A Matter of Spirit

In the history of University of Tampa athletics, 12 national championships at the Division II level have been achieved. Although the university has not had a football program in years, it has maintained an overall consistent track record of successful seasons among its sports teams. Also consistent, though, is the lack of attendance at campus sporting events.

“School spirit is always an issue here for some reason,” UT Associate Athletic Director Gil Swalls said. “Students need to come here with the mindset that they want to get involved, and if they don’t, it’s their fault that they don’t have school spirit. There are plenty of opportunities on this campus for school spirit and many students do get involved, but apparently there is a loud majority or minority that keeps complaining that there is no school spirit. Well they’re the ones that never go the games, never go to anything. That’s their problem. There are over 120 organizations here on campus; somewhere you should find your interest.”

Based on statistics on the university’s athletic site, tampaspartans.com, attendance may not appear so low. According to the site, the average attendance for a men’s home basketball game in the 2011-2011 season is 173 people. For the women’s team, it’s 153. But according to student attendees at these games, this number is an exaggeration of the true count.

Freshman forensic science major Nicole Mangina cheers on the Spartan basketball teams every week as a member of the dance team, and she’s seen firsthand the lack of attendance at games.

“At a normal women’s game, it is a pretty small crowd of about 20 people, I’d say,” Mangina said. “I think there are about 40 people at the men’s games, but they mostly seem like parents or the opposing team’s people.”

Junior Irving Fayman is a former member of the men’s basketball team, and said it doesn’t seem like 173 people are in the stands watching them play.

“The bleachers are really big, so it always looks like there aren’t a lot of people there,” he said. “But there could definitely be more people. We had a really good season last year and having more supporters would’ve made it much better.”

Freshman Danny Brustmeyer attends Spartan softball games regularly, and said that there are people in the stands, but the majority aren’t students.

“It’s mainly family supporters from both teams and a few students in support of their friends.”

What seems to be a more regularly attended sport on campus, the statistics for this past season’s men’s soccer games showed that, on average, 166 people attended home games. Freshman Kody Parker played on the soccer team last semester and said that the number may be correct, but that it is also not comprised of students.

“It could be close to that,” he said, “but those people are parents and the opposing teams parents and a handful of students.”

Freshman Jaker Watum attended some soccer games last season, and asserted that there are never that many students there.

“Soccer was a big deal at my old school and that’s why I like to go to the matches,” Watum said. “I think students should show more spirit here.”

UT Sports Information Director Thomas Kolbe maintained that the numbers listed on the website are accurate accounts of how many people are in attendance at home games. He said these numbers do, however, also take into account the number of players on each team.

“Attendance is accurate and calculated through a count kept at the front gate, plus the competing teams,” he said. “Each fan who passes through the gate is counted, as are each person on both competing teams.”

The issue of lack of attendance at sporting events is one that students on campus acknowledge. Students interviewed about the problem blamed a variety of things, from the lack of a football team, to the games being on weeknights.

Fayman contributed the amount of school spirit to students choosing to invest their time elsewhere, as well as having no football team.

“Students put other priorities before supporting sports,” Fayman said. “They think that just because we have no football team, we don’t need spirit.”

Sophomore Michael Manghisi said that for him, the times of the games interfere with what he wants to do.

“It’s the scheduling of games. A few have been on Friday nights, but by that time everyone’s already out doing their various activities.”

Other students like sophomore Pat Damiano, in agreement with what Feyman said, attributed the lack of school spirit with having no football team.

“Having a football team would help a lot [with spirit].” Damiano said.

UT is home to 19 men’s and women’s varsity sports teams that compete at a Division II level. In a message featured on the NCAA.org, Dr. Pat O’Brien, President of West Texas A&M and Chair of the NCAA Division II Presidents Council, explains the meaning of Division II.

“Division II provides an intersection where athletically gifted students can compete at a high level, while maintaining much of a traditional collegiate experience. Student-athletes are encouraged to achieve excellence in their sport, in the classroom and in their community.”

Division II schools also do not get as much grant money to provide scholarship’s to student athletes.
Associate Athletic Director Gil Swalls said that although UT does very well recruiting athletes, providing scholarships can be tough.

