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Louisville athletics is known for its ever-growing list of nationally-ranked sports teams, its ability to draw some of the best recruits in the country and state-of-the art facilities.But it isn’t known for its student spirit.”Student spirit isn’t on par with our athletic success,” said Lee Barnwell, president of the L-Raisers, a student spirit group on campus.Student fans consistently make it to football and basketball games, but when it comes to Olympic sports (non-revenue games such as soccer, baseball and field hockey, just to list a few), student attendance is minimal at best.”What fans don’t realize is that athletes in the Olympic sports work just as hard as the football and basketball players,” said Kyle Moats, the associate athletics director responsible for national marketing. “Having 100-even 50 students-at their games would make such a difference,” he said.Barnwell said the L-Raisers plan to get more fans at “Olympic games” this year. The group is reverting back to a point systems they used a couple of years ago, encouraging student fans to attend specified games in order to accumulate points. Once a certain number of points has been reached, fans will receive benefits such as better seating in the student section.”We’re not going to be at every soccer or volleyball game,” Barnwell said, “but we really need to get a juiced-up group of fans out to our big rivalry games.”Moats said he was disappointed with student participation when he came on board with Louisville athletics last year. “I’ve been other places and they use point systems and go to all kind of different games. I just hope our students will start coming to more games too,” he said. Moats worked with the University of Kentucky athletics department for 14 years, then at Marquette for 14 months before coming to U of L.Over the past year, Moats said he worked hard to address student spirit and heard a variety of concerns and excuses about why students weren’t making it out to the games.Proximity isn’t the issue.Moats pointed out that all athletic venues are within walking distance of campus. Freedom Hall is a bit of a hike, but he said shuttle services were available from campus to see women’s basketball games.Good teams and good games aren’t a concern. “We’re one of the top schools in the nation when it comes to having good teams from top to bottom,” Moats said. “We’re nationally ranked in a variety of sports, and we’re competing in one of the best conferences in the nation. We’ve got good teams.”Money isn’t an issue either, as students can get in free with their student ID to games.It’s things like work, class and family life which Moats said he can’t compete with. “We have such a nontraditional student population and I can’t fix things like work or class, but I think we’ve done just about everything we can to help bring the students out to all of our games,” he said.The Student Government Association is also concerned about getting students out to a variety of sports games.”We want to draw students to Olympic sports,” said junior exercise science and sports administration major Zach Brooks, the Athletic Liaison for SGA. “That’s part of SGA-to improve the overall student experience and that doesn’t mean just supporting our football and basketball teams,” he said.Ideas on the table include throwing cookouts and handing out tickets to a big basketball game. “The idea is to draw students to something they wouldn’t normally be at,” Brooks said.Moats suggested having groups on campus such as a fraternity or sorority adopt a team and cheer them on at games in order to improve student spirit.Barnwell said his goal is to bring in fans under one umbrella organization.”Student spirit hasn’t been the greatest on this campus, and we need to unite and become a home-team advantage for our teams,” Barnwell said.
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L-Raisers Interest MeetingTuesday, Aug. 296:30 p.m.Floyd TheatreHighlights:?- Points system will be discussed- Coaches and players will come and speak at meetings- Chances to travel to away games
