In the Webster University menâs basketball teamâs conference tournament semifinal game at Grant Gymnasium last season, fans from MacMurray College overpowered a much smaller Webster fan section.
Webster lost that game to the Highlanders, even though the Gorloks were the No. 1 seed in the tournament. The loss ended Websterâs season.
This year, Webster athletics expects to have a much stronger fan base than ever before.
âWe as a staff noticed that isnât the purpose of a home-court advantage, and we tried to figure out the best way to energize our fan base,â said Tom Hart, Webster director of athletics.
At the Webster volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 12, almost the entire athletic department filled the stands at Grant Gymnasium. Hart is selecting one home event from each sport and is encouraging all staff and student athletes to attend and support their peers.
Volleyball coach Merry Graf said the crowd definitely contributed to her teamâs 3-1 win over Westminster College.
âWe already have a great parental following and itâs awesome,â Graf said. âNow to know youâre going to have students is a really good thing, too.â
Webster is an NCAA Division-III school. Some athletes know their events donât get the same attendance as D-I or D-II schools do, but an initiative such as this is seen as a big step.
âI wish it was different,â said Kyle Leonard, senior midfielder on the menâs soccer team. âItâs better as a player in front of a large crowd of your peers so you can show off your skill.â
Even in a sport like cross-country where Webster athletes typically donât attend the meets, the cross-country runners felt the support at their first race â the Washington University Early Bird in Forest Park on Sept. 9.
âItâs a lot of encouragement that you get when you do well in front of a lot of your peers and people you know,â senior runner Daniel Henkey said. âItâs just amazing to see people out there at 8 a.m.â
Some Webster athletes werenât excited to be pushed to support sports such as cross-country.
âWatching cross-country is just hard,â Leonard said. âYou see them once at the start but then they are gone, and then itâs like, âWhat now?ââ
Even for the volleyball match against Westminster, some Webster athletes didnât want to attend. Jordan Fosburgh, Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) co-president for the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and womenâs soccer junior forward, said she heard some of these complaints.
âSome people felt that they didnât want to go,â Fosburgh said. âBut once they got there, we all got into spirit and showed our support.â
Hart and the athletic department are looking forward to continuing the initiative and will attempt to maximize attendance in off-campus sports as well.
The baseball team, which plays its home games at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill., often supports other Webster teamsâ events. Senior pitcher Zach Schneider said he and many of his teammates are regular spectators at home basketball and volleyball contests, and they hope other athletes do the same for them.
âI think it should just be common courtesy that we should go to other events,â Schneider said. âIt is unfortunate, though, that our home field is 20 minutes off campus. So, you canât do much about that.â
In the past, Webster has provided free bus transportation to take students to and from games, but the turnout wasnât great.
âWe have to try to figure out what works and what doesnât,â Hart said. âWe just let them know thatâs the game to go out and support their fellow student athletes, and weâll see what happens.â
The next time the Webster athletic department is scheduled to attend a sporting event is for the menâs soccer game on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. against William Woods University at St. Louis Soccer Park.
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