A sad realization struck me last year: Our school’s students lack the initiative to come to games to support our teams, even though we are one of the most winning schools in our district. Now it is the perfect time to change our ways.

To say that not enough people are coming to games would be an understatement. With over 700 students at school participating in at least one sport, it is surprising that so few come to support their fellow athletes. If each sport feels unrepresented at away or even home games, then why can’t all of the other sports come to root on their fellow Eagles?

It is sad for me to admit that Mountain View fans seem to support their athletics far better than Los Altos. Why this is true I have no idea, because we have proven our athletic superiority time after time. Nevertheless, if you had attended any of the Mountain View vs. Los Altos games in the past few years, you would have been drowned in black and gold.

In the 2007-2008 basketball season, it wasn’t until after we were embarrassingly defeated in attendance at a home game that we could muster a crowd large enough to compete with the Spartans, which led to one of the best basketball games I have ever attended. With so many people making noise, the atmosphere was like that of a college game. It was this intensity that I had always craved, but this game seemed to be more of a moment rather than a movement.

Having attended almost every basketball and football game and even a couple volleyball games last year, I was disheartened to see more fans on the other side of the court after I knew how much spirit we could get behind our sports.

The importance of having a large crowd at games can easily be laid out: Attendance forces your friends to perform better in front of you. Having the athletes try even harder creates better games, which allow the fans to get more into the game. When fans get more into the game, they create more electricity and excitement, bringing a new life to the game.

In some ways you could even see it as a Catch-22. As long as the attendance at games is low, the quality of the sports is going to be low. But if you the raise the attendance, before you know it the team has the recipe to be a winning program.

What we need to do is rally behind our sports and show other schools that Los Altos means business. We need to support our friends and show a little school pride for the first time in a while. And who knows? Maybe we’ll have some fun along the way.