Rick Holtz
One of the highlights of my job is getting to see a lot of high school sports.
In my short time in Nebraska, I’ve had the privilege of covering state playoffs in football, volleyball, softball, and basketball. I’ve watched athletes compete at state in cross country, wrestling, and track. I’ve seen the highs of victory and the lows of defeat play out in real time.
What we don’t talk about as often in the pages of the newspaper is what happens in the stands.
If I can hear fans clearly from my spot on the sidelines, you can be sure the players hear it on the court or field. And I’m not talking about loud cheering or the occasional groan after a missed shot. I’m talking about the darker side of it — the chants, the taunts, the signs that cross a line.
Before every game, schools remind everyone to let the players play and the coaches coach. Maybe it’s time we also remind fans to be decent human beings.
To be clear, this isn’t about most fans. Ninety-nine percent of the people in the stands know how to behave. They cheer, they support, and they represent their schools well.
But that one percent can be loud.
Just because an official misses a call doesn’t give anyone the right to throw the kind of temper tantrum I usually expect from my toddler — not an adult in the bleachers. I’ve seen plenty of calls I didn’t agree with, but the official on the floor has a much better angle than I do from the stands. Honestly, they usually have a better angle than I do even when I’m sitting baseline with a camera.
Some of the things I’ve seen and heard stick with me.
Last year at a basketball game, a fan on the opposite side of the gym openly taunted a 16-year-old girl after she lost the ball out of bounds. This fall, I was at a football game where a fan was yelling at a medic for coming onto the field to check on an injured player.
Those moments are hard to forget.
But I’ve also seen moments that restore a little faith.
Earlier this basketball season, I watched a road team come into a gym and beat the home team like they were owed money. After the final buzzer sounded and the crowd cleared out, the visiting players came back onto the court — not to celebrate, and not to taunt — but to clean the bleachers. They picked up every piece of trash in the section where they had been sitting that night.
You can learn a lot from student athletes.
I just hope the fans are learning from them — and not the other way around.
Rick Holtz is one of the co-owners of the Nance County Journal. Read his column each week in the newspaper and on the website.