By Addison Burke, Staff Writer

It’s a well-known idea that when a team plays at their home field, court, etc., they have better odds of winning because they have their fan base present. But for the Xavier women’s basketball program, this is not the case. 

For the past five seasons, the team has had a negative record. Even over the past decade, they have only had two winning seasons. This season looks no different. 

In the past six years, the program has gone through three different head coaches. Some may say this is the reason for the negative records, Some  say it is because of player retention. But to me, a major contributor to the team’s lack of success is the lack of support they receive. 

While this year is only the second season I have been watching the women’s basketball program, I’ve seen at most 100 students actually sitting in the student section during a game. And even that may be an overestimation. The only ones who are consistently showing up to the games are the members of the pep band. As a member of the band myself, some say we are required to be there and, sure, that may be true. But if we as individuals didn’t want to show up, we wouldn’t be penalized for it. 

I get it. It’s no fun to watch them lose game after game. But I bet it feels even worse for them to lose with no students there to cheer them on. They deserve our support just as much as the men’s team does.

I’m not asking for everyone to show up and fill the student section to the brim. But the games last two hours max. Come for the first half. Come for the second half. Or even better, stay for the whole game. Hang out with your friends. If you need more of an incentive to go to their games, you can get your top 500 spot for X-Treme fans. 

But I shouldn’t be the one trying to get you to go to the games. This should be the role of the X-Treme Fans. On the athletics website, it states that X-Treme Fans’ “primary goal is to support student-athletes by getting the Xavier student body engaged at sporting events.” Sporting events plural, not just men’s basketball. In the fall semester, they are always doing giveaways to get students to go to soccer games or volleyball games. If my memory serves me right, there have been two giveaways during the women’s basketball season so far. I’m in no way saying there should be giveaways every game, but if their role is to get students involved in ALL sporting events, then they need to be doing something more. 

Another thing with X-Treme Fans is that on their own website, it  states that their board of directors are required to attend all Xavier athletic events. Most women’s games I see about three to five of them in attendance, unless there’s a giveaway, in which case typically more of them are present. But regardless of there being a giveaway or not, sometimes I see them doing their homework during a game, which, to me, is rude to the team. Like I said, it sucks to watch them lose, but the least students can do is show up for two hours and cheer them on so they feel as though they have support from students other than those in the band.

Regardless of what X-Treme Fans does or doesn’t do, we need to do better for our women’s basketball program. Coach Chambers and the rest of the coaching staff have clearly put in a lot of effort and work to help the players want to be winners. I feel for this team so much because they truly deserve some wins, and getting some wins under their belts may be what they need to have a successful future. 

While those wins may not currently be coming, I believe that the future for this team is bright. Whether those successes come this season or next season shouldn’t be something  that is a deciding factor for what games to show up to and which ones not to show up to. Our women’s basketball team deserves just as much love and support as men’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, baseball and women’s lacrosse. Sure, men’s basketball is our draw here, but we are a whole lot more than just men’s basketball. All of our teams deserve equal fan support no matter if they are losing more than they are winning. 

The women’s basketball team has six more home games left this season. I’ll be there, and I hope you all will be, too.