“The NCAA allows X number of scholarships, our school doesn’t give that much,” he said. “They have to split scholarships up between several people. We also have athletes who qualify for academic scholarships, which is why we have such a good GPA in our athletic students. A lot of people don’t know that.”

Being an athlete at UT can be a difficult balance of academics and practice time, but Swalls believes that athletes benefit from being here.

“Most athletes come here and realize that they have the opportunity to win a conference or a regional or a national championship,” Swalls said. “In the case of our baseball program, the students know that they have a chance to be professionally drafted. Three years ago, we had nine baseball players drafted. That’s unheard of. Kids come here because they know they have a chance to win and have great success.”

So far this academic year, UT athletics has seen both wins and losses. The baseball team is undefeated and is ranked first in the nation as of late February, while the men’s basketball team is finishing its season last in their conference with six victories.

Recently, attention has been on lacrosse. On Feb. 10, the Spartans defeated rival Florida Southern in the program’s first game ever, a game which saw approximately 2,100 spectators show up to this historic game. Athletic Director Larry Marfise hopes that the start of the new team will generate more spectator interest.

“Lacrosse is a new sport and there seems to be a lot of interest in it,” Marfise said. “We’re hoping that lacrosse will get some kids enthused that normally wouldn’t be. Once someone comes out for one or two events, they’ll usually come back.”

Though there is hope that the lacrosse team brings more fans out to games, Marfise acknowledged that attendance overall could improve.

“You can never have enough attendance. We have a lot of things that we’re battling,” Marfise said. “Evening classes hurts us a little bit. Most of the kids that aren’t from around here haven’t heard of the schools that we compete with. There’s no name recognition and they don’t understand the rivalries.”

Marfise said that he realizes students have other priorities, but that there is a concerted effort to make games appealing to students.

“College students are exposed to a wide range of activities, so we try to make it more like an event. We do as much marketing and giveaways as they do in minor league baseball, just to try to get kids to come out.”

Mangina said that sometimes, coaxing students to the games with prizes and giveaways works.

“When they publicize giveaways and special events or when they’re playing a big game, more students show up,” Mangina said. “I think the athletic department is doing everything they can to get a larger audience, but the students are the ones not wanting to come.”

Athletic Marketing, led by Swalls, is the group that is in charge of putting together events to try generating greater spectator interest. S.O.S., or Spirit of Sparta, is a club that meets before games to put together signs and cheer on the teams. Club members also get exclusive access to prizes and contests. Sophomore Craig Warzecha is Vice President of S.O.S. and agreed that the athletic marketing department is working hard to increase school spirit.

“We want to get as many students as we can at the games, and make sure they enjoy themselves when they get there,” Warzecha said. “We like to give away food, prizes and gift cards to keep students coming back.”

Warzecha believes that school spirit is important and students should want to get more involved.

“There is nothing better than the atmosphere of a packed crowd at a sporting event. The athletes work really hard, and they deserve to have people cheering them on at the games. Some of our teams are the best Division II teams in the country,” he said.

Despite the best efforts of everyone involved in the marketing departments and campus groups, students still complain about the lack of spirit at U.T. Swalls does not believe that this talk reflects the efforts of his team.

“I’ve been here for 22 years. There’s nothing we haven’t tried [to generate interest],” he said. “I’m always hiring new students to come up with things we haven’t thought of before. We do every type of communication that is allowable by the campus.”

Marfise agreed with Swalls that involvement in campus activities, not just sporting events, should be a priority among students.

“When you take a great deal of pride in your institution that carries over into everything. We have a great dance program and a great arts program and not a lot of students are looking at those either,” Marfise said. “This is a time in your life when you have a lot going on and so you need to be enthused and become a part of it. We hope that our athletic program builds a sense of pride in the institution and we hope that carries over into the academic side.”

He also hopes that student’s realize the impact their school should carry with them after they move on.

“When you graduate, for the rest of your life, you’re going to be the University of Tampa from here on out. It’s not some foreign place that you just visit. The legacies you leave will always be a part of the institution. It takes a long time to understand that.”