WOODBURY — As the fall season comes to a close, there’s no debate that Nonnewaug sports have once again produced success, but when looking at the support of the school’s student-athletes, the numbers in the stands for some sports are down. 

“The only games I go to watch are the football games,” Charlotte Gowell, a freshman at Nonnewaug, said. 

T.J. Angiolini, a sophomore, knows what is important about having a student section.

“To get the school involved with the sport,” said Angiolini. “It makes us hyped and makes us want to play harder.”

Many agree a larger student section for more sports would be beneficial. There are many advantages to a having a powerful home crowd, among them being the energy fans bring when student athletes feel supported. 

“I think if we did have a student section, we would win a lot more games because you get hyped,” said Skylar Palmer, a senior captain of the field hockey team. “I feel like we don’t have a lot of people who come to our games, so we don’t feel we are cared about because we are a smaller sport.”

The NHS field hockey girls don’t have a student section at their games, and they’ve have noted that they sometimes don’t feel the support of their classmates. 

“I feel that if we did have a student section it would make us play harder and do better,” Mariah Manzano, a sophomore field hockey player, said. “[A student section] would make us want to win more because we see that we have the support from our student section and that our students believe in us, but with us not having a student section it kind of just brings the mood down.” 

A student section impacts the game and the sport. It impacts how the athletes play and how they feel about the team. Without a student section, the athletes can sometimes feel overlooked.

“It makes us feel like we aren’t a sport that is loved by many,” Manzano said.