Because you got to have faith… in your football team

 

 

Monday around 12:30 a.m. I was in The Tech Talk office laying out this page you see before you when one of my favorite editor’s boyfriend asked me if I thought our football team was going to pull through for us this Saturday against New Mexico State.

I quickly responded, “I hope so or I will be severely disappointed.”

Ever since I said that I wondered how much my disappointment actually counted.

What is my disappointment compared to that of one of our ’Dawgs who was actually playing in the game and could actually feel the pain both mentally and physically?

So my disappointment or sadness after a loss does not rank very high up next to  the individual players and team’s; so I have now made it a point to always have faith.

What good is our football team (let alone any of our Tech athletics) without a little faith from their fans?

Whether it be religious or sports related, faith is a very powerful thing — especially when you have it in numbers.

Imagine if all 30,600 seats in Joe Aillet Stadium were filled with people who believed in their team.

You cannot tell me that with all those fans in the stands somehow each individual football player would not find something within themselves that made them think they could take on the world.

I remember when I was in first grade and I was on a local tee ball team and we were on the worst losing streak known to tee ball mankind.

My parents rarely made it to a game because of work, but I still played the best I could.

With one more game in the season to go and my parents having yet to attend a game I did not put my hopes up for them to come to the last game of the season.

Half way into the game we were down by one run with one out left and, of course, it was the athletically challenged one’s turn.

So I go up to bat, hopeless, knowing that I cannot do this and will let my team down.

All of a sudden I hear my name shouted out amongst the crowd and wouldn’t you know it — my parents actually made it to a game.

So, with a new found confidence,  I turned back around to face the tee stand, stared another hole into that whiffle ball and swung with all my might.

The ball went flying like it had wings and as I made it around the bases I could hear my parents cheering me on and could taste the sweet Flintstone vitamin victory on my lips.

Then, just as I was about to make it over home plate, a butch, hardcore five-year-old catcher proceeded to knock me out inches away from home.

The moral of the story is that no matter how hard you play it always helps to have a few fans watching the game and rooting you on.

Our football, volleyball, golf, cross country, soccer and club sport teams put too much work into what they do to not have any support from their other “teammates” that they go to school with everyday.

The practices, games and competitions are all worthless unless there are fans to back them up.

If you as an individual were unaware of your influential power, well, by all means, I hope you have realized it now.

 

Erin Bass is a junior journalism major from Bossier City and serves as sports editor for The Tech Talk.