergraduate students, according to Pepperdine University’s Student Fall Semester Enrollment Census. To compare, the University of Southern California’s 2018-2019 year enrollment was about 20,000 undergraduates — 8,339 of the students being the incoming freshmen.
Besides the small student body at Pepperdine, Ross said he thinks busy academic schedules might prevent students from attending.
“I know a lot of students are busy doing what they need to do,” Ross said. “The majority of the people come here [tPepperdine] for the school aspect of it. On weekends and after class, people … have to do homework, and a lot of people aren’t really thinking about, ‘Let me go to the volleyball/basketball/soccer game.’”
Riptide Rally Crew
The Pepperdine Athletics Department has been coming up with ideas to increase the number of people who show up to sports events. One of their plans that has been successfully carried out is the startup of the Riptide Rally Crew.
Riptide Rally Crew is a student-led movement that leads Pepperdine’s student section at athletic events such as games and pep rallies. Seen repping the orange jumpsuits on game days, the Riptide Rally Crew calls themselves Pepperdine’s hype squad.
“Riptide shrinks the disconnect between students and athletes — it really helps combine the two,” said Jenae Bone, the marketing and events manager for Pepperdine Athletics.
Bone said Riptide is a positive segway into student life and sports events, and many other students agree.
“Rally Crew is an important part of athletics because it’s a multi-faceted job within all of the engagement throughout the community,” said Daniel Zarasua, a senior Liberal Arts major and one of the chiefs of Riptide Rally Crew.
It also serves as an outlet for students to increase their involvement within the community and express their values.
“I chose to be a part of Riptide because with school spirit and how important it is, it’s a difficult thing and I want to put my actions where my words are,” said Daniel Chier, a junior Business Administration major and another one of the chiefs for Riptide Rally Crew. “I want to be as involved in our school spirit as possible. The way that I found the most fitting was through Rally Crew.”
Athlete relationships
Pepperdine University is making tremendous efforts to address and increase the student body school spirit, taking into account its importance to unify the school community, said Steve Potts, the director of Athletics for Pepperdine University.
In such a small school, this consists of the students supporting one another— the relationships athletes and students establish, said Scott Wong, the head coach for the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team.
“Playing in front of a packed house, there’s a motivation that comes — an extra boost,” Potts said. “If you feel that extra boost that you get from seeing your friends and classmates and just basically seeing a full gym, that’s certainly extra motivation.”
Potts said Athletics loves having the home-court advantage of school spirit, and Wong also recognizes the power of this sense of community.
“It’s really understanding what the heart of the school’s about and then fully latching on, recklessly abandoning to what the pursuit of the school is,” Wong said. “One of the areas that I have really enjoyed is people rallying for each other. Everybody has a part in it and to be able to support a team — I don’t think students understand how much of a part they have and that they can help our team.”
Pepperdine willing to listen
Starting with the simple incentives of free food and the half-time giveaways, Pepperdine is always open to hearing student voices, Potts said.
“If there are students on this campus that have ideas about how we [Pepperdine Athletics] can do better at getting the word out about our games and increasing student attendance, I’m all for it,” Potts said.
Pepperdine President Jim Gash said he is optimistic about the student body’s connection with Athletics.
“Strengthening Pepperdine’s sense of common identity is not the job of any one individual or department. All of us share in the responsibility of deepening ties and unifying our community,” Gash wrote in an email. “Pepperdine is on a sharp trajectory upward. Several of our sports teams will compete for the national championship this year, and more will do so in the future. Stay tuned for further announcements in the coming months about dramatic improvements in our athletic facilities.”
The complete Athletics schedule is available online.
Kylie Guieb completed the reporting for this story under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Smith and Dr. Theresa de los Santos in Jour 241 in Fall 2019. Dr. Smith supervised the web story. Dr. de los Santos supervised the visual package.
