Our athletes deserve a little more attention from their fellow students.

USI has numerous athletic teams – men and women who work their entire high school career to be recruited, then work their entire college career to perform in the sport they were recruited to play while also studying to get their degrees.

USI is not a Big Ten school, the students know they don’t go to a Big Ten school and the athletes know they don’t play for a Big Ten school. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a hefty student section at every sporting event.

I understand that schedules are busy and classes, homework and exams make it difficult to get in a cheerful mood, but it isn’t difficult to throw on some “screagle” attire and scream for the athletes that make our school look good.

Think back to high school. Those Friday night lights and basketball games were what got the students to show how much pride they had in their school. Those games were something that most of us who didn’t play looked forward to. Being in the student section screaming chants with the mascot was a stress reliever before we even realized what real stress was.

Think about how much stress you could relieve now that you know the horrors of classes like anatomy and math 111.

It doesn’t take too much effort to gather a group of your friends to join you at a soccer game for one hour. It doesn’t take too much effort to watch the volleyball team dominate on the brand new PAC floor. It doesn’t take too much effort to dress like USI’s biggest fan and stand in the student section at a basketball game.

Not only is being a good fan easy, it’s fun. These are the last 4 years we get to act like miniature adults. We are responsible and working toward a degree, but we cam also act a fool while cheering on our school.

The next time you see an opportunity to cheer on USI Athletics, do it. We’re only in college for 4 years, so make the most of it.