Letter to the Editor: SCU sports in the newspaper

By Alex Cabral

A Letter to the Editor of The Santa Clara:

One of my first memories at SCU was being handed a Ruff Rider's t-shirt at Orientation. Yes, I paid $60 in order to display my "school spirit" even before I had my first day of class, but that's one of the things which, I thought at the time, set Santa Clara apart. No matter what the sport, season, or score, our student organizations and clubs readily showed that they had Bronco spirit. Upon reading the paper last Thursday with a few of my friends, I found that not all student organizations showed the same amount of support for our sports teams.

I will admit that our basketball team is not necessarily the shining light of our school at the moment, but a few other sports teams seem to be taking some unnecessary heat as well. Instead of congratulating players for individual successes, or claiming that our players "went down without a fight," our own newspaper displays team failures in bold red print on the back page. Claiming that "men's basketball set a record for longest losing streak" and that women's water polo "could not accomplish the feat of winning two games in one day" doesn't necessarily help the morale of our sports teams. At times, it even seems that our paper is writing in favor of the opposing team. But maybe, just maybe, these harshly critical articles will light a fire beneath our sports teams, and encourage them to play better, smarter, and stronger. Even if these severe motivators do manage to change the game of our athletes, where do these articles leave the spirits of the rest of the student body? Media has one of the biggest influences on society's perspective, and if our own newspaper tells us to "hate" on the basketball team, or all sports teams in general, what else does the student body have to turn to?

A hard-hitting news story may gain a week of media scandal, but the talk it arouses is definitely not worth sacrificing the spirit which our school so badly needs at the moment. Yes, teams lose. Seasons may, at times, be rocky and, if I'm not beating a dead horse, teammates make bad decisions. But how can we call ourselves "Ruff Riders" if we don't ride with our teams until the end? With this being the only school-wide newspaper available to students, I would like to see articles published which motivate and inspire change, not dwell on failure. The statistics may not always look so pretty, but isn't it often one of the strengths of the press to spin the story any way they wish? When talking about the ability and skill of academic athletes, I feel that we must exercise caution, motivation, and when needed, compassion.

My slight frustration at our school's seemingly judgmental views against sports teams may spout from my "freshman spirit," but this should not excuse the fact that at the moment which our athletics department needs support the most, it is ripped out from beneath them by a campus organization. I am in no way asking the student body to throw on their red and white shirts and head down to the Leavey Center to cheer on our struggling team. I am simply asking students and student organizations to be more considerate of the athletes whose talents they doubt, and more aware of the influence that media has on the mindset of the student body.

Signed,

Alex Cabral