You’re at a Mount Vernon basketball game and watching the Mustangs go head to head with another team. The referees call a full timeout and the cheerleaders run to the center of the court. They begin to cheer and are yelling for the student section to join. However, you realize no one is cheering with them in the section. They’re all on their phones or looking past the cheerleaders. It’s like they are cheering to a brick wall.

The student section at Mount Vernon High School has always been pretty lively. But in the past couple of years the spirit has seemed to dwindle down, especially at basketball games. The students tend to look at their phones more than the court and when the cheerleaders try to pump them up they look past like they don’t exist.

As a cheerleader myself I’ve realized that students are much more enthusiastic at football games than basketball games. However, these are still our Mustangs and they deserve to be cheered on just as much as the football team. During football season the students love cheering with us and join in as soon as we start a chant. However, during basketball season, the section has maybe two or three people who join in but only slightly because no one else is doing it with them. The rest are looking at their phones or blankly staring at us while we’re trying to impress them with a fun stunt.

Many of the cheerleaders have opted for cheering closer to the parent section or mid court for games because the parents seem to pay more attention than the students. During timeouts or between quarters we’ve been staying on the sidelines and angling out because we feel like there is no point in going out when they aren’t going to cheer with us anyway. It feels almost embarrassing to most of us and that is not what it should be like.

The student section is there to cheer on the Mustangs just like the cheerleaders. They should be excited to watch our team compete for another win and joining in with the cheerleaders will make their enthusiasm even more heard. You’re only in high school for these four short years, if you’re gonna go to a game you should cheer for it.

Break down the wall and start cheering along with the cheerleaders to support our Mount Vernon basketball teams and show those other teams that “we’ve got spirit!”