A recent phenomenon has come to my attention. While talking to some of the athletes around campus, they have repeatedly told me that they have seen larger crowds than expected at all of their games. So, I decided to investigate this strange development. I mean, come on, this is Skidmore College, no one really goes to sporting events, right? Aren’t sports for dumb jocks that like to run around all day and play games? Well, upon further examination, it seems that the athletes were correct. Skidmore’s attendance for athletic events more than doubled in 2015, to the point where some of the events became standing room only.
When examining exactly what sports garnered the highest attendance, I was extremely baffled. A record 86 students turned out on February 20th (at 8:30am nonetheless) to support the Riding team at the Van Lennep Riding Center, which is located off-campus. The Riding team was not fazed by the suddenly unexpected turnout and went on to place first out of 11 teams at the meet. One rider said that they did not expect anyone would ever come out to support their events since they take place off-campus and are usually very early in the morning. Morning activities always seem to be a struggle for Skidmore students, who, unless they have ingested copious amounts of coffee from Burgess, cannot function before 10am. This strange phenomenon did not pertain solely to the riding team; many other teams are experiencing similar things. The men’s Tennis team’s recent match against Boston University was so packed with students that various team members said that they were so distracted by all the students lining the fences wearing green and gold that it was hard to see the ball at times. The team was extremely taken aback, given they also do not play on campus, but rather at the local YMCA, which most students do not know the location of.
I myself was quite baffled upon discovering this information, so I went to who I thought would be the mastermind and authority behind all of this, Athletic Director, Gail Cummings-Danson. When I presented to her my findings and asked why it could be that Skidmore students have all of a sudden taken a liking to athletics, she was befuddled and confused as to how students even knew about the athletic events, given the athletic department’s lack of advertising about them around campus. She seemed quite surprised to know that people at Skidmore even figured out how to use their “complicated and uninformative website.” She then asked me what I thought would happen next, and in a low voice I whispered, “Who knows? Maybe the athletic department will even be able to publicize the in-season athletic event schedules outside of their own building and draw even more fans.” We both laughed that off because of the ridiculousness of that proposal. Surely, this was just a once in a lifetime sort of event and would not last. But hey, this year was a record setting attendance year for Skidmore College Athletics.
HAPPY APRIL FOOLS EVERYONE!!!