Sports are a fundamental part of Tahoma’s culture, but recently school spirit and perception of that enthusiasm have been changing. Students are reluctant to attend games because of COVID fears, lack of knowledge and personal choices. 

Attendance at games has been dropping so rapidly that other schools have begun to notice and comment on social media platforms, claiming that we lack community.

It isn’t lack of interest that students are struggling with though. Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve all become accustomed to staying at home, avoiding large groups and being extra cautious. And while this is all understandable, it’s disheartening.

When asked how players feel knowing students will be attending games, Matthew Park (#64 on the football team) said, “It gives more power to the players and makes us feel like we matter.”  

Sports isn’t the only extracurricular being affected, in the theatre, Elizabeth Adams, a senior, expressed that the “Theatre is somewhat disconnected from the school like you don’t have senior nights for theatre”.  So it’s much harder to gather a community to come together and support our actors and techs; Adams also mentioned that school spirit at Tahoma has been dropping “With half of the kids never going to the high school, I feel like [theater] is kinda harder… like a lack of communication about it.”

COVID-19 has given people a reason to avoid and disregard events, fearing for personal safety. All events at THS have required masks, because of this the crowd keeps dwindling.  “I think a lot of people forgot what it’s like to come together as a big group,” said senior Jayda Schwope.

People at Tahoma have been personally hurt by the virus, we asked if people were afraid of getting or passing COVID after going to an event. “Depends, it didn’t scare me until my mom got COVID… It’s been a month and she’s still suffering,” Madeline Venzke expressed.

We hope that our school spirit continues to come back, as we have several events planned for the coming months.

We hope to see you all at the games and events.