As a member of the women’s soccer team, we have developed several cheers to help support our teammates and other Swarthmore student-athletes.
“HERE WE GO SWAT!” “WE ARE ONE.”
These chants echo throughout Tarble Pavilion as students and fans begin trickling in. The gym is filled with the roar of teams clapping and cheering for each other. The team is warming up in unison while anticipation is building as the clock starts ticking down to the game time buzzer. They begin to play and make their shots, sending chills down the spines of each person in the gym. These exhilarating sounds and feelings are what the players, fans, and game day workers are all feeling as game time approaches.
As a student-athlete and a member of the game day operations at Swarthmore, I can attest to the pregame feelings being quite similar in both roles. Once you look down and realize you aren’t in your Swarthmore uniform, you remember that your role is different during this game: you’re behind the scenes, ensuring that the game runs smoothly.
As you watch the teams warm-up, an odd feeling creeps into the back of your mind: Why am I sitting and watching instead of getting ready to compete? Shouldn’t I be warming up instead of being sidelined? You then remind yourself that you are here to help the event run smoothly. You still get excited as the warm-up mix is blasting over the loudspeakers and anticipation continues to build.
As the national anthem begins to play, chills are sent down your spine as if you were the one who is about to play and represent your school. Then it’s game time. You focus intensely on the game, just as you would if you were playing. Except this time, you are focused on different things than the players are.
As a video camera operator, you must follow every play not just with your eyes, but with the camera too. This can be a difficult task, especially as a sports lover, because you want to see each play in real time, but as a student-athlete, you remember how crucial film analysis is for each athlete. You feel an extreme responsibility to capture the entirety of each play because you know how essential this is in order to perform film analysis and create highlight reels. This feeling helps you stay engaged with the camera screen in order for other student-athletes to have the opportunity to grow and improve in the film room.
Another game day worker role is a court monitor where you ensure the court is free of various slipping hazards such as sweat and other dangers. In this position, you are lucky enough to watch each play in real time, but you must also be vigilant in seeing slips and falls. Whenever this does happen, you are concerned in the same way you would if one of your teammates was on the ground. After they spring back into the game, a sense of relief overcomes you, but your task awaits you. Now you must time yourself perfectly with the game to run onto the court and clean up the area where they fell, so the same thing doesn’t happen again.
As the clock winds down, especially when the score is close, you start to feel the similar in-game pressure that the athletes on the court are experiencing. You really want Swarthmore to win and feel yourself urging the team to score again or block the opponent’s shots. At the end of the game depending on the result of the game, you either feel a sense of relief or disappointment, quite similar to how you would if you had just played a game.
While I’m not the one in the game, being a part of game day operations is an extremely rewarding position that allows me to stay connected to sports at Swarthmore. It is like being given front row seats to watch your favorite sports and friends play. Witnessing their effort and extreme efforts into each game reinforces my love for sports and the Swarthmore community.
