(Photo obtained from Skidmore Athletics’ website)
Beginning this semester, Skidmore’s athletic department will be introducing “Stable Games” for each team, which are part of an initiative to increase attendance at games and encourage school spirit at Skidmore. On Monday night, Austin Rook ‘22, a sophomore on the Men’s Hockey team and leader of this effort, explained how the initiative will be implemented for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Every team will select one game where all other teams should be in attendance. The Stable itself is meant to represent the Skidmore Thoroughbred fan section, and the inspiration for this originates from the student-fan representation at basketball games.
By launching this initiative, the athletic department hopes that it will encourage more people to come out to home games. Requiring student-athletes to attend games to get this initiative functioning will directly increase participation, but Rook’s idea will also hopefully draw more attention to Skidmore’s athletic department from non-athletes, too.
Austin believes that “what makes Skidmore so special, besides the academics and athletics, is the community within the college.” He went on to say he has “noticed that this sense of community wasn’t as present in Skidmore athletics,” and “the end goal is to increase athletic culture and every athlete’s college experience.”
For the last few years, attendance at games has unfortunately felt lower than usual, especially for women’s sports. The Equestrian team is one of the top teams in the country, the Women’s Tennis team is hunting for their 10th Liberty League title in a row, and several other Skidmore teams are consistently in competition for Liberty League Championships; yet, teams are still struggling to inspire the turnouts they would like to have at season-defining games.
When asked how she felt about Stable Games, senior captain of the Women’s Tennis, Jessica Ampel ‘20, said that she’s “really excited about it because it will give teams like my team the opportunity to have more fans.” She feels that “even though tennis isn’t necessarily the most exciting sport to watch, we’re really good, and I think it’ll be super fun to have support for the first time, and we’re really excited to be able to give that same support back to other teams too.”
Spring and winter Stable Games have yet to be determined, but the fall schedule is as follows: Volleyball: vs Clarkson on Friday, Oct. 11; Men’s Soccer: vs Ithaca on Saturday, Oct. 19; Field Hockey: vs Vassar on Sunday, Oct. 27; and Women’s Soccer: vs Union on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
Though these dates are all in very close proximity to one another, the athletic department and the Student Athletic Council are intent on having athlete attendance to get the ball rolling on the project. Nathan Wagner ‘22 on the Baseball team thinks “it’s not just good for people on the receiving end, because it’ll also be fun to go to other teams’ games with my friends that I wouldn’t otherwise go to.”
In theory, the high turnouts will only make the plan that much more enjoyable for fans, teams, and future Skidmore events.
To stay updated about dates, times, and other aspects of Stable Games, follow the Skidmore student section Instagram page (Run by SAAC): @Skidmorestable