With Meridian girls basketball concluding their season last night, I have tried to attend as many games as possible. And the energy in the stands at these blowouts almost matches the dynamic play on the court. Even a Monday evening game provided an incredible ambience. However, while I thoroughly enjoy the ferocity of the Student Section, I admittedly feel occasionally uncomfortable with the heckles I hear from my fellow students.

Generally, I find the cheers from the student section build on the thrill of attending the games and really unite the crowd around our team. Joining the classic “De-fense! De-fense!” chant, providing a huge roar of encouragement to players coming off the bench, and screaming myself hoarse after every made-three never fails to elicit a rush of excitement. I particularly enjoy the hush in the crowd and ocean of “spirit fingers” that rise when a player of ours steps up to the free throw line. Even the somewhat boisterous jeers of “you can’t do that!” after the opposing team commits a foul, the yells of “talk it over!” after a timeout, or some moderate booing of the refs after a disagreeable call makes up for its obnoxiousness with its absolute hilarity.

But while I find the majority of our crowd noise to be fun, unifying traditions, I do find most of the comments directed at the opposing team to be quite distasteful. I take particular exception towards the comments that call out individuals by name. The practice of researching the opposing roster and launching obscene comments towards players on the court or coaches on the sideline is not only appallingly rude, but frankly pathetic. While I understand getting caught up in the hysteria of the moment, using personal insults crosses a line and often demonstrates unwarranted premeditation. Stalking the social media of opposing players just to yell the names of their significant others or family members is just disgustingly sad. Moreover, some of the insults hurled at the referees really need to be toned down. Let’s try to keep in mind that none of these people are professionals, and the opposing players have to deal with the same daily school pressures that we do.

Additionally, although I have seen first-hand how opposing teams and cheerleaders will attempt to distract our players at the free throw line, I think we can rise above the pettiness, particularly in blowouts, and just refrain from purposely sabotaging the opposition. Especially in contrast with the players on our team who show considerable sportsmanship when helping other players’ up and cheering on the opposing cheerleaders, I feel the fan heckling looks quite malicious. Instead, I propose redirecting our energies to continuing our positive support of the Meridian team and increasing our support of our own cheerleaders who are often ignored or drowned-out.

Even though the state final is over, I encourage the supporters keep our jeering in check in the future. Let’s keep the energy but drop the targeted insults.