Little fan support hurts the efforts of a young athlete

    I share the concern of my media colleague, Ed Daniels, who comments in this issue of the Clarion Herald (page 10) about the skirmishes he’s seen at high school football games.
    I witnessed this myself in a recent game between two local Catholic school football teams, an isolated occurrence between those particular schools.
    But I have another concern aside from the sporadic temper flares that teenagers experience during their years of transition to adulthood.
    I am saddened by the lack of support the public school youngsters receive from their families, friends and schoolmates at athletic events.
    While Catholic school  teams continue to enjoy outstanding fan support in almost every sport, I all too often look across at the opponents’ side to see near-empty stadiums and gymnasiums. It’s not enough that inner-city public schools are not yet fully recovered from the effects of a hurricane that struck six years ago, but it also must be disheartening to a young athlete when he is facing thousands of fans cheering for the team he’s trying to defeat.
    These young athletes are not getting the respect they deserve for the time and effort they put in on behalf of their school.
    It is a tribute to them that they work hard every afternoon in practice, knowing only they, their coaches and administration care whether they win or lose.
    I attended the District 10-3A game between De La Salle and my alma mater, John McDonogh, last Saturday. While the host Cavaliers attracted a crowd of enthusiastic supporters and enjoyed the band and cheerleaders, the visitors had neither a band, flag team nor cheering section. My heart went out to those young people who languished through a 44-6 defeat. They reaped no reward for their loyalty to their school.
 

Gate has suffered
    I, as well as Catholic school athletic directors, knew that when the LHSAA combined private and public schools in joint districts, the Catholic schools would feel it at the gate.
    When two Catholic schools compete against each other, they gain considerable revenue above the expenses of  stadium rental, EMS service, security and other incidentals.
    Schools usually keep the money they make selling season and weekly advance tickets and then split the gate receipts. But if Catholic schools have that same agreement with their public counterparts, which have little support, they suffer a financial loss because their fans are supporting the coffers of the opponents more than their own schools.
    Each of the schools in District 9-5A, which includes Brother Martin, Archbishop Rummel and Jesuit with public schools West Jefferson and Chalmette, has a separate revenue-sharing arrangement.
    When the three Catholic schools play each other, they keep their own presale and split the gate receipts after expenses, which the home and visiting schools share. In addition, students and faculty are admitted free by showing their I.D cards.
    The Catholic schools’ agreement with Chalmette is that the home team keeps the gate receipts. But all students must pay to see the game.
    But there is an unresolved issue with football games hosted by West Jefferson. There is an unwritten agreement among district members that admission to games is $7 at the stadium site. However, West Jefferson charged $10 at the Hoss Memtsas Stadium gate for its game against Rummel last week, according to Rummel AD Phil Greco. And the surprised Rummel fans gladly paid the inflated price to support their team.
    Ron Brocato can be reached at [email protected].