At Hillsdale, students and student-athletes too often live in unconnected worlds. Many non-athletes couldn’t tell you how to find our locker rooms and are vaguely nonplussed about ice packs strapped to knees, elbows, and shoulders. The more dedicated show up at games to cheer, but ordinarily too few personal relationships connect bleachers and court.
Which is why events like last Thursday’s Hype Night are positive.
“Hype Night was really invigorating,” sophomore basketball player Jonathan Wilkinson said. “Seeing all the students and people from the community come out on a Thursday got me really excited for the season.”
The Hype Night broke down the boundaries of the bleacher-court divide. It allowed students who have little other contact with our athletes to talk and play basketball with the team.
Those small, short interactions won’t necessarily lead to lifelong or life-changing friendships, but they could change the decision of an evening — to go or not to go to a basketball game, to cheer on fellow students or to stay in and do homework.
These little decisions are what make community possible: The choice to get coffee instead of catching up on your reading, to chat with a friend instead of draft an essay, or to apply face paint and scream for the Chargers in lieu of that take-home exam you’ve been putting off.
The Hype Night fostered relationships. It gave non-athletes the chance to know the people for whom they cheer. One of the greatest advantages of a small campus is that very few faces are unknown. Our professors know us. We know our classmates. We run into college acquaintances in town on errands and in restaurants. Why not get to know our athletes? Why should the Chargers be any less a part of the community?
So let’s not let hype night be in vain. Go be a fan. Remember your athlete friends balance the stress of classes you know so well with practices, workouts, game day, and the expectations of a whole school. Put off apathy, worse than the pressure of a school of fans. Remind the athletes you know that you’re impressed with what they do.
